How to help your child learn their times tables

What it is

Times table

A set of multiplication facts for one number, such as 1 × 4, 2 × 4, 3 × 4 and so on up to 12 × 4. The national curriculum calls them multiplication tables.

Multiple

Any answer in a times table. 24, 28 and 32 are all multiples of 4.

Division fact

The other side of a times table fact. If your child knows 4 × 5 = 20, they also know 20 ÷ 5 = 4.

Recall

Knowing a fact straight away, from memory, without counting up to it.

The goal is instant recall. Working a fact out by counting up the table gets the right answer, but it is slow, and it uses up thinking space your child needs for the rest of a calculation.

Times tables matter well beyond Year 4. DfE guidance for teachers says the facts up to 9 × 9 are especially important for Year 5, because written methods of multiplication and division depend on them.

Each times table comes with its division facts, and schools teach the two together. A child who knows that 6 × 4 = 24 can also answer 24 ÷ 4 and 24 ÷ 6.

How it's taught at school

The national curriculum for England builds times tables up year by year:

• Year 1: counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.
• Year 2: the 2, 5 and 10 times tables and their division facts, including spotting odd and even numbers.
• Year 3: the 3, 4 and 8 times tables and their division facts.
• Year 4: every table up to 12 × 12. Year 4 children in England also take the multiplication tables check in June.

Tables are taught in families, because each one helps with the next. In Year 2, the 10 times table links to place value and the 5 times table links to the minutes on a clock face. In Year 3, doubling joins up the 2, 4 and 8 times tables.

2 × 6 = 12
4 × 6 = 24
8 × 6 = 48

DfE guidance for teachers suggests an order that many schools follow: the 10 then the 5 times tables, then the 2, 4 and 8, then the 3, 6 and 9, then the 7, and finally the 11 and 12. This is guidance, not a rule, so your child's school may do things slightly differently.

Children are encouraged to say each fact as a whole sentence, such as "six fours are twenty-four". The same guidance explains that saying the full fact aloud is how the three numbers get linked together in memory.

From Year 2, children learn that multiplication can be done in either order and gives the same answer. This is called being commutative. It means every fact your child learns gives them a second one for free.

3 × 4 = 12
4 × 3 = 12

Common mistakes (and how to help)

Counting up the table from the start to find one fact

It shows your child understands the table, so praise the right answer. Then practise that single fact, said as a whole sentence, until it comes straight away without counting.

Knowing 6 × 4 but not 24 ÷ 4

Whenever you practise a times table fact, ask the matching division question too: "Six fours are twenty-four, so how many fours make twenty-four?" Schools teach the two together, so this fits what your child does in class.

Treating 4 × 7 and 7 × 4 as two different facts to learn

Line up 4 rows of 7 coins, or pasta pieces, then turn the rows round to show 7 rows of 4. The total doesn't change. Once your child trusts this, the number of facts to learn roughly halves.

Not sure whether a number is in a table, such as thinking 68 is in the 8s

Count on in eights together from a fact your child knows, such as 8 × 8 = 64. The next multiple is 72, so 68 is not in the 8 times table. Next door multiples in a table are always the same distance apart.

Three quick activities at home

Questions parents ask

Sources

1. Department for Education: National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study
2. Department for Education: Teaching mathematics in primary schools (Mathematics guidance: key stages 1 and 2)
3. Standards and Testing Agency: Multiplication tables check: information for parents
4. BBC Bitesize: 8 times table (KS2 Maths)