The invention of Times Tales first came about out of sheer necessity. It all started with a frustrated mom (me!) and her two sons (ages 7 and 9) in what seemed like an endless loop of multiplication flashcard drills. After about 20 minutes, my boys would appear to have their math facts down. However, the next day I would get that blank stare from both of them, and we would find ourselves back to square one again….as if there was absolutely no progress the day before. After about the fourth day of this repeated routine of, remembering one day and forgetting the next, I had enough!
I remembered learning from a college professor a trick to memorize just about anything. This professor demonstrated how you could use visual cues to help in the memorization process. These visual cues are called mnemonics. I thought, “why not give this a try with memorizing the times tables? It can’t be worse than what we’re currently doing.” I told my sons my idea to turn each number into a character that would be part of story, which would reveal the answer.
Disclosure: This post was written by a member of the Trigger Memory team – founders of Times Tales, Pet Math and the Kids Chore Chart.
After making up some characters and silly stories, we quickly went from frustration to fun!! The best part is that IT WORKED!! My boys were able to finally master those pesky upper times tables once and for all. They actually remembered the math facts the next day! No more drills, no more flashcards, it was a done deal!
I was so impressed with this powerful memory tool, that my sister and I went on to develop the Times Tales program to what it is today. Since most children learn the times tables around the 3rd or 4th grade, we rounded up as many age-appropriate “test subjects” we could find, which included neighborhood friends, nieces, nephews and any other kids willing to try out our program. After EVERY SINGLE CHILD that was tested demonstrated mastery of the upper times tables with our program, we knew it was ready to be introduced to the world. We listed our first copies on Ebay, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Through the years, Times Tales has expanded to several different home and classroom editions. Times Tales works for all types of learners and has proven highly successful for children with learning disabilities.
Times Tales for the Classroom
Times Tales is taught in thousands of schools across the US. The classroom editions are geared for a large classroom setting or a small group of more than five students and come with several options for presenting the program based upon students’ needs and class size.
Times Tales for the Home
Times Tales has become the standard for many homeschoolers when it comes to children learning their multiplication tables. There is a variety of home editions to choose from such as: Times Tales Video (DVD/USB or streaming) or Times Tales Workbook Edition.
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I was thinking about ordering from you but I can’t find the place to order. It shouldn’t be that hard to find it.
Here is a link to our Top Sellers page: https://www.timestales.com/pages/home-edition-top-sellers