Learn Multiplication & Division The Easy Way With Times Tales! - Review
Memorization seems to come very easily to my children. We memorize stories, poems, and songs all the time. Math facts are another story! Some of my children really struggle with memorizing math facts. We’ve tried many methods over the years, flashcards, math charts, games, and many things and they don’t work well for us in the long term.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
So I have to say I was really excited when I had the opportunity to review Times Tales from Trigger Memory Co. As soon as I looked at the samples on their website I felt that this would be the perfect fit for our family!
Multiplication Memorization With Times Tales
Times Tales is very different from most math programs. Times Tales uses stories and colorful videos to teach math facts. Remember how I said my children easily memorize stories, songs, and poems?
Yes, you see why I was so excited about this now right?
Times Tales Multiplication DVD Program
Times Tales is available as either a DVD or a digital download. I received the digital download version. This is made up of 2 mp4 video files that are nearly 30 minutes in length. Then there are 3 PDF files. 1 is an answer key and the other 2 have crossword puzzles, flashcards, tests, and games for the lessons.
The 1st video teaches the lower tables of 6-9 and the 2nd video teaches the upper tables of 6-9. Both lessons start with the number 3.
Times Tales takes your children through 6 steps to learn their times tables.
Learning Multiplication Times Tables
Step 1 is to learn the math characters of the story
Each number is dressed up as a character to help remember their “part”. For example, the number 7 is Mrs. Week because there are 7 days in a week. The number 8 is Mrs. Snowman because she obviously looks like a snowman! The answer to the math problem is in the story characters.
Times Tales math stories
Step 2 is to learn the math stories
Each story is really short and easy to remember. Your child should watch and say them over and over until they know the story very well.
Times Tales math quiz
Step 3 is a quiz!
No not a math quiz yet, this one is a timed quiz to see how well your children are remembering the stories.
Multiplication Practice Times Tales
Step 4 is their turn to tell the story, math narration!
Have your children tell the stories back to you. Let's see how well they can remember.
Times Tales math flash cards
Step 5 is practicing math facts with the picture flash cards.
This is part of the video and there are cards you can print out and cut apart to practice away from the computer as well.
Times Tales math flash cards
Step 6 is practicing math facts with normal flash cards.
Starting the process of weaning children off needing the math stories to remember their multiplication facts, now they practice the same questions with normal flash cards.
Times Tales test
Step 7 is to complete a written test
To see how well they’ve memorized the facts they’ve been working on, children take a written test.
What Do I Think Of Times Tales
Honestly, I’m in love with this program! I wish so much that times tables had been taught this way when I was in school!
Times Tales uses a simple and cute stories that really help children learn their multiplication facts. Within the first week of use, I started seeing an improvement in my children's math retention.
Have you heard about right-brain learning? You may have heard me mention that before. See our right brains are very visual and excel at stories. Math is normally taught by memorizing abstract concepts and many children really struggle with it.
If you are right-brain dominant or dyslexic this might be a wonderful math program for you. I know the stories are sticking in my head! These math facts are taught exactly the same way I’ve been taught how to teach spelling to right brain and dyslexics. The colorful visuals and stories really do help you to remember!
I’ve been using Times Tales with my 3 older children ages 9, 10, and 13. They are loving the stories and format.
We are moving a little slower than the program suggests because math has been a challenging area I really want to let them watch and interact with these stories over and over again. To do this I’ve made the videos part of our morning time together. Each child can also practice the lessons at any time on their own.
I have the downloaded mp4 files on my laptop and bring it to the table when we are going to work on them. We play through a few of the stories each day and then work through the suggested reviews. I also have my children take turns telling me the stories.
I do wish that the printable files came with a colour version. The copies are all in black and white and my children have enjoyed coloring them in to match the stories, but I think a ready-to-go colour option would be a great addition to the pack!
Times Tales is available as a digital download or DVD format. I received the digital format and love that I didn’t have to pay for shipping, since I live in Canada shipping rates are often high for me! However, I found the mp4 files a little hard to download. The files are huge and the downloads kept timing out on me.
Eventually, I installed a download manager for my web browser and that helped a lot. If the download timed out I was able to restart it from where it left off. This was the only way I could download the files.
My internet is DSL but pretty slow! If you have fast internet this might not be a problem. If you do have slow internet like I do maybe the DVD version would be a better fit for you.
Overall, I have been very impressed with Times Tales and my only regret is that we didn’t try it sooner!
