Learn Your Times Tables: Multiplication Facts 1 to 12, Step by Step

This is a step-by-step workbook designed for children aged 7 to 10 who are learning to multiply. It starts from nothing. It teaches what multiplying means, then every times table from 1 to 12 in 34 small lessons, each with a picture, a true way to work the facts out, and practice. You do not need a teaching background: every lesson comes with a note that tells you what to say, what to watch for and what to do when an answer is wrong.

By the end, your child will be able to

• show what a multiplication means with equal groups, an array or a number line
• give every fact from 1 x 1 to 12 x 12, and work out any fact that slips
• find a missing number and divide, using the same facts
• solve word problems that need multiplying or dividing

How long that takes is different for every child. The book makes no promise about speed.

How to use it

1. Find where to start. A child who is new to multiplying starts at lesson 1. A child who knows some tables does the one-page placement page, and page 6 tells you which lesson to begin with.
2. Teach one lesson at a time. A lesson is two pages, about 15 to 20 minutes a page. You do the first page together. Your child does the second page alone and you check it with the answer key.
3. Spend five minutes on the flash cards or a game on most days, with the tables learned so far.
4. Each table ends with a check-up. Facts that are known get colored in on the facts-I-know tracker.

Pages 4 and 5 show a whole lesson filled in, with a mistake crossed out and fixed, so you can see what a finished lesson looks like before you start.

How it teaches

• Meaning first. Six lessons on equal groups, the times sign, arrays, skip counting on a number line, turn-around facts, and multiplying by 1 and 0.
• Less to learn than it looks. A "shrinking chart" shows that the 144 facts are really 78, because 3 x 7 and 7 x 3 share an answer, and that each table has one fewer new fact than the one before.
• A sensible order. The tables are taught 2, 10, 5, then 4, 3, 6, 9, 8, 7, then 11 and 12, so each one leans on the ones before it.
• Every table the same way. Build it with pictures. See its pattern. Learn a quick way that is always true (the 4s are double, then double again; the 9s are ten groups take away one group). Practice from easy to mixed. Give extra time to the big facts. Then a check-up.
• Tricks only where they are true. The 9s finger pattern is taught for 9 x 1 to 9 x 10 and the page says it stops there.
• Understanding before speed. Nothing in the lessons is timed. One optional "beat your own time" page sits at the very end.
• Then use the facts. Six lessons on rebuilding a forgotten fact, missing numbers, dividing, fact families and word problems.

What is inside (139 pages)

• Start here, how a lesson works, and a lesson filled in (4 pages)
• A placement page and a guide to where to start
• 34 lessons, two pages each, with a quick check at the end of every one
• A page of notes for the grown-up before each table, and before Parts 1 and 3: what to say, what to watch for, how to tell your child has it, what to do if not, and something to do with real things
• A check-up after every table, three mixed reviews with check-ups along the way, and a final check of all 144 facts
• A multiplication chart to fill in, a finished chart, a facts-I-know tracker and a progress chart
• Five games, with a Four in a Row board and an Array Capture grid
• 144 cut-out flash cards, one for every fact. You fold the sheet down the middle and each answer lands on the back of its own fact
• A certificate
• A full answer key (4 pages) for all 1,424 questions
• A page on where the method comes from

What you download

• The whole book in color, US Letter (8.5 x 11 in).
• The whole book in color, A4 (210 x 297 mm).
• The progress chart as a fillable PDF, to check off lessons and type scores on a computer.
• A print pack (ZIP): the whole book in a low-ink black and white edition in both paper sizes, the answer key as its own file, the flash cards as their own file, and a one-page START-HERE.

Good to know

• The pages use US spelling and words (math, color). Families in the UK, Canada and Australia can use every page as it is; England's curriculum also takes the tables to 12 x 12.
• Every question and every answer was made by a program and then worked out a second time by separate code, which also counts the dots in each drawing. Every pattern and shortcut the book states was tried on every fact it claims to cover. The build stops if anything disagrees.
• The order of the lessons and the quick ways follow published guidance on teaching multiplication. The sources are listed on the last page. The book prints no standards codes and does not claim to be aligned to any set of standards.
• This is a teaching workbook, not a test. It makes no promise about results.
• Both paper sizes are in the download. Print at 100% or "actual size", on one side of ordinary paper. You can print any page as often as you like.
• For your own children or your own class. Please do not share or resell the files.
• The questions were generated by a program written for this book, with AI assistance. All pictures are drawn by that program. No AI image tools were used.
• This is a digital download. Nothing is mailed to you, and you need a printer or a print shop.