Better Ways to Learn Times Tables (Skip the Boring Drills)
Your child sits at the kitchen table, staring at a worksheet. Seven eights. Six sevens. The numbers blur. You remember drilling these yourself as a kid — reciting them over and over until they stuck, or didn't. You wonder whether you should just make them do the same thing. Surely that's how it works?
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Here's the honest answer: rote repetition alone isn't the most effective way to build lasting multiplication fluency. Research from both the NSW and Victorian Education Departments points clearly toward a different approach — one built on pattern recognition, visual understanding, and a smart learning order. The good news is that you don't need to be a maths teacher to use it at home.
This guide walks you through exactly what works, why some children struggle, how long it realistically takes, and the best activities to make the whole process less painful for everyone at the table.
The Short Answer: What Actually Works for Times Tables
The most effective approach combines conceptual understanding with spaced, varied practice — not one long daily drilling session.
When children understand why 4 × 6 = 24 (because it's double 2 × 6), they're not memorising 144 separate facts. They're recognising patterns that do the heavy lifting for them. Both the NSW Department of Education and the Victorian Department of Education recommend this cognitive approach over traditional rote memorisation, emphasising arrays, visualisations, and number relationships as the foundation.
Once that understanding is in place, regular short practice sessions (think 5–10 minutes rather than 45) build the automatic recall your child needs for more complex maths later on.
Why the Order You Teach Times Tables Matters
Most of us learned our times tables in order: 1s, 2s, 3s, and so on. That feels logical, but it's not the most efficient route.
Start with the 2s, 5s, and 10s in Years 1–2, because these have obvious patterns your child can already feel. Counting by 2s, counting by 5s — kids usually have a head start here before formal multiplication even begins.
From there, the sequence builds on relationships:
| Times Table | Key Pattern to Use |
|---|---|
| 2s | Start here — even numbers, skip counting |
| 10s | Just add a zero — the easiest rule in maths |
| 5s | Half of the 10s (5 × 6 = half of 10 × 6) |
| 4s | Double the 2s (4 × 7 = double 2 × 7) |
| 3s | Skip count by 3s, link to repeated addition |
| 6s | Double the 3s |
| 9s | The 10s minus one group (9 × 8 = 10 × 8 − 8) |
| 8s | Double the 4s |
| 7s | Last and hardest — but many facts already known |
By the time your child reaches the 7s, they'll find most facts already familiar from earlier tables. That's the whole point — the sequence reduces the cognitive load dramatically.
In our tutoring sessions at RHZ Tutoring, we see children gain real confidence when they realise they don't need to memorise every single fact from scratch. Recognising that the 4s are just the 2s doubled often produces a genuine "oh!" moment — and that spark matters for motivation.
Why Some Children Struggle (and What's Really Going On)
If your child is finding times tables hard, it's rarely about effort. A few common reasons come up again and again.
They skipped the foundations. Skip counting and repeated addition are the stepping stones to multiplication. If your child isn't comfortable counting by 3s or understanding that 3 × 4 means "three groups of four," formal times tables will feel like arbitrary strings of numbers. Spending a week on skip counting first isn't a setback — it's the right move.
They're trying to memorise without understanding. When children learn by pure repetition — "six sevens are forty-two, seven sevens are forty-nine" — the knowledge is fragile. A tiny interruption in the sequence and the whole chain falls apart. Visual tools like arrays (rows and columns of dots or counters) help children see what multiplication means, which makes the facts much more durable. NSW Education specifically highlights arrays as a key tool for moving children beyond rhythmic counting and helping them grasp the commutative property (that 3 × 4 = 4 × 3).
They're practising in too-long sessions. Maths fact retention is much stronger with short, frequent practice than with one long grind. Ten minutes every day beats one hour on Sunday.
There's an underlying difficulty. Some children have dyscalculia or working memory challenges that make number facts genuinely harder to retain. If your child has been practising consistently for months without progress, it's worth mentioning to their teacher. This doesn't mean they can't learn maths — it means they may need a different approach or some extra support.
📘 Note
If your child finds verbal or written drilling particularly difficult, try a physical approach — stepping along a number line on the floor, or arranging small objects into arrays — before concluding that they "just can't learn times tables."
The Best Times Tables Activities to Use at Home
Short daily practice works best when it's varied. Here are the activities that consistently work well, from the very concrete to the more game-like.
Arrays with objects. Lay out counters, coins, or even grapes in rows and columns. Ask your child: "If I make 3 rows of 4, how many do I have altogether?" Then flip it: "What if I make 4 rows of 3?" This is a direct, physical way to build understanding of both multiplication and the commutative property.
Number lines on the floor. Write numbers 0–50 on pieces of paper and lay them out. Ask your child to "jump in 6s" along the line. Kinesthetic learning — learning through movement — creates different memory pathways than seeing or hearing alone.
Flashcard games with a twist. Rather than just drilling for correct answers, try timing how quickly your child can sort a stack of cards into "know it instantly" and "still working on it." The act of judging their own fluency is itself useful.
Times tables songs and chants. These genuinely help for certain tables, especially the 6s and 7s. The rhythm creates an extra memory hook. YouTube has many options — just pick one that doesn't drive you mad after the third listen.
Online games and apps. Used in short bursts, these work well for building speed once understanding is in place. The key is choosing tools that ask your child to recall facts quickly, not just select from multiple-choice options.
The "teach me" technique. Ask your child to explain a times table to you as if you don't know it. "How does the 9s trick work, again?" Having to explain something forces a deeper level of processing than passive practice.
For children preparing for NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) in Years 3 and 5, fluent multiplication is one of the foundation skills tested in the numeracy section. If your child is coming up to a NAPLAN year, NAPLAN practice tests can help you identify which maths skills need more attention before the test.
How Long Does It Really Take?
There's no single honest answer, because children vary — but here's a realistic picture.
Most children, with consistent daily practice, can build solid recall of the 2s, 5s, and 10s within a few weeks. The 4s and 3s typically follow within a month or two. The full set of facts up to 10 × 10 usually takes around 6–12 months of regular practice across Years 2–4, depending on when formal instruction starts and how often practice happens at home.
What slows things down most is inconsistency. Two weeks of practice, a month's gap, starting again — the gap is where the forgetting happens. Spaced repetition (coming back to facts at increasing intervals) is one of the most well-researched principles in memory science. You don't need an app to use it — just make sure your child revisits earlier tables regularly, not just the ones they're currently learning.
By the end of Year 4, the Australian curriculum expects children to have fluent recall of all facts to 10 × 10. That's the benchmark to work toward. If your child is in Year 5 or 6 and still unsure of certain facts, it's not too late — and closing those gaps now makes a real difference for fractions, long division, and algebra in later years. If your child is moving into upper primary, our Year 5 practice papers and Year 7 practice papers include numeracy work that builds naturally on times tables fluency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best order to teach times tables?
Start with the 2s, 5s, and 10s — these have the clearest patterns and build confidence early. From there, move to the 4s (doubles of the 2s), 3s, 6s, 9s, 8s, and finally the 7s. This sequence means your child is always building on what they already know, rather than learning each table from scratch.
How long should my child practise times tables each day?
Short and regular beats long and occasional. Aim for 5–10 minutes of focused practice each day rather than a 45-minute session once a week. Daily repetition is what builds the automatic recall children need — the kind where the answer just appears, without counting on fingers.
My child knows their times tables one day and forgets them the next. Why?
This is very common and doesn't mean your child has a poor memory. It usually means the facts haven't yet reached automaticity — the stage where they're retrieved instantly without effort. Keep the daily practice going, mix up the order of facts (don't always go 1 × 8, 2 × 8, 3 × 8…), and revisit earlier tables regularly. Varied, spaced practice is what moves knowledge from "I can get there eventually" to "I just know it."
Should I use apps to help my child learn times tables?
Apps can be a helpful part of the mix, especially for children who are more motivated by games than worksheets. The best ones ask for quick recall rather than letting children count up to answers. Use them as a supplement to hands-on activities like arrays and number lines — particularly in the early stages when understanding the concept matters more than speed.
If you're feeling unsure about where your child is starting from, the most useful first step is simply sitting with them for ten minutes and asking a few questions: "What's 6 × 7? What about 8 × 4?" You'll quickly get a sense of which tables are solid and which need work. From there, a steady 10 minutes a day — using the strategies in this guide — will get you much further than any amount of anxious cramming. If you're in Melbourne's western suburbs and would like a proper picture of where your child is at, we offer a free academic assessment — get in touch here and we'll help you figure out the right next step.
Give your child a real head start
RHZ Tutoring's practice papers mirror the real exams and come with full worked answers, so practice actually builds skills — not just last-minute panic.
Sources
- NSW Department of Education — Flexible multiplicative strategies: single digit numbers: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/teaching-and-learning-resources/numeracy/multiplicative-thinking-single-digit
- Victorian Department of Education — Literacy and Numeracy Tips to Help Your Child Every Day: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/LiteracyandNumeracyTipstoHelpYourChild_Final.pdf
- Victorian Department of Education — Maths and numeracy at home – for parents and carers: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/mathematics_+teaching+toolkit_map_for_parentsandcarers.pdf