My son is 13 and still hasn't mastered multiplication tables. Are there any good resources we can get to help him out?

Private tutoring may help, places such as Sylvan Learning Centres have a few tricks up their sleeve. Sometimes its good for a parent to back down on the teaching because we tend to get too frustrated wanting them to be perfect and that defeats the purpose.

FLASH CARDS

Isolate problems to a few. Generally problems are with 7-8-9 All nines add to nine which makes 9's easy, that leaves 7's 7*8 must be memorized (unless doubled) from 4, 7*7 must be memorized. Eights can be doubled from 4's but generally it is 8*6 and 8*7 is the problem that can be doubled from 4. The Flash Cards will Isolate the problems and you can then use tricks to remember the answers. You must master the tables before you move on to other multiplication.

Rote memorization is the best for multiplication (in my case anyway.) When I was in elementary school I think my whole 4th grade year in math started with multiplication tables. Now they cover it for 9 weeks in third grade and move on to something else. You have to get those down solid or higher math will be much more difficult.

You might want to consider something like this Interactive Games - www.multiplication.com Teaching your own child is far more taxing than you might think. Ask your child's teacher how she/he thinks you son is doing and ask if the school has any help/tutoring available. Does he have any other school deficiencies?

When my son was having trouble with this, we used a computer game alled Math Quiz. In fact, there are many math games on line, just search for them, they make it fun for sure.

But I want to suggest that you have to stress his good subjects with him too, Ihope he doesn't feel he is a failure because of the math. Everything comes in time, maybe it just isn't his time yet to grasp it.

My son is 24 now, had trouble with math in grade shool, squeeked through then went onto algebra and trig and found he was quite comfortable with it and passed but not by much. But was okay with that. He excelled in other subjects and picked Computer Science when he went to college. So go figure,it all works out but now it seems like loose ends. Don't let it get to him or you.

Thanks everyone. My anxiety level is going down... we have been doing Sylvan for the past year, and his grade level has gone up about three grades, but he is still a few grades behind. Keep those suggestions coming!