Ben in action

Ben has come up with a novel way of learning the six times table. Let me share it with you.

“Mummy, I know my six times table now. Shall I tell you how I did it?”

“Yes, go on.”

“Well, you know we have six senses?”

“Five actually.”

“Okay, five, but I was going through one of my phases, you know, like when I squinted a lot, and when I put my finger up in front of things and closed one eye to see what they looked like…”

“Yes…”

“Well for a while, every person I saw at school, I counted two eyes, one nose, one mouth and two ears. That makes six. Then I did it with the next person, and the next, and every time I counted them all up, I added six on. So there were six, then twelve, then eighteen, then twenty-four…”

“Yes, I see…”

“And in the end I knew my six times tables really well. I suppose it’s a bit OCD isn’t it Mummy?”

“Hm, a bit.” (We have discussed OCD in relation to his previous odd phases.)

“But the worst thing is, now I know my six times table, we’ve stopped having to say our tables out loud in Numeracy.”

“Oh dear, never mind, at least you know you know it well.”

I’m not sure which of his weird habits has been the worst.

I think it may have been the one where he’d repeatedly shrug his shoulders up to his ears, then squint. He said it was because he didn’t like his hair touching the collar of his school polo shirt. So I got his hair cut and he stopped doing it.

I didn’t notice this counting of facial features phase, but I do wonder what will be next.

Still, if it helps him with his spellings or with learning decimals, I suppose it can’t be all bad.

Why not try it? If your child is having problems with their six times table, and I’m sure you could adapt the method for other tricky tables, perhaps by counting two nostrils instead of one nose for seven, then why not suggest Ben’s little trick?

We could soon have a nation of numerate but nutty kids.