History of TableTrainer

How I helped my children to learn their multiplication tables

Here is the background story to why and how one parent created a simple but effective software program, to help his children with their multiplication tables. It may not suit all children or parents, but is well worth a try.

A number of years ago I bought my seven-year-old an Amiga computer, mainly to play games. I thought it might be more educational than a games console and a good introduction to using a computer. Around that time I was increasingly concerned by an apparent lack of the school he was attending to teach him his multiplication tables (At least in the "old fashioned" way. Even today I know all my tables up to 12 without even thinking about it). I decided to write a program that would let him practise his tables and then test him on them (I called it TableTrainer).

By the time our second child came along the Amiga, although still used had been replaced by a Windows PC. We tried using some PC maths educational software but after a while he lost interest. Although the software was quite good it couldn‘t really compete with the latest video games. Now I know all children are different but it seemed the best way around the problem was to let him play his video games only after he had done some maths exercises on the computer. I converted the Amiga TableTrainer program to run under MS-Windows and added some features that I had omitted on the Amiga version. In use you simply select which tables you want to practise or be tested on. The test runs at different speeds, giving you more or less time to answer. The test results are saved and displayed in graphic form, so that over a period of time you can get an idea of how your child is improving, and can spot which tables are causing problems. He soon got into the routine of using TableTrainer for 10 or 15 minutes a day, before moving on to his video game (mostly).

All the input and control is via the mouse so even the youngest should be able to use the software. This approach may not work for everyone, and you may not agree with learning by repetition, but I don‘t know how I would manage today if I couldn‘t multiply (and thus divide) quickly without thinking about it.

If you want to see what it looks like, check out the example page on this website.