TOS Review - The Trigger Memory Co. Times Tales

I have a daughter who was being introduced multiplication and division facts this year in math, but for some reason, she would freeze up and become terrified at the notion of learning this, so needless to say, I was thrilled to get a chance to review Times Tales from The Trigger Memory Co. and see if this new concept in teaching times table upper number multiplication facts would live up to what it is designed to do.

What is Times Tales from The Trigger Memory Co.?

The Trigger Memory Co. has come up with a brilliant way of communicating math multiplication facts into story form that is easy to remember. Essentially, each of the numbers are turned into specific characters with names. When these characters are combined with other characters, stories (or Tales) develop that create the answers to multiplication problems. Hence the name - Times Tales.

For example: The 6th Grade Class (6) played Musical Chairs (4) for 24 hours.

The student remembers that 6 is always associated with the Sixth Grade Class, and 4 is always associated with the picture of a chair with 4 legs. The rest of the story unfolds to reveal the answer to the multiplication combination of 6X4=24 (24 hours in this story).

I received two mp4 files that contained the same Part 1 and Part 2 videos that are on the DVD version. I also received 3 PDFs which included activity sheets and tests.  By the end of the two video lessons, your child has learned how to multiply all of the upper numbers (6-9 along with some 3's and 4's combinations). Of the numbers 0-9, the only multiplication facts not covered in these lessons are 0's, 1's, 2's, and 5's, and these have their own rules that are typically easier to remember anyway. The videos we received covered these multiplication facts:

Three and upper numbers 3X6 3X7 3X8 3X9 Four and upper numbers 4X6 4X7 4X8 4X9 Six and upper numbers (the 6 multiplication facts 3-4 are covered throughout) 6X6 6X7 6X8 6X9 Seven and upper numbers (the 7 multiplication facts 3-4 and 6 are covered throughout) 7X7 7X8 7X9 Eight and upper numbers (the 8 multiplication facts 3-4 and 6-7 are covered throughout) 8X8 8X9 Nine (the nine multiplication facts 3-4 and 6-8 are covered throughout) 9X9

How Did We Use It?

I received Part 1 and Part 2 videos along with 3 PDFs for worksheets to print out and answer keys. I immediately downloaded everything and sat down with my child to see what this was all about. We followed the suggested learning schedule presented in the videos of watching Part 1 and then taking about 6 days to work on the activities before continuing to Part 2.



First, I sat down with my 9-year-old daughter who is just beginning to learn multiplication facts and has been terrified about the notion. We watched the video lessons unfold on my laptop. We stopped and paused the video when instructed to do so and re-watched a specific section whenever we needed a little boost in remembering a specific story. At the end of the stories, the video becomes interactive and has the student answer quick comprehension questions to seal what they just saw into their memory. Then, there is an interactive game to answer story questions and then they take away the story character pictures and replace them with their corresponding numbers and ask math equation questions. Then - surprise - they also introduce division.....  I was thrilled to see my daughter spew out questions not only about multiplication but also about division.

After the video portion is complete, there are PDFs that include worksheets with crossword puzzles and quizzes as well as cut-out-and-assemble multiplication dice and flash cards for multiplication and division facts using these character numbers.

WATCH 3 SHORT VIDEOS OF THE RESULTS:

This 8 second video is probably more of an out-take, but I'm including it anyway because it shows the fun.

What Did We Think?

In my opinion - THEY TAKE THE PROBLEM OUT OF MATH MULTIPLICATION PROBLEMS!

My impression?  THIS IS AMAZING! I'm telling you, I am still just sitting here fascinated and amazed at how this works. Who would have thought that learning little stories about each number could trigger times table memories so quickly. As I began to watch the videos, I was anxiously waiting to see if memorizing stories and making a connection to number characters would work or if it would create more to remember. I think my mouth literally dropped open when I saw how fast my 9-year-old picked up on the multiplication facts. It was like reading her a bedtime story and completely personalized the numbers by turning them into characters instead.

My daughter was terrified, I mean scared, to learn multiplication. But, now she is relaxed and excited. We have actually had fun learning math.

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Read what other members of the TOS Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below: