By: Nathan Gwinn

A simple plan for math facts at home, from a dad and former principal. Twelve minutes a day. No apps. No worksheet packets. Just a pencil, a timer, and you. 

I spent six years as a principal, and I sat in the back of a lot of math lessons. The struggle I saw most often wasn’t a bad teacher or a lazy kid. It was a fourth grader trying to learn long division while still counting 7 × 8 on his fingers. He understood the steps. He just ran out of room in his head before he got to the end. 

I see a version of the same thing at home. I have four kids, and homework time makes it obvious fast. The kid who knows the facts cold finishes and moves on. The kid who is still counting gets frustrated in about ten minutes. 

So at our house, we do a little bit every day. Never more than 12 minutes. Here is the plan we use, grade by grade, and why it works. 

Why a few minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday 

Kids who know their facts by heart have more brain space left for the hard part of a problem. Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham makes this point plainly: harder math problems have easier ones tucked inside them, and a child who has to stop and figure out each little fact runs out of room for the big one (Willingham, 2009). He recommends kids know the multiplication table to the point of instant recall. 

How you practice matters as much as what you practice. In 2013, a team of researchers reviewed ten common study habits and rated only two as highly effective: quizzing yourself and spreading practice out over time (Dunlosky et al., 2013). That is exactly what a short daily drill does. Ten minutes every day beats seventy minutes once a week, even though it adds up to the same time. 

And the stakes are real. A large study that followed kids in the U.S. and U.K. found that a fifth grader’s knowledge of fractions and division predicted their algebra and overall math scores in high school, even after accounting for IQ, reading, and family income (Siegler et al., 2012). The facts you practice at the kitchen table in elementary school show up again in tenth grade. 

The ground rules 

The whole thing works because it is short, it happens every day, and it never turns into a fight. Our rules: 

• Twelve minutes, max. Set a timer. When it goes off, you stop, even mid-problem. Stopping while they still have energy is what gets them back to the table tomorrow. 
• Same time every day. We do it right after dinner, before anything else. When it is part of the routine, nobody argues about it. 
• Pencil, paper, and your voice. No apps. A screen makes it feel like a game, but your child saying the answer out loud and writing it down is what makes it stick. 
• Mix old with new. Every day includes facts they already know. That is the spacing the research talks about, and it builds confidence.
• Track one number. How many they get right in one minute. Write it on a chart on the fridge. Kids love beating yesterday. 
• End on a win. The last problem of the night should be one they know. 

Every session, at every age, follows the same shape: 

What “fluent” means: your child answers in about three seconds, without counting on fingers or skip counting under their breath. Right but slow isn’t fluent yet. That’s the target at every stage below. 

You don’t have to be good at math. Write the answer on the back of every flashcard, use printable sheets that come with answer keys, and every example in this post includes the answer. You’re the coach, not the teacher. 

Spring of 2nd grade: just the 2s and 4s 

Most schools start multiplication in third grade. A little head start in the spring of second grade makes that year much easier, and you only need two numbers to do it. 

Start with the 2s, because your child already knows them. Multiplying by 2 is just doubling: 2 × 6 is 6 + 6. Once the 2s are quick, move to the 4s and teach one trick: double it, then double it again. 4 × 6 is double 6 (12), then double 12 (24). 

• Weeks 1–3: Skip count by 2s out loud, then 2 × 1 through 2 × 12. 
• Weeks 4–8: Add the 4s, two or three new facts at a time, always mixed with the 2s. • Goal by summer: Every 2s and 4s fact up to × 12, answered in about three seconds. 

That’s it. Don’t push on to the 3s. The point of second grade is to learn what practice feels like, not to finish the table. 

3rd grade: the whole table, all the way to 12 

This is the big year. The goal is simple: by the last day of third grade, your child knows every fact from 1 × 1 to 12 × 12 without counting. 

Here’s a month-by-month order. Each step builds on the one before, so new facts never come out of nowhere:

1. August–September: 2s, 4s, and 10s. The 2s and 4s are review from second grade. For the 10s, just add a zero: 10 × 7 = 70. 
2. October: 5s, 0s, and 1s. Count by 5s like nickels. Anything times 0 is 0, and anything times 1 stays the same. The 0s and 1s take about a day. 
3. November–December: 3s. 
4. January: 9s. Trick: the first digit of the answer is one less than the number you’re multiplying by, and the two digits add up to 9. For 9 × 7: one less than 7 is 6, and 6 + 3 = 9, so the answer is 63. 5. February: 11s. Up to 11 × 9, just repeat the digit: 11 × 4 = 44. Then learn the last three as regular facts: 110, 121, 132. 
5. March–April: 6s, 7s, and 8s. These are the hardest, so they get the most time. 7. May: 12s, then mix everything. Trick: 12 times a number is 10 times it plus 2 times it. 12 × 6 = 60 + 12 = 72. 

Use the same 12-minute routine all year. Add only two or three new facts a day and keep everything else in the mix. And remind your child that every fact works both ways: if they know 3 × 8, they already know 8 × 3. By the time you reach the 7s and 8s, most of those facts are already learned. 

The three-pile trick. Make flashcards. Each night, sort them into three piles: fast (under three seconds), slow (they knew it but had to think), and missed. Practice the slow and missed piles, and pull a few fast ones in to keep them fresh. When the missed pile is empty, you’re nearly done. 

4th grade: keep it sharp and add division 

Fourth grade is about keeping the facts fresh. Run a few minutes of mixed multiplication in every session so nothing slips, and add division. 

Teach division as the same fact turned around. If 6 × 7 = 42, then 42 ÷ 7 = 6 and 42 ÷ 6 = 7. Make each flashcard show all three. Once division feels easy, start the fraction drills below. 

4th through 6th grade: fractions 

Once the multiplication facts are solid, fractions are where daily practice pays off most. Remember the study above: fifth-grade fraction knowledge predicted high school algebra. And almost every fraction mistake I saw as a principal traced back to shaky multiplication facts. 

Keep the same 12-minute shape and swap in fraction facts. Read these prompts out loud. The answer column is there so you never have to work anything out yourself:

Starting in fifth grade, these fraction, decimal, and percent matches come up constantly. Make a flashcard for each and have your child memorize them the same way they memorized 7 × 8: 

5th or 6th grade: prime factorization 

When your child knows every multiplication fact cold, add a few minutes of prime factorization. For some kids that’s fifth grade, for others sixth. Don’t start it early; it’s built entirely on the times table. 

A prime number can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself, like 2, 3, 5, and 7. Prime factorization means breaking a bigger number down into the primes that multiply to make it: 12 = 2 × 2 × 3. It sounds fancy, but it’s the shortcut kids use later to simplify fractions and find common denominators. 

Drop it into the “new facts” part of the routine: 

• Memorize the primes up to 50: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47. Put them on one card and practice them like any other fact. 
• Learn three quick checks: a number splits evenly by 2 if it’s even, by 5 if it ends in 0 or 5, and by 3 if its digits add up to a number in the 3s table (for 51: 5 + 1 = 6, so 51 = 3 × 17).
• Do one factor tree a night. Write a number at the top. Split it into any two numbers that multiply to make it. Keep splitting until every number at the bottom is prime. Start with numbers under 50, then go up to 100. 

Here’s a factor tree for 48, step by step: 

1. 48 = 6 × 8 
2. Split 6 into 2 × 3, and split 8 into 2 × 4 
3. Split 4 into 2 × 2 
4. Everything left is prime, so 48 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 

In 6th grade, use it to simplify fractions. To simplify 24/36, break both numbers down: 24 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 and 36 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3. Cross out the numbers that match on top and bottom (a 2, another 2, and a 3). What’s left is 2/3. 

Helpful resources 

You can do all of this with index cards and a pencil. These tools make it easier: 

• Facts on Fire (free). A math fact program created by Dr. Brian Poncy that takes less than 10 minutes a day over six weeks. It fits right inside the 12-minute routine. 
• Math-Drills (free). Printable multiplication sheets you can pick by number (just the 4s, just the 7s, or everything to 12), with answer keys. Print one for the mixed-practice part of the routine. • Rocket Math (paid). A paper-based program built on the same idea as this post: two new facts at a time, a one-minute check each day, about ten minutes total. Good if you want someone else to plan the order for you. 
• Khan Academy (free). Short videos that explain each topic. Watch one yourself before you start fractions or factor trees, so you can explain it in your own words. The link goes to their video on equal fractions. 
• A pack of index cards and a chart on the fridge (a few dollars). Honestly the best tool on this list. 

Try it this week 

You don’t need a curriculum or a tutor. You need a timer, a stack of index cards, and twelve minutes after dinner. 

Tonight, pick five facts your child already knows and two they don’t. Run the routine. Write the one-minute score on the fridge. Do it again tomorrow. In a month, you’ll see the number climb, and so will they. 

Some nights it will go great. Some nights someone will cry, and it might be you. That’s fine. Stop when the timer goes off, end on a win, and come back tomorrow. Small and steady wins this one. 

Nathan Gwinn is a Senior Advisor at Freedom in Education, a former K–12 principal, and a father of four.

Sources:

• Willingham, D. T. (2009–10). Is it true that some people just can’t do math? American Educator. • Dunlosky, J., et al. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 
• Siegler, R. S., et al. (2012). Early predictors of high school mathematics achievement. Psychological Science.