Review of The Trigger Memory Co.

The Trigger Memory Co. has a really nifty product that many homeschoolers have heard of called Times Tales. If you're like me, though, while you may have heard of Times Tales, you may not have yet experienced it for yourself. If you have a child attempting to learn his upper multiplication tables, this is one product you may be very interested in! In the past, Times Tales was available on DVD, but you can now purchase it as a download, which is great news for people like me who don't have a DVD player on their computers. The downloaded version is exactly like the DVD version in content, so you don't have to worry that you're losing something in the translation. Your download will come as five files - two video and three PDF (containing tests, crosswords, flashcards, and cube games).



So what makes Times Tales different from the myriad of other multiplication memory programs out there? How about everything? If you learn best using mnemonic devices, or you have a child who does, if you have a child who understands multiplication, but just can't seem to master the facts, if you are just getting to the point of beginning to learn multiplication, if you want to teach facts without the dreaded "drill and kill" approach - if any of these statements apply to you, then Times Tales is something that you will definitely want to check out!
Times Tales is comprised of two 30 minute videos that teach the upper times tales, excluding 10 (because, really, what's easier to learn than 10, right?). The facts are not taught as such. Instead, stories are told using numbers, who are all represented as characters. Students learn the stories, and if they are young enough, they don't even realize that they are learning multiplication facts along the way!

The video lessons are reinforced with worksheets and games along the way.

What we Thought

Times Tales was just as adorable as I knew it would be. The stories were cute and the characters were  cuter. From the perspective of someone who knows her multiplication tables, it was fun to see how they were used in the stories to create facts. However, it turns out that my kids are slightly too old for this product. At 11, and with a decent knowledge of facts under their belts (better than I knew, actually), they saw the stories developing into facts immediately, so they didn't get lulled into the mnemonic effect of the program. In fact, at the stage of the program where they were supposed to be remembering the stories, they were getting kind of tripped up trying to remember the stories, which was counterproductive since they already knew the *facts*.

Having said that, for younger kids, or kids who don't know their facts as well as my kids apparently do (although they had me fooled), this product would be awesome. I think Times Tales would allow even really young kids to memorize their facts with ease, assuming they already understood the basic idea behind multiplication. The stories make it so fun!

Fortunately, families with kids at all stages were able to use this program, so be sure to click the banner below to see how Times Tales worked in their families!