A variety of musical styles – each track has a different feel, style and tempo and is designed to have a catchy melody so children can sing or dance along to each track, thus internalising what they are hearing.
Each track repeats the number fact several times before moving to the next number in the sequence – rote learning a well known and established learning method that aids in the recall of information.
Each track is around 3 ½ minutes long, helps to maintain interest.
Song tempos are varied so there is a degree of musical interest as well as being structured in a way that is not too fast for children to sing along to.
A times table grid is included on the insert so children are also able to see as well as hear the times tables.
About the Producer
Times Tables CD Vol 1 was produced by Sean Taylor, a High School teacher from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia. The seeds for this project started several years ago when Sean was teaching year 8 maths (13 year olds) at his local high school. “I was amazed at the number of kids who did not know their times tables by the time they reached high school. Sure, maths can be easy when you have a calculator but nearly half of the kids that I taught just didn’t know their times tables and couldn’t do them without the aid of a calculator.
When I went through primary school (Australia 1970’s) you had to learn your tables and we learnt them out loud as a class, over and over, ( ROTE LEARNING ) no if’s or but’s you just did it !”. Fast forward to today. Sean saw that there was a need to get back to the basics of learning and to get back to some tried and true methods of learning. Whilst the ROTE METHOD does work it can be quite boring doing something over and over and kids soon loose interest.
Before becoming a teacher, some ten plus years ago, Sean was a professional musician having studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music as well as being a founding member of the international Christian band ‘The Newsboys’. Having spent years as a professional musician and years as a teacher Sean sought to combine his love of music with his knowledge in teaching to produce the timestables CD. “The CD started out as a bit of fun to help kids learn and hopefully help their parents instil a love of learning in their children”.
