It is amazing some of the things we do for our kids. My daughter starts 4th grade this fall and while she has kept up on her reading over the summer we have slipped a bit in math and handwriting. I made up a bunch of multiplication flash cards for her and started quizzing her in the evenings. I became a bit suspicious when she started getting them nearly all correct and I suspected that she was able to glimpse enough of the correct answer through the paper flash card to make a good guess at the answer.
Being a resourceful fellow, and refusing to loose to a nine year old, I dusted off my copy of VB6 and wrote a program that is, essentially, a computer based flashcard program for multiplication tables 0 through 12. Needless to say, Kaitlyns "wicked math skills" faltered rather dramatically.
The good news, however, is that she is actually practicing her multiplication tables now. And even better she is actually remembering them! I tried to emulate the tests her third grade teacher gave, two minutes to answer thirty questions. I added the ability to change the test time the total number of questions and which multiplication tables to use (zero through…). My sister in law asked if she could have a copy, so I just posted it on the website for anyone who might be interested. It is called "KRG-Multipractice" and is a tiny little windows program. The source code is included.
Addendum 09/02/2008: The response to this little program from my friends and family was pretty surprising. My sister-in law, Barb, asked if I could make a version that included division problems. I decided to take it a step further and expand the program to include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. An entire set of electronic flashcards suitable for grades 1 through 4. You can get version 2 of KRG-Multipractice in the downloads section.
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