· 2 min read · Ages 7–11 · Grade 2 through Grade 5
Multiplication flash cards you can print for just the sixes and sevens
The store-bought box has 144 cards and my son knows 120 of them. Printing only the tables he misses turned a twenty-minute drill into five.
The shoebox of store-bought flash cards in our kitchen holds 144 cards, and my son knows about 120 of them cold. Every drill used to start with ten minutes of 2 × 3 and 5 × 4 before we got anywhere near 7 × 8. So I stopped using the box.
What the sheet looks like
The multiplication flash card generator prints a deck from only the times tables you tick, anywhere from ×1 to ×12, or all twelve at once. Each card shows one fact on the front, 7 × 8 and nothing else, inside a dashed cut line. You pick a card size, Large (4 per page), Medium (6 per page) or Small (9 per page), and whether the deck is Multiplication only, Division only, or Both, so 56 ÷ 7 lands in the same shuffle as 7 × 8.
Tick the matching answer sheet and the answers print on separate pages after the cards, in the same order. Nothing is printed on the back of a card, which is deliberate: the child has to say the answer before anyone checks it.
Why it works
- Every minute of drill lands on a fact that isn't automatic yet.
- A shuffled deck removes the skip-counting crutch. 7 × 8 arrives without 7 × 7 in front of it, which is how it shows up in long division later.
- Putting division facts in the same deck teaches the two as one fact family. Kids who see 48 ÷ 6 right after 6 × 8 stop treating division as a separate subject.
Who it suits
A seven-year-old just starting out does well with ×2, ×5 and ×10 on Large cards, multiplication only. By nine or ten the full ×1 to ×12 deck with Both on Small cards is a fair challenge. If the child doesn't yet understand what multiplying means, a multiplication chart is the step before this one.
Cut along the dashed lines with a paper trimmer if you have one. Scissors take longer than the drill.