[Veto!]

How about memorizing those funny old-fashioned multiplication tables?
We had “drills” in school when I was a kid, “today we’ll do the eights.”
8 x 1 is 8
8 x 2 is 16
etc
It was like memorizing the words to a song…just easy. It was like learning the alphabet. Or don’t they do that anymore?

Unless there’s some very good reason to avoid any sort of memorization, knowing the “tables” makes lifelong sense. Here’s a rather good article:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/03/25/jonathan-kay-want-to-empower-your-kid-teach-them-the-multiplication-table/?__federated=1

[Mears]

I am 82 years old and still do multiplication based on rote memorization from 70-75 years ago.

.

[dfwgator]

They had a whole series of “Schoolhouse Rock” videos teaching how to do multiplication, such as this one.

Naughty Number Nine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0Frq6bhNQ