Multiplication Song

Like many of you, I have memorized the order of the letters in the English alphabet thanks to the "ABC" song. In my case it happened at the age of 30, from my kids' Sesame street DVD (with Billy Joel). Yes, I learned the alphabet before in school but it never settled so naturally inside my brain until I heard it fused with music (and over and over again). No matter that I am practically tone deaf.

My daughter quickly mastered the Hebrew alphabet also from  a song - "Alef, Beth" by Naomi Shemer.
My late grandma surprised us all starting to sing some childhood songs in Yiddish at the late stages of her Alzheimer, when she no longer recognized any of us.  This all is not a coincidence.We are more likely to remember a poem that was put to music than "bare" rhymes.  Scientists have shown that music facilitates quick memorization, long-term memory retention and efficient retrieval of information. So, shouldn't we be singing more at school and work?

In the past few months, a large amount of readers and friends consulted with me on how to help their 3rd graders memorize the multiplication table. Well, I have been struggling with this with my own daughter and nothing seems to do the magic. We tried memorizing the diagonal, or starting from the upper-left corner and slowly increasing the square size, we practiced on windows of buildings that we passed by, we tried online games and iPhone games. She got better and better at it but was easily forgetting complex parts after a few days without practice. Plus, it was not fun at all.  Perhaps we should put the multiplication table to music.

I checked on YouTube and found a few attempts by various artists. If you are aware and like some other clips - please add the link below or email me.
Share this with your kids. Better yet, write your own!  There are few professional musicians among our readers and I challenge you all to try - contribute a rhyme, or music or both.

The Multiplying Multiplication Song !!!


Mrs. D's Multiplication Rap Remix™