Printable multiplication chart 1–12

How to use the chart (and when to put it away)

A chart is useful at the start, when your child is still learning what multiplying means. It makes the patterns visible: every row goes up by the same amount, the 5s end in 5 or 0, and the chart is symmetrical, so 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 sit in mirror positions and give the same answer.

Looking an answer up is not the same as remembering it, though. If the chart stays on the desk during homework, your child gets very good at reading it and never has to pull the answer from memory. Use it to check an answer after trying, not to find it before. Then take it away a piece at a time: cover a row, then a whole table, then put the chart in a drawer.

The blank chart: a five-minute check

Give your child the blank chart and a pencil, and ask them to fill in every answer they know without looking. No timer needed the first time.

• The squares they fill in quickly are facts they know.
• The ones they leave empty, or fill in slowly by counting, are the facts to practice.
• Do it again a week later and compare the two sheets. Fewer blanks is real progress.

Speed matters as much as the right answer: if a fact takes more than two or three seconds, it is not memorized yet, even if the answer is correct.

Why the squares are marked

The 144 squares hold only 78 different facts, because 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 are the same fact. Many of them come easily: the 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s. The square numbers on the diagonal, like 7 × 7 and 8 × 8, are usually remembered well too, so they make good anchors: if your child knows 7 × 7 = 49, then 7 × 8 is just 7 more.

Facts that sit close together, like 6 × 8 and 7 × 8, can get mixed up with each other. Which ones your child confuses varies from child to child, and the blank chart is the quickest way to find out.

Does my child need to know up to 12 × 12?

The Common Core standards ask children to know from memory all the products of two one-digit numbers by the end of 3rd grade, so up to 9 × 9 and, in practice, the 10s. Many schools and timed tests also include the 11s and 12s, which is why the chart goes to 12. If your child is still working on the core facts, start there: the 11s and 12s are easier once the rest are solid.

TabTabTab currently practices the tables from 0 to 10, the core facts that the standards expect. Your child says each answer out loud, the app listens, and the facts that are still slow come back more often until they are automatic. For more on building a daily routine, read the parents’ guide to learning times tables.