How many minutes a day should my child practice times tables?

Five minutes a day feels like very little. It is very little — and that's the point. The research on practice frequency is one of the most consistent findings in educational psychology, and it runs counter to how most parents organize study time.

What the research says

A study examining different practice frequencies specifically for times tables — testing participants on unfamiliar multiplication facts across different schedules — found that daily practice was superior to every other frequency tested, including every other day and twice weekly, even when total practice time was held constant.

The mechanism is well-established: each retrieval attempt strengthens the memory trace, but the benefit is highest when the retrieval happens just before the memory would fade. Daily practice hits this window consistently. Longer gaps mean more forgetting between sessions, which requires more time to recover rather than build on.

What this means in practice

Five minutes every day is more valuable than thirty minutes once a week. This is counterintuitive — it feels like less — but the research is consistent across decades and age groups.

Try this

• Cap sessions at 5 minutes. Stopping before fatigue sets in preserves motivation for the next session.
• If a day is missed, don’t compensate with a longer session the next day. Just resume the regular routine.
• Use a habit anchor: tie practice to something that already happens daily — breakfast, the drive to school, bedtime.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-01