Cards 1.75" x 4"
360 total cards
180 cards per high/low group
6 color sets of 30 cards in each group

A Better Flash Card System

A full set of math flash cards includes the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division from 0-12. It's a lot of facts. It's a lot of cards to memorize! For this reason, many students never fully learn their math facts, and even if they do, few retain them for instant recall in the later years.

Core flash cards are designed to memorize all math facts in an organized, time-saving way. It works. The system has the advantage of moving quickly and minimizing pain, and is designed to require little or no teacher input. But the real beauty of Core is that it provides an easy way to organize the math facts for quick review each day long after the facts are memorized. Through organized review, your students will be strongest at the same time the average student's recall begins to fade.

Some modifications to the flash cards are provided to save time: is there really any need to memorize "0" or "1" facts, or even multiplication by 11? Not really; once you know the rule, it's easy. Remove these except for a few examples, and you end up with 360 cards.

Also, why not use the Commutative Property to save time (remember, 2x8 = 8x2)? This cuts your flash cards in half (note that subtraction and division are handled by grouping operations; that is, 8-2 to 8-6 and 28/4 to 28/7). Of course, every card must still be learned, but there is certainly no reason to review 2x3 and 3x2 on the same day! If you know one, you will know the other.

For this reason Core flash cards are split into two stacks of 180 cards (called Highs and Lows). By alternating between Highs and Lows each day, you still are, in effect, learning every card every day and yet paring the cards down to a reasonable level.

The final advantage to Core: each high/low stack is organized into six color sets for organized practice. Six different colors in each high/low stack makes only thirty different cards per set. At two seconds per card, each set is polished off in a minute! To the child, this is a light at the end of the tunnel, and makes for easy, organzied, continuous review long after the cards are memorized. Therefore, when it's time for SAT exams, your student doesn't just know his stuff - he knows it, backwards and forwards, for very little time investment.

How does it actually work?

The first trick is rotating between "High" and "Low" stacks each day, effectively cutting the cards in half yet still covering every operation each day.

The student merely starts with a single thirty card set, with one card, and slowly adds cards each week until all thirty are mastered. "High" and "Low" stacks are rotated each day. Once a set is fully mastered, he moves to the second set, and so on, until all six sets are memorized. However, even fully mastered sets are reviewed each day.

Once a set is mastered, reviewing should take less than a minute (two seconds per card), and to do all 180 cards mastered cards, or a complete stack, will take less than ten minutes. Mastery arrives quickly, because while the student performs every operation every day, only half the cards are needed because the student rotates between the "High" and "Low" stacks. This cuts the invested time nearly in half for the same level of mastery a typical student will experience, and because it is organized by set, it will feel much easier to the student. The light will be clearly visible at the end of the tunnel.

It's fast, organized, and painless. If the student doesn't know a card, he shouldn't strain himself, merely place the card at the back for redo. Remember, the student will soon see every operation every day, and won't be able to forget them!

Now for retention. Once the cards are fully memorized (all six sets, High and Low stacks), there is no reason to repeat every card every day anymore. So the student moves to a six-day (weekly) cycle of all the Highs one week, and the Lows the next, covering only one color each day. Thus, the student sees every operation every week, and yet only does thirty cards every day - a mere minute per day! Guaranteed retention for a minute a day is well worth it. The student continues this until he goes to college, at which point having instant recall over your math facts is a huge advantage.

The RightStart Question

RightStart Mathematics is a program that eschews memorizing the math facts (or "kill and drill" in their parlance), and places the focus on understanding how numbers work together instead. The goal is to learn mathematics using a "visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experience." I have used this method for one year with my oldest child, and have eventually rejected the method.

I am an engineer by education and trade, and my wife was educated in physics and mathematics, so we have a special interest in the best way to teach mathematics. The general theory of RightStart Mathematics, to use visual strategies and avoid wrote learning to learn mathematics, was indeed intriguing. Initially, this made enough sense to us enough to give it a try.

However, we experienced a fatal flaw in this theory. Once the student begins to "think" about the basics, this tends to slow him down when he considers the actual problem itself. Using the traditional memory method, we discovered an "understanding" of math develops much better as the student can now focus on the actual problem at hand, creating a more enjoyable math experience. The memorized facts always exist in the background, providing a continual benefit in allowing the mind to focus on the problem at hand. The RightStart student must always decide: how am I to solve this operation? Meanwhile, the student who has memorized his math facts is racing ahead on the problem. This is not a trivial advantage, say, on the SAT exam, or even in the real world.