Originated from my father, Will Martin Sr. and his mandatory learning approach for his children. While he sat down to his dinner he called us one by one as we dreaded his famous line was, "up to how much time-tables do you know" If you said you knew up to five times, you had to say it all for him with out stuttering. Lol! And he taught us, as he used to say, forward and backward meaning, he wanted us to say both multiplication and division simultaneously.

I developed this practice with my son from the age of three years and it worked like a charm.

This time tables is to an extent that one could recite answers back to back with out hesitation, it is the importance of quick recall, enabling learners to respond instantly to questions, regardless of the order it was asked. A fun five minutes after lunch class game was "Mental" with answers only. When playing with friends, the object of the game was to answer quickly. As soon and the last word leaves the person's mouth you have to say the answer, without hesitation.