Magic 9's

Magic 9’s

Make a fist. Look at the knuckles and spaces where your fingers attach to your hand. The first knuckle is January; the space between the knuckles is February. The next knuckle is March. The next space is April. Keep going until you get to the last knuckle, which is July, then start back at the first knuckle with August. All knuckles have 31 days; all spaces (except Feb) have 30 days. If July and August didn't both have 31 days, then it wouldn't work and I'd NEVER be able to remember how many days are in each month! ; )

Another fun trick for multiplying by 9's:
Hold up all ten fingers. Say the equation is 9 x 3. Starting with your left hand, put down the third finger. You then have 2 fingers - a space - and then seven fingers. The answer is 27.
9 x 6 put down your right thumb or "6th" finger. You then have 5 fingers - a space - and four fingers. The answer is 54. After the 10's you're on your own.

YES! It's much faster to just memorize the times tables, but when one of my kids showed me this "magic 9's trick" I was truly fascinated. What can I say - Simple pleasures for simple minds.

One day my kids were arguing about whose math homework was the hardest. Our kindergartener Julia left us all speechless with, "You think YOUR homework is hard? I don't even HAVE 12 fingers!