I found a few bargins at Target.  In their dollar section they had puzzles, workbooks and games.

So we are playing math Bingo, timed math sheets and a Map/puzzle of the US. 

Oh and flash cards!  My very smart 9yo is struggling with multiplication.  We are at a stand still until she commits the facts to memory.  How can we go forward to division without this?  Her math book brough in work last winter that assumed she had already mastered the facts.  So we have languished.  I have tried and tried and so has she.

We have sung, timed drill, worksheets, flash cards, games, not to mention begging, pleading and reasoning, expalin and encouraging her to apply herself strongly.

How will we get this stuff in to stick?!

So she sits in my comfy chair with the kitchen timer and a cup of decaf, (you read that right) trying to beat the clock.   

Years of homeschool have offered some insight.  I know she will get this eventually.  Maybe this is where I need all that patience people always assume I possess.  How wonderful for her to have this struggle, knowing that she will have victory too.  These little battles will build in her the character to strive and accomplish.  Boy, when you think about it, all the time we have struggled to learn multiplication is not wasted at all, time well spent learning and building more than math skills... We are forming a person who can take on challenges, persevere and achieve.  Pretty good lessons for Summer school.