Math Fact Fluency​

"Math facts fluency leads to higher order mathematics.  
Through automaticity students free up their working memory and can devoted it to problems solving and learning new concepts and skills (Geary, 1994)

Math Fact Fluency
​It’s important to remember that math fluency is so much more than simply memorising math facts. 
Math fluency is about understanding mathematical concepts to the point of feeling confident in completing math processes and solving problems. It’s when one can complete can tackle a math task without hesitation and feel comfortable in knowing what to do and how. 

As parents and teachers, we can help kids build math fluency in the skills they already know or are learning to contribute to their overall fluency with math facts. In the end, we want kids to understand the math they complete and have the ability to explain their thinking. 
Math Fact Fluency is best built through multiple strategies.

Practice -to reinforce math facts with consistent practice through lessons at home and in school.
For example, daily math exercises can be as simple as:  Practicing math at the grocery store while buying items Using fractions while cooking or baking at home Keeping math manipulatives on hand and engaging during playtime  Play family learning games that include math Building a daily or nightly routine that features frequent math practice.

Mental Math and Basic Facts 
Mental math is having the ability to complete math problems so well that we can complete them in our heads! Obviously, by the time we can complete mental math to some degree, we have mastered the concepts and stored the information in our long-term memory. We can consider mental math to be the ultimate indicator of math fluency. That’s why it’s so important to incorporate mental math wherever possible to help your child practice skills in which he or she is already fluent. Thankfully there are many ways to help your child practice mental math. Try out the following ideas: 

Ask math questions and problems aloud, preferably without a visual aid. If your child struggles, encourage him or her to visualize the problem, and allow enough time to let your child process the information and generate an answer. 
Flash cards are great for mental math! Without pencil and paper to work out the problems in a longer, more structured way, children are faced with the necessity to solve it in their heads. 
For kids who have been working on a skill for a while, build speed and fluency with short drill activities that force kids to solve problems as quickly as possible.
​Be sure not to use this technique in a way that frustrates or upsets struggling kids. Be sure that kids are reasonably comfortable with the skill and provide just enough challenge to work out those mental math skills.