Explain the basic fact that a multiplication sentence is the same from either direction. For instance, 5 x 6 is the same as 6 x 5. This is known as "commutative property."
Teach the simple multiplication tables first to offer students a chance to be successful right away. The easier tables are the zeros table, the ones and the tens. Explain that the answers to the zeros table are always zero, that the answers to the ones table is always the same number that you multiplied by one and that the answers to the tens tables are the number plus a zero.
Create flash cards for the rest of the multiplication tables. Study one table at a time until it is completely memorized.
Teach memory tips. For example, the products of the twos table are always even numbers. You also can count up by twos to check your answer. Add the digits of products for the threes table; they always add up to a sum that is divisible by three. Count by fives to check your answer on the fives tables.
Create rhymes or simple songs to remember multiplication facts that are difficult. For instance, if a student can't seem to remember that 8 times 8 equals 64, you could create the following rhyme: "Eight times eight is sixty-four, nothing less and nothing more."
Play games that reinforce multiplication skills. For example, you can give pairs of students a deck of cards. The students divide the deck. Each student flips up a card. They take turns multiplying the two cards that are turned up. Face cards count as 10 and aces count as 1. If the student gets the problem right, he gets to keep the two cards. If he answers incorrectly, the other student gets the cards. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins.