Last week, I had a chance to talk with hundreds of parents who homeschool their children. Multiplication.com had a booth at the Washington Homeschool Organization (WHO) Convention last week. What a blast!
I came armed with 1,000 Multiplication Superhero capes to give away. Before the two day event was over, I had given out ALL of the capes. YES... 1,000 superheroes! The convention exhibitor hall was a sea of kids in red capes.
As I talked with parents, it became evident that homeschool parents are having the same trouble teaching their kids the times tables as teachers do. I heard the same comments over... and over... and over. "My kids know the zeros, the ones, the twos, the fives, and a few other facts... but my kids can't seem to remember the rest."
I shared how our system works with almost everyone who visited the booth. (Thanks to the capes... it was zillions of them.) After showing the parents and kids some of the sample pictures and stories our system uses... they were blown away. Both parents and kids couldn't believe how easy remembering the times tables can be. I told them that the pictures, stories, videos, and just about EVERYTHING I was sharing with them was available for FREE on the website. Yet, over 200 families ended up buying one of the books we sell.
I also learned a great deal from the parents who are currently using Multiplication.com. There are definitely ways we can make it easier to find things. They also had some great suggestions on other resources they would love to see on the site. So... I'm busy reorganizing the site and developing new resources.
I look forward to attending next year. I'm not sure if I can top the capes. Hmm... maybe I can bring a different color:-)