Brain Codes

Remembering math facts, or questions like 5×7 or 8×9 is hard, very hard for most kids. Essentially these math questions are lines on a page. Writing the number 8 has no connection to what 8 things might look like. It is simply a symbol, an abstract symbol, that we chose to represent an amount. Just like some of us would wonder why the Chinese symbol for moon looks like a stepladder, it makes no sense why two circles on top of each other would represent the number of legs on a spider. Asking children to memorize the math facts is like asking them to learn a new language. Some, less than one third, will be able to. For most however, this is a very daunting task.

The next step is to tell the math stories. This is when math becomes fun. We take all of the math questions like 6×7 and 8×4 and turn them into stories that make kids laugh. The stories include friends and family, are colorful and animated and they’re crazy and ridiculous like some of the videos you see on YouTube. They are the kind of stories you run home and tell your parents about. They’re the kind of stories that you would remember years from now.

The reason we tell stories is because we remember them. When we get together with family and friends we often tell stories about times that made us laugh. We laugh about those wild and crazy times in our lives, those unexpected mishaps when things went horribly wrong or seemed too weird to explain. We remember these our whole lives and each time we tell the story it gets bigger, crazier and funnier.

The example I use with most people when I explain how we learn math is the three little pigs versus a computer keyboard: 

A computer keyboard is something many people use every day or at least once a week. We look at the keyboard, but can’t remember the symbols on them. For example ask yourself what symbol is above the number seven on the same key. Is it an *, %, or $? Your mind probably looks like a very long curse word but you probably still didn't come up with the right answer. Chances are, even if you did guess right, you're still not sure if it's the right answer.  Some things are easy to remember and some things aren't. Asking children to remember the times tables is asking them to do something abstract, which is very difficult.

Now let’s see if you remember a story, a story you probably haven’t heard since you were little. You may be a parent with children, in which case, you probably don’t read it every night, at most maybe once in the past year.  But even though it was a long time ago I bet you still remember who blew the houses down in the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’.  You probably also remember the name of the girl who ate the porridge in ‘The Three Bears’.

So the details about something that you use every day don’t stick in your mind, but the details of a story that you heard when you were a child are things you still remember. This is what we are going to do for the multiplication tables. 

You are going to teach your child each math fact with a memorable story. Each story will connect the numbers they need to remember in a very specific way. It will reach all types of learners such as those who are visual (can see you the shape of the numbers), auditory (can hear the sound of the numbers) and kinesthetic (can feel the amount of the numbers).

This is the time when you start making learning math fun. The more you make your child laugh and help them to remember the details of the story the better they are going to know their times tables. You can tell them the stories while sitting on the couch in the living room or on a bench outside, it really doesn’t matter. The better you make the experience, the more they’re going to enjoy math. You can change the names in each story to family and friends to make it more personal.  You can add more details and tell it in your own personal style, but keep the main details of the story the same. This is your chance to help your child connect with numbers.

I have created these stories from strategies used by people with high IQs and photographic memories. I have used and developed them for over 20 years. They contain specific patterns, images and devices that make them easy to be learned and remembered for a long time. Because of their nature, the stories will soon be replaced by a solid knowledge of the times tables.  

Each story has a very specific, every day object for each number in the question.  For example a tricycle is a picture for the number 3 because it has three wheels, the handlebars are shaped like a 3 and it’s called a 3-wheeler. Each number has a visual, auditory and kinesthetic connection as well as a specific color that goes with it.  For 3’s, like the tricycle, the color is red. The bigger numbers follow this same pattern.  Here is a quick guide to the number 1 through 10.  

Each story also contains devices that trigger a child’s memory. A child will remember the story because an emotion was triggered, objects were described in color, things that are out of the ordinary happen or it is a personal connection. These devices come from the great thinkers of history, even as far back as ancient Greece.  I have tried and tested these stories with thousands of children of a variety of backgrounds and abilities, even with those as young as five years old and the results are the same.  With these stories kids learn math and love it.

Tell the story then ask the questions to your child to make sure the right details were remembered. Ask again throughout the day until they can give you the details without any clues. Each day you can tell as many as six stories and practice them throughout the day.  This is enough to keep learning fun and successful. If there’re too many stories, your child might become overwhelmed.

Use each page as this script. The reality is children learn much, much faster than adults. If your goal is to learn these stories before your child and better than your child, I will have to break some bad news to you. Because of the openness and innocence of children, they will learn these stories and what they represents much faster and easier than you could ever hope to.  

By the time you master these stories, your child will have had at least 2 birthdays, may have change schools and have possibly started shaving.  It is very difficult for parents to learn this way for many reasons.  Just a few are: adults have many questions that need answering, we have lost our ability to imagine or pretend and we have all learned math the ‘traditional’ way and can’t understand why this would work.  

All you have to know is they work and they work for a reason.

Swallow your pride and accept the fact that your child will surpass you.  You don’t have to memorize all the details of the stories and you don’t have to understand what they mean. Just start and instead of trying to be a stuffy, all-knowing, dull professor, just be and keen, easy-going, entertaining tour guide. Trust me and dive in headfirst. 

If you can step past your own fear and help your child love math, you will be the greatest parent in the world.

Kenzy simply means a 'shortcut' method.  Kids around 8 or 9 years should know the times tables of by heart, which means a question like 6x7 should take them less than 3 seconds to answer.  The reality is most kids will take more than 15 or 30 seconds and often even longer or cannot get to the answer at all.  Counting fingers or drawing lines on the paper are traditional ways of solving that just don't work.  Though these strategies seem 'out-of-the-box', they are incredibly effective.  With a little practice kids can solve these same questions easily in under 10 seconds.  With the right amount of practice they can reach the mastery level answer all the questions, not just the 2's or 5's, in under 3 seconds and many get to where they can answer in under a second.  This is so important because it frees up so much energy and space in the mind that was taken up by unnecesarry mental calculation using slow methods.  Students can focus more on the equations and problems with more accuracy and less effort.  This leads to higher marks, more success and ultimately more confidence. 

New math, apps and fads don't work.  They never have.

These things offer pseudo-learning and a false sense of understanding math. Apps have never been able to replace teachers. The 'New Math' is a band-aid that tries to compensate for a child's lack of basic math skills.  Fads come and go because they never address the root of the problem, which is simple.  Kids need the basics.  

The Kenzy Method is a mnemonic system similar to the abacus style of Eastern math, but much more, it connects numbers with naturally occurring patterns in numbers. It takes old-school practice, but it results in a genuine understanding of good, honest math skills. 

Many people believe that math and language are the most important subjects a child should learn during their developmental year. In Canada, the United States and Australia these are areas where many kids struggle. 

Curriculums are regularly changing, new programs for numeracy and literacy come and go, international tests score and headlines show parents and educators are frustrated with a failing system over and over or year after year.

Having a great deal of measurable and documented success, I would like to offer some insight to these trends. I will identify logic and reasons as to why children fail in these subjects and what can be done to overcome these shortcomings.