The Calculation Trap
It started with 6 × 8. My first one could calculate it eventually(I think). But they were doing mental gymnastics, counting on their fingers or adding 8s together, or who knows what.
That's not mastery. That's calculation. When a math test comes, that slowness turns into anxiety.
I tried existing times tables apps, but they were frustratingly random. They would waste time on 2 × 2 (which my kids knew) while barely asking 6 × 8 (which they always got wrong or slowly). They also tended to look childish and have a terrible UX. None of the school age kids want to use childish apps.
I found myself manually keeping a mental list of their "weak" numbers to quiz them and thats how we got somewhere. With fresh batch of kids in the school I had to do this all ower again and then I realized I was acting as a human spaced-repetition algorithm. So, I built Memoply to do that job properly. It forces speed, penalizes slowness, and focuses on what they don't know.
I also wanted to try phone app development. And thats how Memoply was born.
