How Long Should Kids Practice Math Facts? Why 10 Minutes a Day Is Enough

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Screen time is all over the news this fall. New York City and Los Angeles both set new limits on classroom screens this year, and a national Gallup survey found that 61% of teachers want students spending less time on devices.

So if your child is working on multiplication facts, it is fair to wonder how much practice they really need, and whether any of it belongs on a screen.

I am a former math teacher and principal, and my wife Salwa and I have spent years helping kids learn their facts. The research on practice time is clearer than you might expect. Short practice works. You do not need an hour. For most kids, ten focused minutes a day is enough.

What the research says about practice time

Researchers who study fact fluency recommend practice that is short and frequent, about 2 to 10 minutes at a time, several times a week. They also suggest working on only 3 or 4 new facts at a time until those come quickly.

One researcher who pulled together the studies on timed math practice found that most of them used 5 minutes a day or less. That is a small slice of the day, and it still moved kids forward.

A 2025 research review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest adds two points every parent should know.

• Speed comes after accuracy. Timed practice helps, but only once a child is getting those facts right.
• Facts are connected. Kids should practice pulling facts from memory and also see how facts relate. Knowing that 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 are the same fact is a big reason we say there are only 36 facts to learn.

Not all screen time is the same

The OECD, the group behind the PISA international test, looked at how 15-year-olds use devices at school. Students who used devices for learning up to an hour a day scored higher in math than students who used none. Students who spent more than an hour a day on devices for fun at school scored lower.

That is a link, not proof. Still, it points the same direction as the practice research. Ten minutes of focused facts practice with a clear stopping point is a very different thing from an hour of videos.

A 10-minute routine you can start tonight

Set a timer and try this four or five days a week. The same time each day works best, like right after snack.

1. Minutes 1 to 2: Talk through one fact family. Pick one new fact and its partners, like 7 × 8, 8 × 7, 56 ÷ 8, and 56 ÷ 7. Ask your child how they could figure it out if they forgot.
2. Minutes 3 to 7: Practice saying or typing answers. Mix the new fact in with a few they already know. Go for correct answers first. Once they get almost all of them right, add a speed challenge.
3. Minutes 8 and 9: Redo the misses. Every fact they missed comes back one more time before you finish.
4. Minute 10: Stop and celebrate. Mark the day on a chart. Ending on time, while it still feels doable, makes tomorrow easier to start.

A few simple things make the routine easier.

• A visual timer, so younger kids can see exactly when they are done. Shop visual timers on Amazon
• A small dry erase board, for writing out the fact family together. Shop dry erase boards on Amazon

Add new facts in a planned order, a few at a time. Our order is hardest first. We start at the summit with the facts kids avoid most, then work down the mountain.

What to look for in a math facts app

If you do use an app, run it through this quick checklist.

• Your child types or says the answer. Kids need to practice producing facts, not just recognizing them. Picking from four choices is easier than pulling the answer from memory.
• Missed facts come back. A fact your child misses should show up again soon.
• Facts are connected. The app should show that 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 match, and tie division back to multiplication.
• Sessions end. Look for a clear finish line, not an endless loop of rewards.
• No ads.
• You can see progress. A parent view tells you which facts are solid and which still need work.
• It actually gets opened. In one study of Khan Academy across 99 school districts, only 4.7% of students used it the way it was designed. A routine matters more than the tool.

Screen-free works too

You do not need an app for any of this. Flash cards, a dry erase board, and a timer cover the whole routine. If your child already gets plenty of screen time, paper is a great choice.

Ten minutes, most days, with a clear stopping point. That is the whole plan.