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3rd grade, some in 4th super important skill!!

It's 2nd and 3rd in WA, too, but you wouldn't always know it from my 5th graders...

@mrbee: The problem is that kids learn them to pass a quick test, but then are never required to review them to full mastery. So they lose their speed and fluency. A lot of 3rd grade teachers where I live were happy just to get them to pass the tests, but it took a LOT of work in 4th grade to get them to real fluency (being able to do them quickly, without counting on fingers or thinking for too long). My rule was 100% accuracy on a mixed test of 100 problems in 5 minutes. The kids who really knew them well could do it in 3-4 minutes.

ETA: as a middle school math tutor, it is the #1 reason students in middle school struggle. Everything requires them to have a working fluency with these facts. Fractions. Long division. Proportions. Algebra. And when you throw in word problems, kids who don't have the fluency with the basic facts get so caught up with trying to figure out the arithmetic that they can't focus on what the problem is asking them. That, for many kids, is why they hate word problems. Their brain can only process so much. It's like trying to read a chapter book before you learn sight words.

When I taught 2nd grade, we introduced multiplication, but they weren't required to memorize the tables, just know what it meant.

@Anagram: With Common Core it is still required for kids to memorize the facts. The "new math" just comes before hand, so that by the time they memorize them they have a more firm understanding of what exactly they are memorizing.

ETA: I wanted to double check if what I told you was right (I only taught common core for one year....

I found this in the third grade standards.

CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.C.7
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

Oh the memories this thread brings back. I had a lot of trouble with times tables out of sequence, like if you asked me to recite the table, no problem. Just randomly 7 times 3? I had to do a lot of drills.

I am curious how it will play out when my son is in school, I don't want him to have the same issues I did.

I don't have a clear recollection of when I did it in school but I remember my parents and grandparents teaching me multiplication the summer between 1st and 2nd grade. They made this whole summer long game out of it.