Thanks for the tag
@Lane, cool theme.
When I was in year 4 of primary school (around 8 years old) I had a maths class where the teacher was asking pupils times table question. I hated maths and I hated that teacher even more, she was pretty mean. So many others had been asked so I knew my time was coming. I quickly did some calculations in my head hoping she'd ask an easy one like 7x3 or 7x4. Hell no, she asked me 8x8. Of course I couldn't answer and she had a go at me and said I should know it by now.
That moment really got to me and I felt quite bad about it so I went home, dug out a times table booklet (only went up to 12) and found that 8x8 = 64. I found it interesting and started to revise my times tables up to 12. It was a lot easier to learn than I thought and the best part was I enjoyed it so much. It wasn't long before I could do my times table all the way up to 12.
We would play a times table game in class every 3-6 months (different teacher). 1 pupil is standing whilst the others are sat in their chair. The way it works is you stand behind a pupil who is sat and the teacher asks you both a times table question. You say the answer faster than the person who is sitting and you get to carry on standing and move on to the next pupil. But if they win you take their seat and they get to stand in your place. The next time we did this I managed to clear the whole classroom which was just under 30 pupils. It was a proud moment for me and I thank that teacher for starting my love of numbers. Even after all these years, my favourite times table is 8x8 and 64 is probably my favourite number.