The 3 times table is 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36.
The 3s are the first table that does not follow an obvious "ends in" pattern the way the 2s, 5s and 10s do. That is why many children who flew through the 2s suddenly slow down here. The answers still have a rhythm, though, and once your child hears it, the 3s become one of the friendlier tables. Below are the tricks that work best, the facts that trip kids up most often, and simple ways to practice at home in a few minutes a day.
Play: the 3 times table
Take any answer in the 3s and add its digits: 12 gives 1 + 2 = 3, 15 gives 6, 18 gives 9, 21 gives 3 again, and so on all the way to 36. The pattern 3, 6, 9 repeats forever. It is a great self-check: if your child says 3 × 8 = 25, the digits add to 7, so something is off. (The true answer, 24, adds to 6.)
Three groups is two groups plus one more. For 3 × 7, double 7 to get 14, then add another 7 to get 21. This turns a fact your child does not know yet into two steps they already can do, which feels much less scary than guessing.
Clap on every third number while counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… After a few rounds, say only the clapped numbers: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15. Children who learn rhythmically often lock the 3s in this way faster than with flash cards alone.
Your child already knows 3 × 1, 3 × 2, 3 × 5 and 3 × 10 from other tables. Flip-around facts help too: 3 × 2 is the same as 2 × 3. That leaves only a handful of genuinely new facts to practice, mainly 3 × 7, 3 × 8 and 3 × 12.
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It is 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, the answers to 3 × 1 through 3 × 12.
Add the digits of any answer and you always get 3, 6 or 9. Another reliable trick: double the number, then add it once more (3 × 7 = 14 + 7 = 21).
The last digits do not repeat in a short cycle, so children cannot rely on an "ends in" rule. Skip counting and the digit-sum check fill that gap.
3 × 8 = 24. A quick way: double 8 is 16, plus another 8 is 24.
In US schools, multiplication facts are usually taught in 2nd and 3rd grade. The Common Core standard 3.OA.C.7 expects children to know all products of two one-digit numbers from memory by the end of 3rd grade.
It varies a lot from child to child. Short daily practice, a few minutes at a time, usually works better than a single long session per week.