Hi I came across this CMA… and would like to hear from those who had experience or know about this course.
I have also worries that the kids get mixed up with the counting methods in school in a later part since this is different way of doing counting from school?
Is it good to start at 3.5yo?
Thanks in advance…
Maybe I should ask in general, if the kids master the skills of abacus, will they be confused when they attend school in the later part since the abacus and the school teaching of mathematics is different?
Here’s utube on CMA Abacus
Hi BabyMum,
There are actually quite a few BK parents teaching their children Soroban (Japanese-style abacus like at CMA Abacus), including myself. There are quite a few good threads, so if you search for ‘Soroban’ you will find several. I am including some of the more recent below to get you started:)
As far as whether or not it will confuse the child: Soroban, and Anzan, are really impressive for calculations and really enhances any other math program the child will learn in school. I think that most parents tend to
Pair Soroban with another, more encompassing math program (quite often Singapore Maths).
http://forum.brillkids.com/product-discussions-and-reviews/overall-abacus-programs-math-discussion/
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/xmas-idea-and-question-regarding-soroban/
If you happen to live near a CMA school, or other Soroban schools, I highly recommend you arrange to take a tour!
Hi babymum, we don’t have CMA in our country but we do have a abacus school that Cammie attends to irregularly (we attended about 20 sessions the whole year). There are major differences between the two such as CMA uses two hands while SIP uses one-handed operation. In terms of ansan practice, I am very impressed with CMA because I haven’t seen such speed in our school in the same age-group on your video.
To answer you question, yes soroban will tend to confuse a child IF he has a weak math foundation. The initial trouble we had when transitioning from soroban to Singapore Math is the order of which numbers to add/subtract first. Other than that, it is very similar because of the use of Singapore’s grouping by ten method and soroban’s bonds of 10.
Honestly, I think soroban could be a great stand-alone math instruction for the basic operations provided that each finger movement is explained and totally understood by the student first. For example, we “shoot-up 7” when adding 7 to 6 because the formula is for adding 7 is -3,+10. Shooting up 7 (moving heaven bead 5 and 2 earth-beads upwards) means lessing 5 while adding 2, which is actually lessing 3. Sorry if this is vague! 
Cammie is not receiving mental math instruction yet at SIP but it’s a different story at home. I make her solve every question in her school books in ansan (mental math). Regarding her speed, I would say not bad because on her best mood, she is at par with Xavier (brother of Cherlyn Lee, one of the girls on your video) who also attends CMA. So it’s not about the school but as all things EL, about practice.
CMA is just great. You can find smiles on the faces of children after attending the session of this learning center. I strongly believe it is this loving, caring and passionate team of teachers who have been critical to the success of CMA.
I live in Canada and I don’t think we have CMA. We do have UCMAS locations closed to home. My son has gone to 2 classes and already starting doing simple math in his head. Well, the problems arent complicated as he’s just started. :biggrin:
I LOVE abacus and am really happy with my son’s progress.
If you are lucky enough to live near an abacus school, I highly recommend enrolling your child! As soon as we move this summer to a place where there is an abacus school near by, the kids will be enrolled in classes. When we were in Chicago visiting for 3-4 months or so, I enrolled my daughter and it was money well spent. It was expensive and we had to drive 45 minutes each way once a week, there and back, but I do not regret it in the slightest.
Hi, wow that truly is amazing I tried to buy the soroban abacus , but it doesnt look like they you can buy it in any of our stores or online.I’m from South Africa.Any advice as to where I can buy this abacus?
Have a look at www.cmaths.co.za (They were semas.co.za until very recently). They offer classes in South Africa. As far as I know, you can’t order the abacus from them unless you sign up for the classes. Mini Soroban starts off with a little ababus that counts up to 10. (Single line).
How old is your little one KS3579?