I have been struggling with teaching math and numbers to Kyle, he counts and recognise 2digit numbers, and quantity wise he just counts them all! I have started teaching him simple addition when I remembered of this Abacus based math centre, and found out they allow from 4-12yrs. Kyle is still not 3 n half but I thought I will give them a call and check up and he got enrolled…
I went to the introduction meeting where they demonstrated using students from different levels. A first grader, almost 7yrs in age did 20 rows of addition of 1digit numbers without even seeing the numbers, like the parents called out numbers which a facilitator wrote on a board behind the little boy and after having 20 numbers the boy was read the numbers and he was giving it in less than 1min!!! quite impressive, ain’t it? and then a 5th grader was put on and he was given numbers from 2digits to 3digits and even mixed and he was giving perfect answer except for once which we can all agree can definitely be nervousness acting up!
Anyways I would recommend for all those mothers of toddlers to find one around ur area as this is internationally run program initially of course begun from the chines abacus.
And once the child is enrolled as per course materials each student gets an abacus (something I have been looking for almost 3months now!) so now Kyle got his own abacus and we can start learning!
BUT one huge problem though!!! I have been trying to feed his brain the quantities rather than names and now 5 is represented by one bead on the abacus and I have noooo idea how to get this to him! when I started explaining his said mom this is one not five!!!
Is it a class you go to or a program at home? Let us know how it goes. My daughter is about the same age as you son, her birthday is in august. I am working on quantities and doman math method with her but she doesn’t seem interested. I’m hoping to find another way to get her interested in math.
Its a class I have to take him to. for an hour per day,you can even get them in weekend classes too meaning u have to take kids only during weekends…
will keep u updated on his progress… i donit think they taught them anything yesterday (his first class!) probably assessed all the kids… I still wonder how they could teach a 3yr old one bead is FIVE"!!!
Thanks for the info. I just checked and they don’t have any centres in my province of Canada…but I thought I’d tell you all about a classroom/homeschool curriculum that I’ve recently stumbled upon called The Right Start. It uses an altered abacus. I’m seriously interested in using this at home with my son. If you google them you’ll find a lot of info about how they use their abacus.
I did find that sight while searching on learning how to use an abacus. I am still at loss when it comes to numbers like 30… may be my son can teach me after some classes! :biggrin:
Yep. That’s the company I was referring to. I bought a huge abacus at a garage sale last year (almost 3 feet x 3 feet). I took it apart, bought longer dowels, and am in the process of repainting the beads like the alabacus. I’m thinking of buying the above handbook.
Somewhere in my readings, it discussed the benefit of counting as the Japanese (?? sorry forgot if it was Japan or China)…anyway, they say 16 as “one ten six”, 34 as “three ten four” etc. They suggested introducing quantity counting the same way and after about 3-6 months switching back to the english way (“sixteen”, “thirtyfour”). They cited so much evidence on how the children’s number sense was better than ours in North America. I’ll see if I can find an online version of the paper copy I read.
I’m extremely interested in the UCMAS program, Kyles Mom. Please post an update when you have the time. I’m requesting a center near me in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m looking to get together with a few mothers/parents and drum up an audiovisual course so we learning facilitators can introduce the abacus at home in the meantime.
In the meantime, I’m looking into the NurtureMinds.com course. They do not teach abacus manipulation the most efficient way (3 fingers on dominant hand, vs. UCMAS 2 fingers on 2 hands), but it seems like a good start if I ignore that part. I’ve already received the 1st and 2nd year books and the abacus. I also don’t agree with the video they posted on Youtube about the instructor hitting the kids in order to teach them. Yikes. Until UCMAS comes our way, we’ll have to take the best and leave the rest, as far as math calculation goes.
kizudo, I’m interested to know more about the counting reference. Please share it when you have time.
Also, this is noteworthy among my abacus research: If you have a child prone to epilepsy, research reflex epilepsy related to abacus use; it’s like writing epilepsy.
Oh, and as far as counting and reckoning numbers goes, students of mental math look at it as a separate subject than regular math. Mental math is more about brain development, spilling over into other areas of life, whereas other more popular forms of mathematics is specific to that subject. It’s like geometry and calculus; they’re both maths, but different types.
Thanks for reviving this thread…I see that I haven’t made much progress in my abacus overhaul! It’s still in pieces in the same bag it was on May 3rd! How time flies with a toddler in the house!
About that article… I forgot to look it up but if I can’t find it by tomorrow I can see if my husband will scan it at work and email you with it.
Also…I haven’t heard of writing epilepsy…were you thinking “dyslexia”?
