Keri, I MUST see a pic of her stuffed hen. It's getting famous now

Thank you for the link to the books! I cannot get Mathstart here in my country though I desperately want it! I'm constantly looking for a children's book that my daughter will read on her own that teaches math. Thanks again!

wow nadia0801, thats amazing for your 3yo kid to be able to remember the multiplication! Congrats
Has she already understand the concept of multiplication? How do you teach her so that she understand what does 3x2 means?

By the way, where to view the videos of the silly stories you mentioned? Need to buy it?

Thanks.

Sorry for the late reply!

I supplement with the soroban to teach her addition. For example 2x3, I told her to put "2" three times and read the value after.  She does know the concept of multiplication even before we started to memorize facts.  She maily got the concept from our conversation like "I love you once, twice, three-times more, I love you 10-times more, etc."

Happy birthday Ella! More blessings to you!

Do you have the Singapore 3A already? We have the books+workbooks. I'll send it tru e-mail as a birthday present

We have started with it and found it to have just enough challenge. For sure she'll fly through it (again). It's amazing she can work through workbooks alone at her age! That's a rare gift!

How about some math game software? I've been looking for a good quality game software as Cammie likes to play, play, play all day. Even at soroban lessons, there have to be some kind of a game or story involved. If there isn't, she'll invent and incorporate silly stories into our lessons. Sometimes, I get carried away with the stories and barely get through the lesson itself!

Mine is “Mischievous” and tries to snow the snowman. 

Hahaha! My daughter is also so mischievous

Hi Manda! We didn't plan to have it memorized so fast but when I saw that she's taking the stories so well, I just continued on and on You see, my daughter is very mischievous and she'll just light up to anything with humor. She wanted to know what happened when the "hive" (5) put on the "skates" ( 8 ) and if the "sign" (9) does the same thing when it is it's turn to put on "skates" (9x8). It is like narrating a very long silly story to her.  I supplement with dialogues between the characters (complete with different voices  ) and I guess that reinforced the facts even more. We reviewed the facts learned the previous day before starting with new facts. We've talked about the stories during bath time, potty time, and even before bedtime. Now that I think of it, we studied almost all day for three days but only because she's enjoying so much. I have to admit that it is the most intensive thing we've done so far as EL goes.

You can find the videos (not really moving pictures but just the image with narration) when you click a fact on the Fact Navigator chart.

You said there are coloring activities in the book? We would love to do that! Thanks for the info.

Here's a pic right after we're done. It became a surprise gift for her father's birthday

Hi Nee! Sorry I couldn't be of any help regarding the books. We skipped that and went straight ahead with the flashcards. In the website, there are individual videos of the "stories" for each multiplication fact. We watched those too.

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share how happy we are with the method from www.multiplication.com. The mnemonics are really memorable and very effective. My three-year-old mastered everything in 3-days! I wouldn't have thought it possible to learn it that fast since I myself had it memorized when I was already 9-years old  First we started with 5 "stories" at breakfast then several more again at lunch, and dinner. Before we knew it, we were done on Day 3 (May 17), exactly before her Dad's birthday so it became sort of a surprise present for him . The stories are silly and often humorous so it really stuck on us. One thing though, I had trouble remembering a couple or more but Cammie didn't. I guess it pays to learn it while one is still right-brain dominant.

The downloadable flashcards are just $.99 and is ready in jiffy, no waiting for it in the mail. This is a huge convenience for us as we live in the Philippines. I can't thank this site enough! Now were ready to begin soroban multiplication. Yay!

Here's Cherlyn's blog link.

http://cherlynleezhiying.blogspot.com

As for adults learning anzan, I believe it is possible though it is much more difficult as we have to unlearn many things. A couple of teachers in my LO's school have achieved anzan without early learning. That is, of course, not without rigorous practice. 

I have read from Cherlyn's blog that she studied abacus for just ONE year (May 2009 - May 2010) when she reached Dan Level-6, which is one of the highest level for CMA Mental Arithmetic (her soroban school). As far as I gathered, she usually studies on her own initiative but her parents helps her for two hours a day in her coursework.

Cherlyn was 4-years 11-months old when she first enrolled. In the video, she's 5-years and 11-months old. So I guess for this age-group, two hours a day of practice is more than a safe bet. But we have to consider that Cherlyn has a very strong initiative to learn. I believe that and her parent's dedication are what made her achieve this extraordinary feat.

I would definitely not If I would have to do EL all over again, developing the right-brain would be my number one priority. We have played TW since DD was four months old up to now (3.5 yo).  Right-brain activities, not limited to TW, are very beneficial for a lot of things - stronger memory, speed-reading skills, mental imaging, etc. Reading Pamela's manual is a great start in understanding the ways to improve right-brain function. I was a skeptic about this before because it all seems too fantastic but Pamela's explanation made me an enthusiast.

Also, aside from TW, there are interactive right-brain games that you might like Memory Magic. Here's my 3-yo enjoying the Silly Story game.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ziqqtPMVyqQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ziqqtPMVyqQ&rel=1</a>

Hi Tombliboo! It's encouraging to see more people taking interest in Soroban/Anzan. It is so unheard-of here in my country that the first thing that comes to people's mind when they hear abacus is the colorful "toy" they can buy at the store. Imagine our friends' expression when I tell them Cammie is studying how to use the abacus.

I agree that practice is the best way to learn anzan. Getting to that stage is almost dependent on how much you practice. This is not per our experience but as to what experts refer to as "mechanization". I'll quote the book I've read "The idea is to minimize mental work as much as possible and to perform the physical task of manipulating the beads mechanically, without thought or hesitation. In a sense to develop a process of thoughtlessness."

We practice a total of around 30-minutes a day. This includes flashing soroban quantities, practicing addition and subtraction, writing numbers, matching games, etc. I would like to squeeze-in more practice but since I am busy with my new baby and the house chores, that's all the time we have. 

Reply sent

Thank you Mandabplus3, I'll make sure Cammie reads it She's at our province right now for a week-long vacation.

Yes I really like the school, they are very accommodating re schedule, preferences, and the student's growth that's why we're going the extra mile just to attend. Our fare back and forth is twice more expensive than their tuition fee!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and input! It lifts our spirits! Cammie read all your posts with a big big smile

@ Jones
It is a thrill to hear from you! Yes she's manipulating the beads of the abacus in head. We find the soroban surprisingly simple that's why Cammie was able to grasp the concepts quickly. The real work though is to master it and be able to visualize multiple digits. We started learning less than a month ago and 4-sessions of formal schooling and has lots lots more to go through. Thank you for your advice regarding counting forward and backwards! Also, we're excited to try the digitized versions of your Math Matrix! This would save much on shipping, which is a beast because we live so far away from USA. Thank you for that!

@ aangeles
Cammie misses Ella in their school! She is always looking for her there. We're so excited to start FSE! But you're right, adding & subtracting on several rods of the abacus sure is confusing so practice, practice, and lots of practice is what we need. Wow, you and Ella have gone through a lot and is doing great! Is Teacher Lira the only one teaching Ella at school?

@ Mandabplus3
I think I can only partly contribute Cammie's visualization skills through right-brain training because we don't do much. I say twice a week of Memory Magic (around 10-min each session) and Tweedlewink most of the days is all we're doing. I haven't started using mandalas or stereographs? or the Wink program. She pretty much spends 90% of her waking hours reading books and playing pretend with her toys. At night-time before going to sleep, is the only time we have for me to teach her some abacus. As for your question on joining Anzan class, I talked to her teacher and she said she could do some FSE (visualization with abacus) after mastering "little friends and big friends" (bonds of 5 and 10). Yey!

I think we will stick to traditional Soroban. There must be a good reason why it is so widely used for mental training. I've read that ancient Soroban went through changes, having a 5th earth bead, etc. Ultimately, it was simplified to 1 heaven bead and only 4 earth beads. The trend is simplification for easier visualization. Contrary to this, 3g abacus adds up even more beads. I can see the appeal to young children but isn't the ultimate goal for learning Soroban is to achieve Anzan? Just my 2 cents.