Mental Math progress!

[aangeles]

So 3.5 year old Ella has been learning soroban (abacus) for the past 2-3 months now. She goes to hour-long lessons twice a week (the abacus lessons are interspersed with much singing, playing, and moving about so I estimate the actual abacus learning to be about 20-25 minutes long only) and practices at home for 15-30 minutes 5 days a week. This morning during our practice session, I was dictating one of the equations for her 14-3+7-5 and I noticed she was not entering the numbers on her abacus. I thought she was not paying attention so I started repeating the question when she blurted out 13! She did this several more times confirming it was not a fluke! She said she was solving the equations on the "abacus in her head." Even though I kinda knew that Ella would learn how to do mental math through the abacus after a certain period of time, and I have seen the videos of kids doing it, it still came as a pleasant shock to find out that she can actually do it!    She still has a long long LONG way to go before finishing the entire curriculum (it goes all the way up to decimals, fractions, square roots, cube roots, etc), but I am so happy that she has learned to do the calculations in her head. I was worried that she would be unable to make the mental jump from using a physical abacus to visualizing one since I can't imagine myself being able to do it, but, once again, she proved me wrong! 

I especially wanted to share this with parents who are also teaching the abacus to their kids because the learning curve is so steep and progress seems so agonizingly slow in the first few months! And I also want to add that I did not know how to use an abacus myself when we started.   

[Mae_Jakob_Ka]

aangeles,

That's wonderful!! It's very inspiring! Ellla is such an intelligent girl!

I hope one day my little boy will be able to do mental Math too! We are working on it. This Math journey is not as rosy as learning to read but I am sure that my son is learning every day. I have strong faith in early learning. I can’t wait for the day when my son surprises me the same way Ella did you!!

Elle

[lois1]

Hi aangeles, which abacus does your daughter use? Is a 13 rod sufficient? Plain or multicoloured beads? I saw a cheap plastic one on ebay but wondered if it would stand up to much use. Thanks, Lois

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I am beyond thrilled for you guys! Learning the abacus is such a wonderful gift that will impact math skills the rest of her life. I am so jealous you guys have a center where you're at, I am trying to decide on an online curriculum now but I know it will be no where near as effective as in person tutoring. We're going to give it a shot tho!

Ella, Kudos to you for doing such a fantastic job with your abacus, we know you must be practicing and trying very hard! 

[dna]

amazing!! she is a gifted child.

may i know what is the name of the centre that u have placed her? thank you!

[PokerDad]

Just another example of the power of learning the abacus.

I've barely practiced with my soroban (maybe an hour or two total) and I can already mentally manipulate the beads in my head for simple stuff (three digit addition and subtraction)... of course I'm a full grown adult that can visualize easily. You'd better believe that I'm absolutely going to introduce the abacus when the time is right... would seem foolish not to. I don't think the abacus gets enough love around here 

The hard part is finding an instructor (or school) that is good. And for that, Google is your friend, I guess.

Seriously though, this is a fantastic report and really puts me at ease that my ideas are sound. Thank you!!!!

Oh, and I plan on taking your idea of the number stamps to be able to start early with the numbers.... awesome. I've learned a ton from reading your experiences, so thanks again!

[queriquita]

Aangeles, how exciting, and thank you for sharing the inspiration with us! Now I'm going to read through all of your past posts to try and figure out what I need to be doing now to be there one day with our kids ;-) *sigh* when will the US get their act together? I have seen some abacus programs starting here, but not near us. Hope is on the horizon, though. Again, congrats for the faith and foresight for being so dedicated and inspiring us all!

[Maquenzie]

I am really inspired by this!  Way to go!

Now, off to research this for us...

[Maquenzie]

Does this look like a good program...

http://www.mathabacus.com/store.html

[Nour El Azkeya]

Ella, you are amazing learner ...!! I'm really inspired...Thank you for sharing.

[DadDude]

Very impressive!  I'm sorry we haven't availed ourselves of all the great techniques out there...

[2010BEBES]

Aangeles, congrats to you and ella. She is really gifted as demostrated. What an inspiration. I was afraid that using the abacus would create a certain dependancy on the physical instrument but as i understood after some time, they start visualizaing it.
Thanks for sharing and keep posting.

[Kimba15]

Congrats aangles. Miss Ella is a true testiment to EL  Now I need to get back on track with my DD.  Who is a battle and a half.

What centre are you at? and would you recommend any other soroban abacus programs?

Kimba.


@ TMT what online program are you looking at?

[luvy luv]

Hey,

Why dont you try abacusmaster.com computer tutorial.. Its very good too..

I'll be starting an abacus center in my house using abacusmaster and I'm very excited.. yipppeee..

@Ella - keep up the good work... thats some good inspiration for all of us.

Regards,
Irene

[aangeles]

Hi aangeles, which abacus does your daughter use? Is a 13 rod sufficient? Plain or multicoloured beads? I saw a cheap plastic one on ebay but wondered if it would stand up to much use. Thanks, Lois

Ella uses a 7-rod multicolored plastic abacus for beginners given by the school (see attached pic 1). When she graduates to the next level (probably in a month or so), she will be given a 13-rod plain one (pic 2) which she calls "the big girl abacus" and which she can't wait to use! 

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