Teaching mental math

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Kerileanne99:
PokerDad and Cokers,
PokerDad has answered the question just as our experience in class ha shown us. In fact, if you are only giving a problem like 3+2 to solve, I have no doubt the quickest way your child will arrive at the answer is via memorization! You have to give them faster and faster strings of numbers to almost 'bypass' that shortcut learned from memorization. Alex is really quite good at her math facts, is quick...but the strings of numbers involving addition and subtraction MUST be solved in a different manner on the abacus. She has just learned two different ways to do it. There are times where she will attempt to choose one over another and I have to remind her I want her to work a specific way.
For example, we are doing Singapore math as well, and she is trucking right along...but I need her to work her way through the problems in a standard fashion to make sure she has that down too. To develop a full understanding of the math.

And you DO have to have some math fact knowledge to do Soroban. The kids need to be strong in 'big friends' and 'little friends', all the ways of making 5 and 10, and they will use other math facts through 10 a lot.

@Godlovesyou-
      Awwww, you are too kind! Thanks for taking the time to tell me you enjoy my posts! I really need to post an update of what we are up to these days. And maybe some more math posts:)

We did do some initial Soroban work at home before we were able to find a place that would take her. We finally found someone when she was about 3.3. Most classes won't take kids until they are 5 or 6, in our experience. And it was quite an experience to go! Alex was BY FAR the youngest, and although she actually ROCKED the class by being able to answer before many of the kids? It was painfully obvious that she was a distraction to the other kids:(
It was just too much to expect that she would sit perfectly still, do her work without normal kid exuberance (and then some!)
And talk about asynchronous issues! She totally had a fit in the middle because she didn't get a purple pencil like her neighbor!!!
Ah, but I PUT her in an almost impossible situation. We had even driven up the night before and stayed in a hotel so she wouldn't have the drive AND class in the same morning....so, we are now doing the combination of online homework, email and Skype correspondence with the teacher, and an in-house tutor. At least until her maturity catches up a bit! I think she will travel 2x per month soon, and we will see. And interestingly enough, the more she practices Soroban, the greater her focus and concentration on other things. Same with her listening skills a she has learned to listen carefully when the problems are called out.

Tamsyn:
Thank you everyone!  I did know that the ultimate goal is to manipulate an imaginary soroban, but I read somewhere how the soroban paralelled our hands and to take advantage of it, but I couldn't find that article again and it seems that this approach never comes into play at these schools.  Good to know.  Kerileanne, your experience has been most helpful.  Thank you and karma!   :yes:

I came across this site which has been very helpful in giving me a way to move forward.  http://www.sorobancymru.co.uk/index.htmlf
Under the "Anzan" tab on the right, I found a printable that the kids can use to help them manipulate a soroban in their heads (http://www.sorobancymru.co.uk/anzan%20cards.png) and a couple of free, simple software programs to create math problems for the kids to practice.  I'm still taking a stab in the dark as far as figuring out how quickly I should move forward and wondering how many 1-digit numbers they should be able to add before moving on to 2-digit numbers, and/or how much addition before subtraction.  So I'm going to look through the different curricula  available, but I have a better idea of what I'm shopping for now.

The hevacademy that we used was a great introduction to soroban, I think.  It has 33 lessons and teaches how to add, subtract, carry, borrow, internalize the "friends" in relation to 10 and 5 (I like "Big friends" and "little friends", and will start using that term) and use the correct fingering.  It was fairly inexpensive especially if the other things on the website are useful to you.  But it's a very basic introduction.  There are no strings of numbers, and no mixing of operations.  Each exercise focuses on one skill set alone.  I'm glad that I started here, but now we need to move on.  I tried adding 10 four-digit numbers on the abacus yesterday and I got it wrong the first time, so I obviously need more practice too.  I feel like I know where we are headed again, and that's exciting.  Thank you again everyone.  :)

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