We all know that Mathematics is a subject which opens the door of endless possibilities w.r.t professional career. Maths builds the underlying foundation of logic building, problem solving, and critical thinking. Hence as parents, it is necessary to ensure that our kids give the right focus to Maths, from an early age.
Young kids are fearless, energetic and much more adaptive to learn new things. Taking simple examples from our day to day lives, like cycling or driving or learning to swim, children learn these activities much faster as compared to adults. Maybe two or three times faster, if not more. For the same reason, the sooner the child starts learning Abacus, the more effective the results will be.
Both speed and accuracy are the two most important factors that determine the level of strength anyone has in Maths. And practicing mental arithmetic tremendously boosts both these aspects. Today we will focus on these two aspects and what specific measures we can take to improve these further.
When it comes to developing speed and accuracy in Maths, strong mental arithmetic skills hold the key. Interestingly if you really think about it, speed and accuracy help in stronger mental maths, and strong mental maths further improves speed and accuracy continuously. So both compliment each other beautifully.
If a child only knows the traditional Maths technique, he will always be dependent on pen and paper for even the basic calculations and thus always consume more time. On the other side, a child who is strong in mental arithmetic math can do even the complex arithmetic calculations in his mind, thus saving precious time in exams and competitions. Remember that in any exam, even a single minute saved can be used to revise the other questions and is a great advantage to have.
While there is no doubt that school Maths focuses on building the core concepts and is absolutely necessary, let us also accept the fact that it is not alone enough to excel in Maths. In today’s world of fierce competition, we need to be innovative and make extra efforts to stand out and shine in every field, including Maths.
Depending on the age group of children, Abacus classes (5-15 years) and Vedic Maths classes (11+ years) are the multi centuries old proven techniques that give amazing results when it comes to speed and accuracy in Maths.
Both these Maths techniques further improves the Mental Math skills, which means that a child is trained to do most of the logic as well as calculations in his mind quickly, thus allowing him to solve a question much faster than his peers. In today’s blog, we are going to focus more on Abacus training specifically and how it helps boost speed and accuracy. Do visit our blog section for insights into how Vedic Maths gives magical results as compared to Traditional Maths.
There is no alternative to actual practice when it comes to gaining fluency and confidence. Whether it’s a sportsman or a craftsman like a painter, perfection comes with more and more practice. Similarly in the field of Mathematics, there are many competitions available today both at national and international levels. You must encourage your child to participate in these competitions from an early age. In doing so, both you and the child will gain more confidence.
Do not worry about the results. Participation is more important and as time passes, key skills like time management, how to handle pressure, and strategic problem solving will keep on improving. In one to two years you will see tremendous benefits in your child in all these areas. And one is never late to start participating, children as early as 5 or as late as 15 years can start. But of course, remember the thumb rule. Sooner the better.
Abacus, or Mental Abacus is a technique to solve arithmetic questions by using the mental math magic. Let’s understand how.
Initially the child learns the Abacus rules by doing beads movement on a physical Abacus tool. He learns to do the hand movement, understand the basic Abacus rules and practice them to gain fluency under the guidance of an Abacus trainer. A physical Abacus tool looks like this:
Gradually the child is taught to leave the tool and form an imaginary picture of the tool in his mind. For every step of the question, the child changes beads position in the imaginary tool and refreshes the earlier picture of the tool with the new one. This process is called Visualization or Invisible Abacus, and is the backbone of Abacus methodology. This process is not easy and needs a lot of patience, practice and focus to master. Very few parents know that Visualization technique leads to the tremendous brain development of the child, and this is the biggest hidden benefit of Abacus training.
Remember that Abacus is the world’s oldest calculator in simple words, and it does not depend on any digital technology of modern science. An Abacus trained kid can do even the most complex calculations just in his mind (using his fingertips) and this phenomenon of Mental Arithmetic Math sounds unbelievable to people unless they see it from their naked eye. It indeed is so amazing. Watch the demo clips of some of our students here, and we are proud to say that you will even see our 5 year old students doing these amazing calculations with so much ease, simply via mental math and Abacus. Just imagine the confidence it brings into those kids
Abacus is definitely useful for any age group, however practically speaking kids over and above 15 years of age do not take active interest in learning Abacus.
The reason is simple. Abacus math technique is like learning a new language to do arithmetic calculations, and irrespective of age the child must start from the very beginning, which is the addition and subtraction of single digit numbers. This lack of interest in kids of 15+ years is very much understandable since those kids are already learning advanced Math topics (like algebra or geometry) in their school curriculum and hence they are not interested in going back to the very basics. Due to lack of interest, the results are not effective and hence the dropout ratio of kids in this age group is quite high, as much as 90%
For the above reason, we typically recommend Abacus Mental Maths to parents when the kid is in the 5-15 years of age group.
For kids older than 15 years, there are equally effective alternate options available and if you choose the course wisely (as per the age and need of the child), you will surely get wonderful results in minimum time. Let us briefly talk about some of these great alternates of Abacus for kids:
Vedic Maths is also an age old proven technique and is based on mental Math skills. It provides interesting shortcuts to solve arithmetic questions and helps boost the speed up to 5x as compared to regular traditional ways of teaching.
Once the initial tricks are learnt, if the child is interested, he can continue the deep dive into the interesting world of Vedic Maths. You can even solve complex topics like Geometry and Calculus using Vedic Maths. The possibilities are endless.
Participation in Olympiads (whether state or national or international level) is the very effective means to elevate the level of your child w.r.t. problem solving, time management and critical thinking. And in Maths Olympiads, a child will have a definite edge over his peers if he is strong in mental math techniques.
As we close this article, our advice to all parents will be to NOT rush in making a decision to enroll or not enroll into Abacus Mental Math program. Rather reach out to a professional counsellor or contact our team here for any further queries on this topic or any topic related to Maths. We excel in providing training for all Maths programs and are proud to claim that while we are a small family it’s a happy and growing family. Our aim is to spread the love of Maths by making the teaching methodology interesting and fun filled.
Tanmay Gupta, a specialist in mathematics, possesses a deep passion for the subject. He has been involved with Mathcruise since its inception and takes pride in being a part of the growing Mathcruise family. Tanmay excels in both Abacus and Vedic Mathematics and is particularly interested in developing innovative methods to effectively engage with children, aiming to eliminate their fear of mathematics.
We aim to remove fear and phobia of Maths from the minds of children in the 5 – 15 yrs age group, by using fun-filled learning techniques such as Abacus, Vedic Maths, School Maths.
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