All About Abacus Training

[MdmKS]

My child is already P3. Is it too late to learn Abacus ? or no point? why?

[adafew]

greatly appreciate if someone can give the pros and cons with two hands (CMA) method and one hand method?


I only 'read' in this forum two hands methond is relatively new (sometime in 2007 or 8?) but 'better'?

Thanks in advance for kind soul to analyse. :lol:

[shaynamommy]

Understand that abacus covers basic mathematical operations like addition and subtraction. Can someone enlighten me as to whether they can be used to solve multiplication, division, fractions, decimals as well? I saw that some parents indicated that they would stop Abacus when the child is in P1 but I know that many of us would still let our kid continue with Kumon up to P6 or secondary school (even if it is not in sync with MOE syllabue)


Just wondering if it is because Abacus only teaches the basic maths operations like addn and subtraction and as such, there is nothing to learn beyond these?

[Striker09]

Abacus can also use for multiplication & division.


In fact, my students from Pr1 already know Time tables from 1 to 12.
Abacus help them in more understanding.

[phantom]

MdmKS:

My child is already P3. Is it too late to learn Abacus ? or no point? why?

P3 still can learn abacus, never too late. I am learning myself, along with my kid, so that I can teach him.

In fact, I think it is always good to be able to do mental arithmetic. Sometime I do feel handicapped when I need to press the calculator when doing simple math, even though we have studied so much :oops:

[phantom]

adafew:

greatly appreciate if someone can give the pros and cons with two hands (CMA) method and one hand method?


I only 'read' in this forum two hands methond is relatively new (sometime in 2007 or 8?) but 'better'?

Thanks in advance for kind soul to analyse. :lol:

One theory is that by using 2 hand, you get the following benefit:
1. Train both side of your brain
2. Do abacus faster
3. Once you can do 2 hand abacus in your mind, your imaging power will get better.

[snowz]

Mental Arithmetics can be used for solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, division as well as decimals. My 2 dds have completed the full course (2 hands method) and have gone for a few competitions. I found that Mental Arithmetics is extremely useful. Abacus calculation is different from mental calculation. A child who is able to do abacus calculation does not mean that he/she can do mental calculation. Actually my dds found it very easy to learn multiplication timetable using abacus at the initial stage. Just to share my experience.

[Poonie]

Hi snowz

Care to share where did your kids learn Mental Maths? ‘Mental Maths’ - does it mean that they was no abacus used?

[snowz]

…

[Poonie]

snowz

You said they started with with abacus and progressed to mental calculation? May I clarify if mental calculation requires the use of paper abacus or imaginary abacus? I am abit confused.

My kids have been learning for 1 year and has jsut stopped at division. However I have not seen speed in them. Can you consider teaching my kids? Will pm you.