CMA Math - Discussion

[coolit]

Anyone has comments on the AMK CMA branch? Helping my friend to ask.

[abacus_trainer]

Hi smurf,


Can’t say which is better. If 3G didn’t have its advantage, mdm chee wouldn’t have brought in the 3G method. If soroban is no good, cma would have close shop long ago and it would not be the most widely used version of abacus around the world.

In my view, It depends on yr purpose of sending yr child to abacus class. If just for simple calculation, to understand the concept of +,-. 3G is sufficient. For more complex sum, faster mental calculation, soroban is still better. Learning abacus is not only for the child to learn to count but also to let them explore more usage of their left and right brain. When a child do abacus with both hands, he is not only practicing his motor skill but also his left and right hand coordination. This is especially important for young children when their brain is still developing. When the child do mental sums, he is learning to visualize the abacus beads, holding the image in his brain and doing calculation. A active brain means better memory, faster in thinking, more efficient in learning.

Recently I have come across a k1 (next year k2) child who still don’t understand the concept of +,-. So she still don’t even know simple +,- sums. We can’t just leave all the learning, teaching to the school. Really have to be more kiasu to prepare our children inorder not to be left behind in class.

Anyway, I am a Cma trainer and I support our method. Not trying to make a sales speech here.

[bigsnoopy]

Is the 3G method using both hands?

[smurf]

Thanks abacus trainer for the elaboration.:)


i read somewhere that learning abacus is already training both left and right brain (regrdless of 2 hands method, etc). so not sure if that applies to 3G as well.

recently, i read an article, and it mentioned something about learning soroban abacus. it says that people who learn abacus does not know numbers. because whatever numbers the person see, he immediately use (mentally or not) abacus to calculate out the answer. simply out, he is the caculator.

[bigsnoopy]

Really? This is something new… Must research more on this…


@ abacus trainer. . So when or rather at which grade should the kid stop lesson?

[smurf]

such example of why people who learn abacus does not know numbers:


http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/feynman.html

[abacus_trainer]

3G uses both hands too. It’s true regardless the type of abacus. Once you do mental sums, you are using both left and right brain. The human brain is quite complex, using it to control hands movement, left right hand coordination and performing mental sums, it’s probably all under a different department in the brain.


As for the article… A bit too "cheeem" for me. To me, it doesn’t mean that the Japanese man doesn’t know numbers. He just loses out on logic which he didn’t know. I don’t how many of us who has never learn abacus knows this logic.

Extract from the article…
"The number was 1729.03. I happened to know that a cubic foot contains 1728 cubic inches, so the answer is a tiny bit more than 12. The excess, 1.03 is only one part in nearly 2000, and I had learned in calculus that for small fractions, the cube root’s excess is one-third of the number’s excess. So all I had to do is find the fraction 1/1728, and multiply by 4 (divide by 3 and multiply by 12). "

When we are young, we learn to count. But as we grow up, we don’t count anymore. We add up the numbers using logic and by memory or experience (sum that we have done before numerous times in school). We already know the answers, 1+1=2, 7+3=10, 5+5=10. Our children are still at the growing phase and need to learn counting either through abacus or counting fingers.

Just my views… Sorry, I will stop replying from here.

[edener]

Hi, any good recommendation for Toa Payoh? Can some pm me the referral?

[smurf]

thanks abacus_trainer! pls dun stop posting...we are just trying to find out more about the different kinds of abacus and how will it help children...


but i guess if we didnt try out the different methods, we wouldn't know...:)

[Rachel_]

Hi, wish to sign up my boy either at Kovan or Punggol branch. Can anyone recommend me any teachers for these centre and send me your referral for discount. Tks