Primary one Prep Class - Maths

[mummy of 2]

Any one can advise where to get this book?

Champion:

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Hi Parents,
:imsorry: for intruding into this thread...

Got a hand on the above book which a friend loan to me for reading. Find that it is a good guide book for those who want to know for about Primary School's Maths .

For me, I was like cos my DD1 already in P3, DD1 going to P1 next year and there are many terms I am still unfamiliar with for according to my friend, should have known by P3 and the rest by P4, P5 & P6.

[laughingcat]

mummy of 2:

Any one can advise where to get this book?

some branches of popular bookstore. Not at bras besah though

[mummy of 2]

Thanks for the info. Strange that the largest Popular outlet doesn't stock the book :?

laughingcat:

mummy of 2:

Any one can advise where to get this book?

some branches of popular bookstore. Not at bras besah though

[Pen88n]

laughingcat:

IMO the abacus is not really useful for Pri schoolers, the use of abacus is more relevant to right/left brain training. My niece's abacus ability is very good as she has advanced to mental calculation (meaning able to do calculation without the the use of abacus) and has even participated in 3 abacus competitions. In her primary schooling years (this year is Pri 3), I have not really seen her using abacus to its full use. In fact, nowadays Maths is all about modelling.

Laugingcat,
I have a different opinion with regards to relevance of abacus.

I find that abacus is just another tool for building the basic maths foundation for kids. Learning abacus when young has build a strong foundation for both my kids for the basic computation +-x/, much more sensitive to numbers and not fearing large numbers (to them 1356 is just another number like 12 - no difference). This has enabled them to progress to primary school maths with much ease, and grasp on to and linking maths concepts more easily (as they already have the basic foundation). Primary school maths is more than computation, no doubt, but with the basic computation foundation in-placed, it is easier for the kids. I know kids in P6 who are still using mental arithmetic (without the abacus but mentally) to check their answers in test (note: calculator is not allowed for certain paper).

I am not advocating abacus as the only tool to build the foundation. As long as parents can use any other method (Montessori, Kumon, etc. I\"m not sure as I have not tried these) to build up the strong basic foundation, it will be beneficial to the kids in long term.

[laughingcat]

Hi Pen88n, perhaps it is so. Like what you have mentioned, using the abacus (mental arithmetic) as a form of checking the answer. I agreed with you that abacus is good in some sense provided there are continuous practice. If one stop practising it and especially there are loads of formula, then the use abacus might actually goes to waste. Some kids may even confuse with the different formulas (standard formula vs the abacus). So for parents who has introduced abacus to the children, my suggestion is do it all the way even all the way to Primary School.


However in my niece’s case, she used to do that but there was an error within the workings and hence was marked wrong despite the answer was correct. In this scenario, she was freaked out and was rather upset by it. Because she has vested quite a lot of effort and time doing the workings and mental calculation together. In the end not much time to do the checkings. She came home crying to me telling me that she will not do abacus anymore in her test coz she has no time to do the checkings. I leave it to her to decide then.

To me, no need to fear on doing large number, as long as the child is able to see patterns, for instance 1356 = (1360 - 4). In fact, this is kind of workings that my niece’s teacher is advocating this method and she is in NYPS. We have been working on this method for weeks with the 4 basic operants (x / + -) and she feels very much comfortable with it.

[laughingcat]

mummy of 2:

Thanks for the info. Strange that the largest Popular outlet doesn't stock the book :?

laughingcat:

[quote=\"mummy of 2\"]Any one can advise where to get this book?

some branches of popular bookstore. Not at bras besah though

[/quote]I also don't know why? Was told that it was not available during my last visit at Bras Besah on 18 June. Maybe it was sold out or...... You might want to call them up again bah

[phtthp]

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