Apr 2021 New: Abacus Online Exercise and 3 Things You Must Know About Abacus

Children are like molds which we have the responsibility of shaping.

With the right abacus tools and mindset, wonders can be made to happen, but with the wrong tools, even the worst would seem better.

Tools like the soroban and books should be used as stepping stones for a successful future.

There are a number of online exercises that can be used to improve your children's academic understanding of maths. This article explains them in detail.
 

I'm the author of this article and I'm a qualified abacus teacher, answering questions from around the world online abacus and various questions from online-soroban.com students.

Table of contents

The soroban is the perfect tool for any student or children looking to improve themselves.

When we speak of the soroban, most people think of numbers and maths, but in reality, the soroban can help with much more.

In this article, we will discuss how the soroban can help improve more than just the mathematical calculation of the children.

We will also see different and more creative ways to learn the abacus.

Lastly, we will also discuss how your child can benefit if you engage and learn along with them.

Without further ado, let us jump right into it.
 

1-1.Abacus Online Exercise and How to Improve Your Child's Hand Eye Coordination With Them

A great number of people try out the soroban for the first time on their phone or computer.

Now, that is perfectly okay.

It is okay to try it out before spending any real money on an actual soroban but the problem begins when they actually make their virtual soroban the only tool they ever lay hands on.

The reason for this is that the soroban was not designed to be used on a smartphone - it is an ancient technique and is supposed to be a real object, with frames and beads.

Besides helping improve mental calculation and spatial thinking, the abacus also helps exercise fingers and is proven to improve the hand-eye coordination of children.

The only catch is, a real abacus should be used for the best results.

To add or subtract numbers on the soroban, the beads have to be moved.

This improves finger strength and dexterity.

The ability to properly use the fingers and hands is an important skill to have in today’s day and age.

And the soroban is here to the rescue.

Certain exercises, also called drills have proven to exercise the fingers thoroughly, let us take a look at a few of them:

1) 1, 2, and 3 digit number addition: For this drill, any random numbers with one, two, or three digits can be added.

Two key points to note here.

Firstly, the numbers shouldn't be bigger than three digits as then it starts to feel more like a hand exercise than a finger exercise, and secondly, it should not be subtraction.

Subtraction includes a lot of pushing down of the beads while addition requires a lot of pushing up.

Pushing up is better for finger exercising.

2) Repeatedly adding the number 165:

This particular number has a good combination of push-ups and push-downs which ultimately makes it a good exercise for the fingers.

Online Soroban has a series of soroban classes that are created with the ISHIDO-SHIKI, making them the first online platform with a unique abacus syllabus for your little ones.

1-2.Creative Ways to Use Abacus Online Exercise

Regular practice on the soroban can improve hand-eye coordination easily.

Students simply need to pay attention to become better at it.

Here we list a few drills that can help improve hand-eye coordination:

1) Adding numbers 1 to 100: The smaller numbers in the range of 1 and 100 can be a good exercise for improving hand-to-eye coordination.

These smaller numbers can actually prove to be better teachers than the bigger ones!

2) Counting by 5s: The number five seems to have a unique size in the world of the abacus.

Adding by 5s requires accurate finger and hand movement, which will result in improved coordination.

1-3. Learning With Your Child Using Abacus Online Exercise

Learning absolutely doesn’t have to be boring.

In fact, it is a creative process and will very quickly feel like a chore when tried in any other way.

Let us take a look at some creative ways to learn abacus: Abacus puzzles: A number of puzzles and quizzes are available in both online and offline modes.

Such puzzles can only be solved on an abacus. Interested children will find hours of fun and learning at the same time.

Online Soroban games: Tons of games centered around the soroban can be found.

Most of these are in virtual form and can be accessed from any device, and in most cases for free.

Trying out different form factors: We know that sorobans are available in a variety of forms and sizes.

Switching between different form factors is one of the more challenging yet creative tasks.

The techniques mentioned above can be helpful in helping children learn the soroban through creative ways.

As always, feel free to mix and experiment for the perfect activity.

Overall  
A lot of parents and guardians make the grave mistake of treating their children as learners.

This is a wide misconception.

Doing so will only cause the child to feel separate from you and depending on their nature they might become introverted and stop sharing much.

Instead, parents need to treat their children as partners.

This will make the child feel at ease and not alienated.

They will want to share with you many more things.

Arguably, one of the best things you could offer your child would be to learn along with them.

This will create in them a sense of adventure for the learning material and they will not see studies as a dull chore.

Many different options are available for this.

There are educational activities that involve both the parent and child, book reading, discussing maths, and drawing together are some examples.

One key takeaway is that learning should not just be associated with books, but with the world around the children.

This way, they will see the entire world as an open book, which will keep them curious for their entire life.