Feb 2023 New: Abacus Counting for Children and How It Is Beneficial to Them

Abacus counting is a tool that came with a rich history. Today, many young children are using this tool to learn about maths. Currently, students learning abacus in school are adapting well to difficult math syllabus.

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.

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Maths is one of those subjects that has become all-permeating. It is used in pretty much every branch of academics. Bottom line, one simply can not do properly in the present times without it. But no matter what we do, we find our children unable to handle the load of mathematics. It is either too much or difficult or both. Abacus is that one device that can really help with understanding maths properly. Counting forms the basis of everything in math. We must therefore start from counting itself. What better way to learn to count than by using a device that was literally meant for learning to count? Let us discuss this further.

1-1.Tips and Tricks You Need to Know to Get the Hang of the Process of Abacus Counting

"By design, the abacus is a very simple device. And as expected, it is also immensely easy to learn. Yet, not everyone may find it that easy to learn. Everyone’s brain works differently after all. We can combat this easily with these simple yet effective tips that will help you get the hang of the abacus: - Understand the place value system: This is probably the first thing you should do when beginning to learn abacus. The standard ISHIDO-SHIKI number system forms the basis of the modern abacus. Having a proper understanding of this system will help you learn the abacus faster and more efficiently. - Follow a teacher or textbook: A lot of people who are learning abacus are simply trying to scour through videos and articles online. This is not necessarily the best way to learn the abacus. Like any other discipline, the abacus is best learned in a structured way. That is why we recommend learning under a teacher or by following a textbook. This provides structure to your learning and helps you advance further in a logical manner. - Start with simple sums: A lot of people who are trying to learn abacus do so because they are impressed with the incredibly fast calculations that they have seen other abacus users do. However, they don’t realize that those people spent a long time practicing their art and that they began with simple exercises. Sure if you are feeling adventurous, it might be okay to start with harder problems a few days, but most times, it is not recommended to do so. It is much better to master one level before you move to a different one.

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1-2.How Can Abacus Counting Help You in School?

"Abacus is a multi-purpose tool. Learning it can affect children in a variety of ways. Let us look at some of them here. Learning about these benefits might motivate you to learn the abacus better: - Improved performance in mathematics: This one is a simple no-brainer. Abacus is a mathematical tool, designed to do fast calculations in our heads. It is only natural that learners of abacus will show increased performance in their math tests. Moreover, it is not only the calculator speed but also the conceptual understanding of operations and the number system that sees an improvement. - Better mental visualization: This has been a long known benefit of learning abacus. People who learn abacus have to mentally visualize numbers while calculating and many times, they are forced to do so. Regularly practicing the abacus in this way forces our visual cortex to work harder. The result? We end up with a higher visualization ability than we had before. This is perfect for students looking to enter science fields because visualization is a big demand in those fields. - Confidence in their work: Learning abacus means the child has an extra skill to write in their skill set. This means they gain a certain psychological confidence in everything they do. Peer pressure can be a real thing, even in the early years of schooling. Having a valuable skill like the abacus under their belt gives the children an advantage over their peers which saves them from the problems of excessive peer pressure.

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1-3. Benefits of Learning Abacus Counting Online

"While learning is important, the pandemic might not be the best time to be enrolling in institutes and attending abacus classes. But that doesn’t mean we do not have to learn at all. We can still keep learning the abacus. There are multiple websites and apps and other platforms that allow learning abacus from our home. But what are some direct benefits of learning abacus this way? Let us look at some of them: - Safety from the virus: The coronavirus is really a big scare at this point in time. The adverse effects of the virus are still being discovered to this day. It, therefore, does not make sense to learn abacus in person. Learning it online gives us complete immunity against any virus contact. You could be attending an online class of hundreds of students without any fears of catching an infection. - Flexible schedule: This is another great advantage of learning the abacus online. Offline classes usually have a fixed schedule. Classes start and end at fixed times and if you need to be somewhere else, it would mean sacrificing your learning for that day. Well, learn online and that problem magically disappears. The lectures online are available as recorded videos and can be played at any time that is convenient to you. - Learn at your own pace: It is often seen that students and teachers are not at the same pace. What happens in such a scenario is that the teacher keeps going forward with the syllabus while the student is lagging far behind. This is not a problem with online classes as the lectures are pre-recorded and can be watched as many times as we want.

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Overall  
Abacus is a great tool for improving your overall maths performance. It is easy to learn, shows improvement within a few weeks of learning it, and really helps us in our syllabus. Abacus has multiple other benefits that come in handy later in life such as confidence boost and better discipline. Learning the abacus under a teacher using an online course is considered the best way of learning abacus.