Mar 2021 New: Building up Your Child’s Skills in Calculation With 2 Abacus Tips

In this digital age that we live in, we have had no choice but to adjust with speed to the new way of learning any and everything as it is time for us to take into account that the traditional, whiteboard teaching is something of many rarities.

Learning through online classes was once a thing of the future that has found its way to the present.

Building up your child's math skill with the abacus is easier now with the ISHIDO-SHIKI virtual classes to virtual games.
 

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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Every child goes through a stage in which they have difficulties understanding certain terms or concepts taught to them in class.

One that we can all relate to is the all-around teachings of mathematics.

In the eyes of children, being a maths wiz does not only mean you can go through problem-solving equations with ease but also having the ability to calculate sums with a breeze.

Mastering this skill not only takes time and patience on both you and your child, but it also takes a significant amount of consistency too.
 

1-1.Building up Your Child With Online Games

Flash Anzan (in competition with the Japanese abacus Soroban) is one of the greatest yet hardly heard of ways of learning how to calculate fast.

Known to some as the world's fastest numbers game, it allows for contestants to show off their skills in calculating numbers at an alarming rate.

The difference between this game and the abacus is that no tools are needed but that of a screen, whereas in the use of an abacus, the actual tool itself is a well-renowned object known by many and used not as a game but as an assistant in the learning and calculating of equations.

In Flash Anzan, a series of fifteen numbers are consecutively flashed on a giant screen. In turn, each number flashed on the screen is set up to be between one hundred and nine hundred and ninety-nine.

To win the game, you must add up all the numbers shown on the screen to which you match the correct answer in a record amount of time.

The trick to this game is that in viewing the numbers being flashed, you should have a quick eye.

The numbers are flashed with a speed so fast you can barely see it that when the flashing of numbers is complete your answer is to be given.

The next trick to this game is about the abacus.

When the contestant views the first number, they immediately visualize the number on an imaginary rack placed on the abacus.

In seeing the second number, they too immediately visualize the number on the abacus rack and continue on that path till the flash of numbers is complete.

The funny part is, after all the visualizing, the contestants are unable to remember the numbers that had flashed, yet they only remember the final number that was shown on the screen.

Great fun and competitive way of learning and improving on your mental mathematical skills, flash anzan is just the beginning wave in the tsunami of future learning.
 

1-2.Building up Your Child and Improve Your Mental Math Skills

In the beginning, the ancient technology known as the abacus was created as an assist in the crunching of numbers for merchants at the marketplace.

Now, the abacus has found its way in not only assisting in the crunching of numbers but in the teaching of how to count, calculate and improve mental mathematical skills.

The same way the abacus can influence and improve brain development, the abacus makes way for much-needed teachings and improvements to the mental health of one learning.

For the improvement of one’s mental maths skills, visualizing and consistency are two aspects that take place.

With the right side of the brain being used for imagination, rhythm, and visualization, the abacus puts the right side of the brain to work when it is being taught.

From visualizing the abacus tool when in an advanced level of learning, to hearing the rhythm of the beads slide and tap on another on the rod of the tool, the abacus puts all of these together to gain mental strength in your overall memory.

In the first level of learning the abacus, you are taught what each bead on the abacus and rod represent as well as simple counting and subtracting using the abacus tool.

The next level involves intricate sums of addition and subtraction as well as multiplication and division.

The third level is a further and harder continuation of the previous level which then leads to level four, which portrays learning the abacus without the actual tool.

This being where imagination and visualization come into play.

Being forced into focusing on the outlook and memory of the tool, you are then given a series of sums to which you calculate without the abacus.

Level four exceeds level six by which the mental calculation of sums is strengthened, causing for an improvement and breakthrough in the mental mathematical skills produced through the abacus tool.
 

1-3. Building up Your Child and a Guide About Flash Anzan

Learning with Online Soroban has been known to make a better achievement and understanding of certain topics especially when they are related to mathematics, like that of the abacus.

When learning the abacus through online games, you get to explore many virtual realities to which grab your attention, stimulate your cortex, and further develop your knowledge of the abacus tool.

Each of the games works similarly, all of them advancing you to higher levels after completing the previous level to which you are awarded by a virtual ribbon, virtual certificate, or praise.

Each level brings more complex questions than the next, which are meant to encourage you to use what you were previously taught from the past level and adapt it to your current level.

Some of the games give you a timer that makes you answer your question or a set of numbered questions in a given amount of time.

This type of game not only makes for you to bring mental math into play to answer your questions more swiftly, but it also makes for you to be more competitive.

Being more competitive will bring about a need to do better in each round as well as retain your focus towards the game.

Overall  
Mathematics is fundamental, so wanting to teach our children from a young age that way they can excel higher and avoid any difficulties in the study of the subject is one of many wants that all parents share in common.

In building up their skills when it comes down to mental calculation, improving their mathematical skills, and learning the tool that will help them in the long run of mathematics, your child is more than able to excel further than ever before.