November 2020 Tip: Building Children's Independence Using the Abacus

Building children's independence is an extremely important foundation that contributes to their next academic and career move.

By using the abacus, your child will not only gain mathematical mental skills, but also other soft skills building confidence and independence.
 

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

Starting school young is very necessary as it prepares the child for the upcoming years in terms of appearing for major exams which are competitive or just simple too.

School is the place where a child learns everything, good and bad.

'Good' obviously comes from good friends and good mentors.

The 'bad' comes from bad peers and the bad company which is still a part and parcel of growing up. 

A child grows and gets confident eventually.

In this article, we shall learn about confidence, self-awareness, and social development skills.

1-1.Building Children's Independence With Classes in School

School is the best place to develop good habits.

Confidence and self-awareness are very important to develop and a school is a place where it is possible to develop as many things as you want.

In school, you interact with children from different parts of the city.

You get influenced by others quickly.

It is very important to choose the right influence.

When we speak about self-awareness, we speak about how students have to be open to feedback to develop a true sense of self.

Mingling with other students in the classroom and having competition within is also a good way to increase your social development.

Some kids never develop social skills and hence remain introverted for a lifetime, at least until they are in the higher grades.

This is due to a lack of social skills which does not only affect the child's 'social behavior' but also affects his education and eventually academics.

Playing sports with different children, exchanging thoughts and ideas, studying together, etc is a great way to start a firm social development.

The very first skill associated with social-emotional learning is self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and process one's own emotions, thoughts, values, and how they influence behavior.

You can also call it the ability to properly access one's strength with confidence.

Self-awareness is the ability to understand yourself.

If you have no self-awareness, you will not understand what exactly you are feeling and if someone is treating you harshly, you will not understand how to react and what to do next.

A child learns self-awareness in school gradually.

Social development classes are also designed in many schools for this very reason.
 

1-2.Can the Abacus Be Used for Building Children's Independence?

Many of the students hate mathematics for some or other reasons and this hatred is developed due to a lack of knowledge in the subject of mathematics.

Parents and teachers should find a way to sit and explain to their child the importance of math as we are surrounded by mathematics in every possible way.

To get sharper in math, one must consider learning an abacus.

While it is very easy for a small percent of lucky children, most children find it very difficult.

Learning is one of the best ways to improve arithmetic skills and number fluency.

Abacus can also develop an interest and passion for math.

Counting with fingers and beads is very interesting so when a student learns math with the help of an abacus, they are already halfway there.

Abacus was invented to make calculations easier and faster. It was invented in the days where there was no electronic calculator.

Abacus learning not only helps the basic calculations like addition, multiplication, subtraction but it also helps in effective counting of decimal points, negative numbers.

Many people think of the abacus as a tool which is used to learn mathematics but there is a lot more advantage than what you thought it would be.

Your logical thinking also is improved and the way you solve problems will change and the time you take to solve problems will get lesser and you will be able to perform mental calculations very easily.

Mathematics builds logical thinking.

With Online Soroban, students learning will be immersed in different teaching styles where they are constantly being challenged to learn and head to the next level.

With a syllabus following the traditional ISHIDO-SHIKI, your little ones will be in good hands.

1-3. How Can Building Children's Independence Help in Life?

Independence is something which is not easily developed but it sure is something which should be developed in a child as the child needs to learn how to be more independent shortly. Independence is something that will help the child throughout his or her life.

This is the role of the teachers and parents.

In the initial days, children are very dependent on someone elder with them in whatever activity they have to do which is fine and understandable but in the latter days, the one on whom the child is depending should slowly get back and not get much involved with the child's work and let the child carry out the task on their own in their way.

You can always sit with them and make them feel you are with them but you are actually not, you are just monitoring the work of the child. In this way, the child is slowly getting independent as he can carry out the task/activity and challenge with or without you.

Hence, independence can make the child more confident and also help them be firm in their decisions or rather make them so confident that they know what decisions they must take for themselves.

Independence hence is necessary for a child's development.
 

Overall  
What we understood in this article is that early school sure does affect a child very positively as school is a hub for all sorts of talents.

Confidence, high self-esteem, self-awareness, and social development skills all come from school.

These skills not only help the child in the present but also are with them throughout their growing phase and will always stay with them in whichever field they go.

School is indeed the best place to learn, experience, and explore your talents and yourself.