5 Great Reasons Why Children Should Learn Math Using an Abacus
Reason #1: Number Sense and Basic Numeracy All students must develop a sense for numbers, what numbers represent, and basic fluency. Unfortunately most students don’t have a good grasp on these basic core math skills. PEW Research shows 35% of 4th graders are below basic math understanding. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only
How to Practice Every Abacus Bead Movement in One Exercise
For this activity you will need to have completed all of the Skill Training program on RightLobeMath.com or know all the bead movements for any addition or subtraction. Basically you should be at least a beginning Level 10 abacus student to practice this exercise. In this exercise we are going to add the number 123,456,789
Tips and Thoughts on How to Develop Your Mental Math and Mental Calculation Skills?
To develop strong mental calculation skills, i.e. mental math, we first need to learn the required bead movements on the abacus. The entire concept of mental calculation is based on the knowledge of the soroban bead movements needed to solve the problem. But knowing how to move the beads to solve a problem is not enough for
What are the Foundations of Basic Numeracy and Number Sense?
We all understand the importance of math education especially early math education. Math education is built on the foundations of basic numeracy and number sense. Students learning math must understand how to represent, recognize, and count using our base10 numbering system. The abacus is one the most efficient ways to represent any number by assigning the
Mental Math, We All Need It But How To Teach It?
We all remember our teachers asking us to do math calculations in our head but not knowing really how to do it? Teachers offered us various mental tricks and strategies but it always posed the additional question which strategy to chose. Faced with each problem we had to decide on a strategy without any way of knowing
Math More Than Reading Is the Best Predictor of Future Academic Achievement
You might, as I did, find this article surprising if you have a young learner just about to enter kindergarten. According to research conducted by a group of university professors called “School Readiness and Later Achievement“, math skills entering kindergarten are the best predictor of future academic success more so than reading skills, attention skills,
How to Divide on an Abacus with a Two Digit Divisor?
Now that we have learned Basic Division and Division with a Single Digit Divisor, let’s continue this time considering division with a 2 digit divisor. If you are new to abacus math or need a little refresher on addition and subtraction on the soroban, please take a look at some of the earlier lessons like
How to Divide on the Abacus?
We begin learning to perform long division on the abacus with a single digit divisor. Just like in the standard algorithm, we will transform division problems into a series of subtraction facts as we move the divisor through the dividend. In the following example we will know we have completed the division problem when the subtraction
How to do Division with a Single Digit Divisor on the Abacus?
If this is your first time doing division on the abacus please see a more basic example, How to Divide on the Abacus. In this example, we will show how to do basic division with a single digit divisor on the abacus which can be thought of as long division. Division is usually difficult for
How to Multiply on an Abacus?
Since multiplication is repeated addition, any multiplication problem can be solved on an abacus. To perform multiplication on an abacus, students must be able to perform addition on the abacus and memorize the basic single digit multiplication facts through 9×9. With addition and the basic math facts, students can take on any multiplication problem with ease.