Renochka Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 My 7 year old is successfully doing Singapore math 3 (standards edition). For some reason the curriculum buying bug has hit and I was considering incorporating the Soroban abacus and curriculum for enrichment. Is this crazy? Anybody have experience with doing both? Or have experience with doing Soroban? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 My son is learning the Soroban abacus for enrichment. He is working towards a Dan certification right now. I tried to buy the few English language textbooks that I could find as well as a curriculum written by a non-Japanese company to teach my son at home. I was not cut out for teaching the Soroban and I gave up and signed him up with a Japanese tutor locally who uses a curriculum affiliated with the Japanese Abacus association. There are a lot of levels to pass in both abacus proficiency and the mental math portion (anzan) to reach the black belt level that I think that it is best to go with a tutor who knows their stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renochka Posted October 7, 2016 Author Share Posted October 7, 2016 My son is learning the Soroban abacus for enrichment. He is working towards a Dan certification right now. I tried to buy the few English language textbooks that I could find as well as a curriculum written by a non-Japanese company to teach my son at home. I was not cut out for teaching the Soroban and I gave up and signed him up with a Japanese tutor locally who uses a curriculum affiliated with the Japanese Abacus association. There are a lot of levels to pass in both abacus proficiency and the mental math portion (anzan) to reach the black belt level that I think that it is best to go with a tutor who knows their stuff. So this is an impossible feat to teach on my own? I would need to teach myself first. I'm using youtube videos. I guess that won't cut it. Is this a curriculum? Rather is there a curriculum? Or is it just a skill? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Resurrecting this thread...Did anyone do this on their own? My son just took an abacus summer camp and really liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drjuliadc Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 I am very interested in doing this also. My oldest took a class from a local Aloha abacus class for 1 year, but they closed at the beginning of the summer. I think I'll try looking for a tutor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 I'd like to hear more about this too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 (edited) I explored Soroban with my DD. We used products from NurtureMinds. The directions were a little confusing, but maybe a parent could teach it after they mastered the moves for bead swaps. It has been awhile, but the moves were based upon the complements for the numbers 5 or 10. We quit because my DD is very good with mental math, and our school focus shifted. IPad apps are available. Maybe purchase a 3 to 5 rod wooden abacus for starters and look over at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Abacus-Mind-Math-Level-Workbook/dp/1941589014/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1503144028&sr=8-11&keywords=soroban+abacus A local company began teaching Anzan about a year ago. Maybe discover if that sort of resource is available near you. Edited August 19, 2017 by Heathermomster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cupcake333 Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 Yes, we did it on our own. I started to teach my DS8 when he was 4.5 and we did it for almost two years. I learned soroban on youtube and then taught it to my son. At the beginning, we tried to use both hands. But that didn't work well, so we just used one hand (his dominant left hand). You basically use your thumb and the index finger. I found lots of worksheets on japanese sites (google translate was a big help :)) At that time I didn't know about Abacus Mind Math (Heathermomster mentioned it above). Otherwise, I would have definitely bought the workbooks. Apps and sites we used: Know Abacus (can be found on both google play and itunes) Simple Soroban (google play) Abacus trainer (google play, itunes, windows 10) http://www.hamsterforce.com/AbacusTrainer.html http://www.uitti.net/stephen/soroban/soroban_sheets.pl http://www.sorobanexam.org/ Anzan: At the beginning, when things were slow, I was reading the numbers and then we moved to the following two: http://www.japanmatrix.com/anzan/ Flash anzan tower (itunes) We stopped doing Soroban because my DS started to hate it. He found it boring. I also think he couldn't cope with the time pressure. You have to complete exercises at a certain speed; you have to race against the timer. And I could see it was stressing him out. So, we stopped. Although we did it only for two years the results were great and they still last. He knew to multiply two digits by two digits at the age of 6. He easily adds and subtracts (sometimes faster than me :D). I wish he would continue, but even those two years were enough to boost his math skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 (edited) there is a website that generates different levels of worksheets that are in line with the japanese abacus standards: http://www.sorobanexam.org/generator.html It is a good guideline for someone curious about what the different levels look like. My son is still taking classes with his tutor and has met and exceeded his own personal goals for soroban study. ETA: NM. Just saw that this website is already mentioned upthread. Edited August 24, 2017 by mathnerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 Maybe purchase a 3 to 5 rod wooden abacus for starters and look over at Amazon. If you live in the states where Daiso Japan has stores, they sell the soroban abacus for $1.50! Or just go to Japantown and check for them in their general merchandise stores! I picked up a couple just for fun thought my son cannot use those - he needs the abacus with the reset button that his tutor recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonsai Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 I taught my dd soroban as a supplement to her main math programme (Jamie York). Like Heathermomster, we used NutureMinds. I liked their products, but they are out of print. If anyone knows where to find them - please share! I actually erased a few pages in dd's old workbooks so that ds could use them... then I regained my sanity. I ordered the Abacus Mind Math workbook, hated it, traded with a friend for a Minimus Latin workbook. I think supplements should be fun. My dd loved learning soroban, so it worked well for her as a supplement. I liked that it reinforced place value, developed mental math skills, and introduced new math strategies (four processes left-to-right vs right-to-left). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drjuliadc Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Mathnerd, I would like to find a tutor myself. How did you find one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathDad Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 My daughter did 2 years of training on www.rightlobemath.com. At first she went to the local Japanese school but was not happy with the teacher and the pace of the class, so we found this online program and she just took off. I was happy paying just $30 a year instead of $100/month. She later did the Russian School of Math in addition to soroban and was stealth on both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 On 10/7/2016 at 2:50 PM, Renochka said: My 7 year old is successfully doing Singapore math 3 (standards edition). For some reason the curriculum buying bug has hit and I was considering incorporating the Soroban abacus and curriculum for enrichment. Is this crazy? Anybody have experience with doing both? Or have experience with doing Soroban? My grandma gave me hers that she used in school 80-90 years ago. I have been trying to figure out how to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 3:21 PM, MathDad said: My daughter did 2 years of training on www.rightlobemath.com. At first she went to the local Japanese school but was not happy with the teacher and the pace of the class, so we found this online program and she just took off. I was happy paying just $30 a year instead of $100/month. She later did the Russian School of Math in addition to soroban and was stealth on both. That website is claiming that the abacus is Japanese but it is not. The one I have is very old and it is from a rural American school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 @Janeway the abacus was developed and used in Asia long before your grandma used it in rural America. This post is also from 2016. 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 30 minutes ago, domestic_engineer said: @Janeway the abacus was developed and used in Asia long before your grandma used it in rural America. This post is also from 2016. 😉 But it was China, not Japan. That website made it out like it was all about Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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