Enjoy teaching with an abacus. Try these tips and you'll be amazed!

According to the latest research, children have two ways of learning - imitative /mirror learning and experiential learning. The first, i.e., imitative learning, takes place in the early years of childhood when the child learns by imitation or copying.

We all know that a child’s brain shows phenomenal development in the first 3 years of his life when the grey matter grows explosively, attaining 80-85% of total growth. But this grey matter subsequently at the attainment of puberty also starts self-destruction, which continues till early adulthood. The remaining Cells take up specialized functions as the child grows.

As the child grows up, the white matter starts increasing. The synapses between various brain cells (axons) start strengthening. The thinking and understanding, analytical and logical abilities based on previous and incoming data increase. A 12-13-year-old child has the potential to do everything that an adult can and better as they learn. Also, because the child is not scared of taking risks and is creative, they come up with easier ways of doing the same humdrum tasks.

Adolescents learn by experimentation or experience. As parents, though we can set down rules, the child needs to be prepared on how to handle situations so that his experiences would be more productive and positive. They need more time and space to develop their unique learning styles based on experimentation, so allow them that flexibility.

Coming back to Indian Abacus, how many times does an activity need to be repeated in order to become automatic or go to the subconscious level? 2,000 -10,000 times varying on personal learning styles. Since Indian Abacus is for pre-adolescents, who major in imitative learning styles, it is extremely important for the abacus tutors to be adept at the concept themselves. This is something that has been studied that abacus tutor good at Multiplication/ division has students who excel in that. The confidence in the subject passes to the child. Looking at the lower terms when the formulae are still at the logical stage, we see a huge difference in the child’s capacity to handle numbers, which varies with the abacus tutor. Abacus tutors who give a lot of importance to orals and basic find the children are faster and can do longer sums. The reason is all activities, that is, fingering, basic and orals, need to cross a threshold of 2000 movements by the elementary terms. If this threshold is not crossed, it would result in the child struggling in the intermediate terms, requiring the fundamentals to be automated.

Keeping this in mind, it is important to do 120 orals per class; 40-60 orals per formula, revision orals, rapid-fire orals – that revise previous concepts as well. Complete basic exercises (100 moves) should be done and revised regularly. Time limits are important as more speed means more orals- thorough practice that leads to automation. Mental sums as we know, are not possible without the automation of formulae. Teachers who call out more orals can conduct mentals in the early stages of the first term, as visualization improves with more and more abacus practice. The speed for orals has been adjudged to be 1 number per second. In accordance with the new course, we do 2 formulas in 120 minutes. Take out 15 minutes for flashcards, speed writing and random numbers; we still have 105 min left. Take out another 10 min for concept /possibilities - 95 mins. Left. If we call out 5 digit orals, we take 5 seconds to do and 2 seconds to write the answer. (95*60)/7 =814 is the no. of orals possible. Take out time for student explanation, big

orals. We are sure 120 is not an unattainable target. So use time wisely, stay crisp with explanations, be prepared for classes, take out time for extra activities for students who finish early, and I’m sure we all can get promised results.

For the higher terms, especially for elder children, after teaching them concepts, allow them the flexibility to experiment with their styles. It is important to give them multiple options of coming up with answers to the same problem. This gives them a sense of control and retains interest. The 1,2 & 5 method helps in that. So go ahead, use these tips and enjoy teaching.