Anyone heard of Ucmas that use abacus to teach mental maths.. any good?

HappySad

http://www.ucmasuk.info/

I saw there presentation where they teach children to use their unique abacus method to allow children to use it to eventually add very quickly three and more digit numbers in their head. The can do the same with multiplication and division. In the demonstration we offered random numbers to work out and the child using his head or the abacus worked it out faster than you could do it on the calculator.

They don't teach the children the concepts of what is addition, subtraction, multiplication or division are .. just how to work it out quickly in their heads.

Would you say that learning this technique would be useful from an educational point of view & how?

Have you heard of them before & have your child use them?

If you have any useful links available then they are very much welcome. Also if you know where I can learn this skill myself with useful links then I can teach my son myself.

Thanks

mrcow

If you want to improve your mental maths, then the best thing to do is to practise it.

If you use it, then you don't lose it.

If you want your children to have good mental maths, then keep practising with them. You don't need any fancy methods, start them with two digits and move onto three.

It's simple, just keep up the momentum.

MX5huggy

There was a guy on BBC breakfast the other day who was doing multiplication by drawing lines digonally and counting the crossing points. Does anybody know where I can find more info on this.

I still check the 9x table on my fingers its neat.

Gingham_Ribbon

I wouldn't buy anything like that. I'd rather play games that help the kids with their maths. Have a look at something like the Fizz Buzz books. Your lad's the same age as mine and we play some of the games at home. They can be really funny and silly while reinforcing all sorts of maths concepts.

Gingham_Ribbon

Also, I couldn't find the price on their website, but it doesn't look like it will be cheap. It seems more geared towards encouraging people to buy into the franchise?

HappySad

Hello All,

I have spoken to a physician and also a school teacher and they both agree with what has already been said. Yes they will be able to on the spot add, multiply etc great numbers faster than a calculator but they will not be able to demonstrate their skill when doing their school work or exams. They need to spend time understanding how to use maths and solve problems rather than being a human calculator.

Thanks everyone for your input and allowing me to think about what to do. I will be looking to play more lego and robotic lego with my son to help him apply his maths.

lex

I think the lego and number games sound like great options!

I have used maths whizz which is a little expensive, but is great for giving age appropriate maths puzzles, tracking progress, giving rewards etc...somehow extra homework on the computer doesn't seem quite so much like homework ;o)

http://www.whizz.com/

lex