Sai Speed Math Academy Abacus Mind Instruction Book Level 1: Step by Step Guide to Excel at Mind with Soroban, a Japanese Abacus: Volume 1

I purchased the entire curriculum: all Instructor’s guides and all workbooks. I began using the curriculum for my two children, who were 4 and 5. First, (as mentioned before) students do need to know how to read numbers from 1-99, know place values (ones, tens and hundreds) and be able to write numbers.I had no previous exposure to the Soroban; therefore the Instructor’s Book was essential. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly - with dedication and work - my children picked up the skills necessary to use the Soroban. Ten months after starting the curriculum, my children are halfway through book three of the six workbooks. We have taken two weeks, instead of one week to repeat about three lessons which they found to be difficult. Additionally, I am currently taking about three weeks to practice mental math with them, as this skill has provided the greatest challenge (although both children are doing better than I would have predicted).I would highly recommend this curriculum with some caveats:1. You must be committed to sticking to the 5-6 day per week schedule.2. This commitment includes practicing with your child daily; it is likely that they cannot do this without a parent unless they are older than 12. (For example, I spend an hour on Mondays introducing the new lesson and practicing. Tuesday-Friday, I spend from 30-45 minutes with my children as they practice/do Soroban homework).I have found the customer support to be extremely helpful. They have emailed me detailed responses and spent a good deal of time on a phone call to answer some of my questions and concerns.If you have the time and discipline, this program can work very well for your child/student. I would never have imagined that my 5 and 6 year old would be capable of doing three digit mental calculations before I started using this program; it really does work and I am hoping they have plans to release additional levels that introduce multiplication, division, percentages, decimals and negative numbers for children.

Excelente libro con conceptos fáciles de explicar. Ayuda a tu hijo a entender los conceptos del ábaco japonés.Muy buena calidad de impresión y buenos contenidos.

Super

Nice, useful but pricey

The topic is explained to the child in a very easy-to-learn way and, with the help of the workbooks, my daughter could learn quite easily.However, there isn't much explanation to the parents who don't have experience with Soroban in how to identify whether the child is doing mind abacus instead of mental calculations. Also, there is no telling how fast we should dictate the problems to the child or if we should or shouldn't repeat them.I'm not teaching my daughter for her to be able to compete or anything but rather to increase her focus and math skills, still, I feel like this kind of information is crucial for parents who don't know soroban.