Ashley has been going for Mental Arithmetic class for 4 months now and she just started Book 2. Mental Arithmetic is a 3-year course and it helps children develop mental abilities such as concentration, observation, visualization & imagination and memory. It uses the abacus but gradually the abacus is kept away and the children would have to perform the calculation mentally.
Ashley started with basic addition and subtraction of small numbers
Her homework is 6 pages of maths and each page consists of 40 sums. Last week when she started her Book 2, she told me that her teacher asked her not to use the abacus when doing her homework. Instead, she has to try to use mental calculation. I was a bit surprised because she just started doing double-digit numbers. For the first 3 pages, she managed to do the sums without the abacus.
The subsequent pages were pretty difficult. When she asked me to check her work, I could feel my head throbbing. It didn’t help that I was experiencing body acne that day. So I told her to use the abacus but the silly girl was scared that the teacher would scold her and started bawling *slaps forehead* When I told her that I would explain to her teacher, she felt better and finished her homework. Guess what? Her teacher didn’t say that she cannot use the abacus for her homework. In fact she should use it for now since she just started the double-digit calculations. Her teacher only ask her to do away with the abacus when she did the revision for the Book 1. All that crying for nothing 😀 Ashley said that she likes Mental Maths because her teacher said she’s good *shake head*
How tough is it to be a child these days!!!!
😀 The teacher is good, she encourages Ashley and that makes her wanna do more! Kudos to Ashley for a great job in Mental Math 🙂
amber’s is slightly different, the book is boring and in mandarin.. good that Ashley is motivated with praises, she’ll progress very fast.
is homework limited to 6 page per wk ? or sometimes more ? sometimes less ?
Amber had 4-6 pages per wk but now that she’s doing mental there’s 6-8 page of mental and 2-3 or abacus. I’m going mental. 🙁
Barb, after I read you stated there 3 years course, I went and checked in the internet. There, also said 3 years course. April has started the course since she was 5. This year is her 3rd year, but I see many students in her centre study until age 13, I wonder why now. I think I have to check with April’s Ucmas center this weekend. Bact to your topic, April has 2 pages homework every time. She is doing muliply now. I don’t sign up for May, as she is scared after seeing her jie jie doing so many homeworks. So, I signed her May to Music for Little Mozart.
oh i also see a lot of older kids like teenagers at Ashley’s center. I thought they joined late. Hmm..I wonder what happens after 3 years huh? How is April doing? She likes it?
Honestly I really salute those who learn arithmetic, to me, it’s a tough ‘subject’. What even shocked me is those kids who can answer mathematics in split seconds =_=
her writing is very neat!
It is a good course. Maths is so important in our daily life.
6 pages of maths and each page consists of 40 sums –>> Wow! Quite a lot!
Glad that Ashley like arithmetic so much. I saw my sis’s sons take up Mental Arithmetic class too, but the amount of homework really scare me actually. However, they are smart when come to calculation. But this is NOT for Shenny.
Shenny didn’t like math at all. Whenever I ask her to do math, she would come out lots of excuses. Sometimes she could take 2 hours to finish 10 sums. But if I give her something as reward (incentives), she could finish 10 in less than 10 minutes. That, I think learning music does help her to think fast in calculation because she gotta play songs with two hands, that practise her both left and right brain.
I wish I had mental arithmetic classes when I was younger! (err…assuming I could handle it) Now, I’m over-reliant on the calculator!!!! 🙁
It’s good to have a strong foundation in Arithmetics. Looks like Ashley is coping really well. Keep it up. 🙂
I would like Malaika to take this course too.. too bad, no such thing here….
well done, Ashley…
The homework given in mental arithmetic class really freaks me out. I have yet to decide whether to register Avery in the class. But it’s a good foundation because children who attended the course tend to be smarter. Bravo, Ashley!
Wow, she is really good(hat off)!
Way to go, Ashley! Glad to hear that she likes maths and enjoys her classes. I like her handwriting… so neat and nice! 🙂
IMPRESSIVE ! Got me thinking if maybe I should send my son for some activity instead of idling the Sat away.
maths is always good for their brains. At least won’t get cheated lah when old that time
I want to register my boys for Mental Arithmetic class, but seeing the weekly homework, make me scare. Now daily they got lots homework to finish, not mention weekend homework. *sigh*
April didn’t say she dislikes it so far, but she said she hates the homework. Pity her, she really has a lot to do, tuition, school homework and etc. I am considering to stop her UCmas course, if she really cannot cope.
I think this is more exciting than Enopi / Kumon. At least for starter, kids get to “play”.. I mean “learn” how to use abacus eh. I’m thinking of signing up Ryan too.