Genius Kid is a multi-year program, in which, during the first year, students will master additions and subtraction with multi-digit numbers in order to calculate mentally and the second year of the programme is dedicated to acquire the domination over multiplication and division operations.
PROGRAM PHASES:
Preparatory phase – THE CONCEPT OF NUMBERS 1 TO 10
The initial phase is applied for the youngest participants. The goal is to get acquainted with the concept of numbers and learn the laws that apply to numbers from 1 to 10 (complementarity of numbers). In this period, children still do not use a japanese abacus, but a classical abacus abacus (10 rows with 10 balls).
First phase – USE OF SOROBAN (JAPANESE ABAKUS)
The abacus phase lasts during the initial levels, where the classical abacus is used. The calculation is performed by moving the balls, using the fingers of the left and right hands. The focus is on fine motor skills and intense sensory stimulus (sight, hearing, touch). The children first observe what the teacher shows them and listen to the instructions, and then take a concrete action on their own. This method starts an intensive brain process, because the fingers are constantly in motion by touching the balls. This activates tactile stimulus that further stimulates the centers in the brain by creating new neural connections (synapses). Using the fingers of both hands activates both cerebral hemispheres at the same time and increases cognitive capacity. That is why it can be rightly said that logical operations on the abacus represent real brain fitness, something like squats or push-ups for the brain!
Second phase – MENTAL ARITHMETICS AND VISUALIZATION
The phase of mental arithmetic (暗算, Japanese: Anzan) begins during higher levels at which the physical use of the abacus ceases. Now the children are starting to count by imagining an abacus in their own head. Observing, we can often see how they continue to move their fingers as if using a real abacus. Children developed the ability to visualize the abacus thanks to the activation of the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for imagination, photographic memory and creativity. Once this ability is developed, it is possible to continue practicing faster and more complicated computational operations, and children’s brains begin to behave like a real supercomputer.
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