October 07, 2020

The Soroban Method – Reviews & Testimonials

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Today, the Abacus Universe team shares our review of the online course "The Soroban Method" created by the team behind the blog Apprendre par le jeu.

In this article, we will explore the content of this course and give you our feedback on this Soroban training. This will help you decide if this course is worth it or if other resources are more suitable for teaching your children how to use the Japanese abacus.

Without further ado, let's dive into the subject!

General Overview

Apprendre par le jeu is a blog dedicated to children's education. In recent years, it has established itself as a reference resource in homeschooling.

Nevertheless, even for those who don't practice homeschooling, they always offer very interesting resources.

With the Soroban Method, the team offers a complete course for children to learn the Soroban.

Questions

We were somewhat skeptical about this course.

An online course? For children? To learn the Soroban?

Indeed, both the format and the subject are unusual. But one must keep an open mind, and it is with this mindset that we started our tests.

And without lying we were not disappointed: yes, it's a bit unusual, but it is not at all weird or boring. As for the results, they are definitely present and come more quickly than anticipated.

Course Content

Structure

The course is structured into several modules, 11 lessons to be precise,

A bit of history,
Introduction to the soroban,
How to choose your soroban,
How to use the soroban,
Learning to count with the soroban,
Reading and writing numbers with the soroban,
Adding and subtracting with the soroban,
Multiplying with the soroban,
Dividing with the soroban,
From soroban to anzan,
The soroban grading system.

The first 3 lessons, while very interesting, don't dive directly into the learning; they give a very good introduction but are largely optional.

It is entirely possible to skip them at the beginning and come back to them later.

The other lessons, however, are better followed in order.

You start with the basics: writing numbers on the soroban.

Then a combined lesson on addition and subtraction. (Same principle)

Next comes a lesson on multiplication, followed by one on division.

After these 4 lessons, you and your child should have a good grasp of the soroban.

However, the course does not stop there! The course offers a complete module on Anzan: once you completely master the Soroban, you will want to learn to do without it and simply imagine it in order to perform very complicated mental calculations.

This penultimate module is reserved for the most motivated, and will require additional practice along with a good mastery of the Soroban. But the module will give you a very good foundation to progress towards this level of mastery if you wish.

The last module deals with the soroban mastery grades; this is more of a motivational article to encourage your child to continue their soroban training to become a true master! It will encourage them to set their own success goals.

This separation into modules, some of which are more or less optional, is a real strength of this course. Your child can stop and resume the course as their level increases.

It is entirely possible to introduce the course to a child in 1st/2nd grade for the introductory modules up to addition, subtraction.

Then continue the course the following year in 3rd grade to move on to multiplication/division, or even Anzan later in 4th grade once your child is comfortable.

Quality

The course relies mainly on video content created by the author himself. He explains each operation by breaking it down step by step.

It is always, regardless of the module, very progressive.

The pace is very well calibrated, it is never too slow or too fast. (It is always possible to go back anyway.)

The tone is clear, as are the explanations. The author is remarkably pedagogical.

Course Material

In addition to the video content we talked about earlier, the course includes a digital manual and a workbook in PDF format that you can print.

This will allow your child to have a physical support to follow the course, helping them better visualize and assimilate the concepts and methods presented in the video.

This addition is truly a huge added value and is an essential part of the course.

In addition to the included course materials, we obviously recommend using a real Soroban to follow the course, you can make your choice from our collection.

Click here to discover our sorobans

In Conclusion

The Soroban Method is an excellent course that will take you from the basics to advanced techniques very simply and in an incremental manner.

It is truly accessible to all, parents and children alike, the demonstrations are done very simply. The author, Olivier, is very pedagogical; it is almost impossible to get lost in the explanations.

Beyond that, you can feel the passion and work that has been put into this course. And it is contagious!

Furthermore, Christophe, the author, is very responsive whenever you ask him questions by email.

We can therefore only highly recommend this course, which is well worth its price. Moreover, by using our link, you will get a limited-time promotion of -50%, bringing the price to 49.99 euros!