Knowledge and intelligence top the characteristics of human beings. They enable one to maintain a clear mind in their daily life. The increasing development of abacus and Mental Arithmetic in the whole world has benefited many people. “Nobel” school offers an international, online program of Mental Arithmetic, which helps children develop both hemispheres of the brain equally. Nobel school promotes whole brain development by stimulating both sides of the brain by using an innovative mental math program and utilizing the Abacus as a teaching tool.
The program represents a scientific method for mental development based on the performance of arithmetic operations, with the performance of each exercise requiring maximum focus and simultaneous involvement or use of various skills, leading to equal, synchronous development of both hemispheres of the brain.
Notably, Nobel courses are popular in many countries, and at this point, the online course has been introduced in the UK.
To find out more about the benefits of Mental Arithmetic for children and Nobel school’s success abroad, GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Anano Chkheidze, Head of Marketing.
What is mental arithmetic and how does it differ from ordinary arithmetic?
Mental Arithmetic is one of the most effective ways to speed up the mental development of children. The methodology is based on training with arithmetical operations in mind, although the benefit is not in oral calculation, but as a result of training, in the equal and harmonious development of both hemispheres of the brain, which improves the child’s analytical, logical and systematic thinking, perception of cause-and-effect relationships, proper communication, quick memory, creativity, intuition and many other skills.
What are the advantages for children of learning Mental Arithmetic?
The goal of Mental Arithmetic is to help children overcome life’s challenges more successfully and realize their intellectual potential as much as possible. The main way of doing so is the equal development of the right and left hemispheres of the brain and the ability to use them simultaneously. To explain more precisely, Mental Arithmetic is able to do this in the following ways:
Asymmetric use of hands – Children begin mental arithmetic by learning to use a special tool (Soroban in Japanese). Both hands participate in the exercise process, but different fingers on different hands. These actions are so asymmetric that the brain is unable to automatically duplicate the movements of the hand on the other hand, and is forced to actively work on both hands during the exercise. Since different hands are controlled by different hemispheres of the brain, both hemispheres are equally active during counting exercises.
Transferring the real calculator into the imagination – The second important idea of the methodology is to free the child from the calculator over time and gradually switch to the calculator imagined in mind instead of the real one. Imagination is controlled by the right hemisphere, mathematical operations by the left. Therefore, performing operations in the mind with an abacus again and again forces both hemispheres of the brain to work synchronously, but this time on more complicated tasks. Working on an imaginary calculator also activates the parts of the brain that are responsible for concentration and memory.
Development of fine motor skills – The third interesting detail is the small size of the calculator. The abacus is arranged in such a way that performing operations on it with fingers automatically develops fine motoric skills. In addition to this, the training in so-called “speedwriting” also increases the flexibility of the fingers. The fact that the development of fine motor skills is one of the best ways to accelerate the mental progress of young children has already been scientifically proven and is actively used in various educational programs.
How do children see the benefits of Mental Arithmetic in practice?
Most students didn’t realize the benefits of mental arithmetic at the beginning of their study and they just enjoy a quick calculation, though parents do see how their child develops mentally, how much progress the have made in school, they see that their child also discover new talents, interests, notice that they are more concentrated, etc. There are many Mental Arithmetic courses around the world, but our curriculum is built on modern, international standards, which helps to use this method even faster.
Where is the school located and how many students does it currently have? Is online learning possible? From what age are students taught?
The methodology is intended for children aged 4 to 15 years. Our schools are located in several locations in Georgia, however, we have online training worldwide. The school has been operating for five years, but we introduced online learning about two years ago, right after the pandemic started. Distance learning was very new at that time and unusual for parents, however, we were able to easily and painlessly adapt online learning to children comfortably and quickly, so that the number of students increased at a record rate during that period.
The main advantage of Nobel is its teachers, who are selected with special care and undergo special training after selection. It is very important for us that together with the transfer of knowledge, they can create such an environment for children that will further contribute to the development of children’s skills and abilities.
As we know, Nobel school is already working in the UK.
Yes. At this stage, we have more than 1500 active students, of which many immigrants attend our classes from different countries. We have been launching online courses in the UK over the past few months and are particularly focused on this project. With the experience accumulated over these years and observing the results of our students, we aimed to give the children living in Great Britain the opportunity to develop their potential with the knowledge of professional Georgian teachers and help create a very successful future. We like to facilitate the integration of children of different nationalities with each other, establishing ties. We offer a one-month free trial learning course. We are sure that those who attend our classes will quickly see results, and we try to make these courses available to as many children as possible. For this reason, the cost is low and the quality is very high.
Tell us about your future plans.
Our future plans are to introduce Mental Arithmetic to the world and benefit as many children as possible. We plan to first of all fully cover the English-speaking audience, especially Great Britain, and then to actively take Georgian, high-quality, profitable services to as many countries as possible. Mental Arithmetic will make our following generation to stride towards a higher goal.
