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| Mrs.Neshni Naidoo presenting in a Workshop in Cape Town |
I completed the Vedic Maths Teacher Training Course in June 2013 and was very eager to share what I had learnt with my 9 year old son, who was then in Grade 4. He showed very little interest, because it was different from what they had learnt at school. I did not try to force this on him because I was content with his marks at school (75 - 80%).
What still concerned me, however, was that he was still slow when it came to the bonds (addition and subtraction) and his times tables. It was extremely frustrating for me to see him count on his fingers and count in multiples to answer the multiplication tables. So I taught him the “Finger Multiplication – the Universal Times table and 9 Times Table.” He understood both methods but was more comfortable with the 9 Times Table. It took him some time to work out the answers using the Universal Times Table.
My other concern was that even though he was fairly good at Maths, there was no sense of excitement – classwork and homework was tedious and boring. This year, I made another attempt to introduce the Vedic Maths techniques.
The topic being covered at school was subtraction of 4 digit numbers so I showed him how he could get the answer quicker for some sums using “All from 9, last from 10”. He was so excited when he “got it”, that he went away and created his own examples to work with and got his dad and grandma to give him bigger numbers to subtract so that he could impress them! He even tried teaching his friends when they came to visit.
The next topic we worked on was addition and subtraction of 4 digit numbers using the Left – Right method. I asked him to first look at the numbers and make a note in the column where will be a carryover for addition or you have to “borrow” for subtraction. The next step was then to add/subtract per column from Left to Right. Again he understood the reasoning and the method and completed his homework very quickly - he even checked all the answers using the reverse operation.
I was reading through the book, “Elementary and Middle School Mathematics – Teaching Developmentally” by John A. Van de Walle. There was a chapter on helping children master the basic Maths facts. What I found interesting, was that it was recommended that rather than drilling initially for bonds and tables or presenting a class with different strategies, it would be more effective to get the learners to come up with their own strategies for simple calculations such as “8 + 6” or “5 + 6”. Their different strategies would then be discussed in class but each child would eventually use the strategy that works best for them. Then only does the teacher help the child learn memorise the strategy.
I decided to try this with my son for the bonds. He showed me that for the example “6 + 7”, he would first “make up ten” by adding 3 to the 7 and then add another 3 to get 13. We then discussed the other ways you could obtain the answer such “double 6 and add 1”, but he felt that “his method” gave him the answers much faster.
For the subtraction, we used the “think addition” approach, e.g. for “14 - 8”, we looked at what number to add to 8 to get the number 14. Here again, he used the same method as before of first “making up ten” and was able to work out simple subtractions quickly, without counting on his fingers!
The times table was still a challenge, since there were some calculations that he could not remember. Even though he knew the “Finger Multiplication”, he did not want to make us of this method. For the calculations he could not remember, we then worked from what he knew, e.g. for “7 x 8”, he knew “5 x 8 = 40” and then he added the eights to get to 56. For other calculations, I demonstrated that breaking down the numbers will also help work out the answer quickly, e.g. “8 x 8 = 8 x 4 x 2”. I extended it to bigger numbers like 9 x 16 and he was so excited when he worked out the answer mentally by changing the sum to “9 x 8 x 2”!
For division, we only worked on division by 5 since this times table is easy to remember and here I introduced him to divisibility rules. By first asking him to study the 5 x table, with some guidance, he was able to see that the numbers ended either in 0 or 5. Then I gave him a few numbers to divide by 5. He was able to see, just by observation, what the remainders would be. He completed the division fairly quickly and checked the answers as well (something he was not happy doing previously)!
Now that I know the strategies that he is comfortable with, I will reinforce them using flashcards and get him to practise some examples every day.Aside from him being more comfortable with Maths in a short space of time, I am happy that to see him getting excited about Maths!
Mrs.Neshni Naidoo is the Director of Vedic Maths Forum South Africa. She loves reading and is instrumental in solving the Maths Crisis in South Africa.Her interest in Vedic Maths stemmed from a desire to find an alternate way to teach Maths at South African schools. Traditional methods used are time-consuming, confusing and don’t allow for creative thinking. With Vedic Maths, the vision is to create a love for Maths, eliminate the fear associated with Maths and develop a new generation of Mathematicians and Scientists who will make South Africa proud.