What is it?
Top Soroban is a Japanese abacus on screen: one bead above the beam and four below on each rod. Children start by moving beads and building numbers, calculate step by step using the friends of 5 and 10, and finally solve in their heads with no abacus at all.
How it works
- Pick a mode: Free Play, Set the Number, Read the Abacus, Abacus Calculation or Mental Mode.
- In calculation, numbers appear one at a time. Move the beads to reach the answer.
- Reset the abacus after each question to continue.
- Make it harder in settings: rods, numbers per sum and speed.
Benefits for kids
- Children see and move place value with their own hands.
- They practise adding and subtracting in clear steps instead of counting on fingers.
- Moving on to mental math builds focus and number visualization.
Common questions
A Japanese abacus with one bead above the bar and four below on each rod, used to teach arithmetic and then mental arithmetic.
From 4 or 5 with free play, and from 6 for the challenges and guided sums.
It is great practice at home, but classes with a trainer and a real abacus build the skill faster.