How can mental arithmetic stimulate your child’s mental faculties and talents?…Teacher Somayah Khoder will tell us more about that !

Recently we heard a lot about the trend of teaching mental arithmetic to children and its huge effect on highlighting new talents and skills ..that’s why Syria Times wanted to know more about it through mathematics and mental arithmetic teacher SomayaKhder !

First, who is SomayaKhoder !?

Somya Zaid Khoder, Human Development Trainer, Vice Dean of Al-Sham International Virtual School, Dean of the RH.MAS Mental Arithmetic Program and the director of the Mental Arithmetic Center in the Jaramana area.

Khoder explained to us more what mental arithmetic is and her experience with it : ” At first, mental arithmetic program caught my attention, where I heard a lot about it, negative and positive ,but as for me , with all transparency and credibility, I noticed that using mental arithmetic when dealing with scientific material in the right way can get us the best results, given that it activates both parts of the brain and motivates students to think about math issues in a way that differs from the method of the school curriculum, not only that but I also noticed that students after learning this mental method start to show signs of huge development  in all other subjects, even what’s more interesting that many students complained to me how they don’t like math and find it difficult to understand , and how it all changed into a fun experience after learning it through mental arithmetic.”

Tala Hammoud was one of Koder’s most prominent student that showed a huge amounts of skills after learning mental arithmetic , Hmmoud talks more about her experience , and how mental arithmetic stimulated new skills and talents within her :

“After my training in the field of mental arithmetic, I had the courage to present what I liked, so I presented my short stories and thoughts with the encouragement of the Director of the Mental Arithmetic Center, SomayaKhoder,  I also found that the stories I presented were gaining admiration and appreciation from some professional writers !”

Khoder added : “Mental arithmetic works on developing imagination and creativity also separating the senses, we have students who excelled in playing music and students who excelled in drawing, likewise, the student Tala hammoud  expressed her creativity in the Arabic language through a group of thoughts where she wrote stories in which she expressed her childhood and the psychological effects she went through after leaving her home with her family in Dier Al Zour city during the war, her hopes and dreams, where the mental arithmetic center was part of her participation in the Jaramana cultural festival in cooperation with the Arab Writers Union, Idlib branch.”

Tala Hammoud also memorizes all kinds of poetry, has the ability to recite, and prefers old original Arabic poetry, which has weight, music, and emotion, and is linked to people’s concerns and problems.

Is the study of mental arithmetic limited to children, or can it be learned by any age group we asked teacher Koder ?!

SomayahKhoder : “Mental arithmetic is not limited to a specific age group , but in our center we teaching it as as young as 5 years old”

What advice would you give to children’s parents to expand and raise their children’s abilities?

We always urge the student’s parents to continue activating the child’s cognitive side by following mental arithmetic courses, as well as encouraging their children to go to libraries and encourage them to read.

Mental arithmetic is such an interesting new way of stimulating children’s minds into a new territory of latent capabilities within them, push them into it!

Leen Al Salman