This article has been moved to the Right Brain Child. You can click the following link to read it:
How to Teach Math Using Shichida’s 65 Day Program
How to Teach Math Using Shichida’s 65 Day Program
This article has been moved to the Right Brain Child. You can click the following link to read it:
How to Teach Math Using Shichida’s 65 Day Program
SHEN-LI LEE is the author of “Brainchild: Secrets to Unlocking Your Child’s Potential”. She is also the founder of Figur8.net (a website on parenting, education, child development) and RightBrainChild.com (a website on Right Brain Education, cognitive development, and maximising potentials). In her spare time, she blogs on Forty, Fit & Fed, and Back to Basics. View more posts
Nurture for the Future
The 65-Day program has been updated to 63-Day, with major differences. When I asked the staff, she only briefly said that the 65-Day was too tough for younger learners, so it was simplified to the new 63-Day program. As the principal mentioned before, Shichida Method keeps evolving with latest discoveries.
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Thanks for the update MieVee. Do you think you could elaborate a little on the differences? We appreciate any info you could share with us.
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Great post shen-li can you please explain cycle 3 and 4 as you mention that there are 4 cycles….. what should we display on cycle 3 day 1????
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Oops, my bad… I missed that part. You are supposed to repeat the whole program again and that makes up cycle 3 and 4.
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hey thanks
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Hi Shen Li
Good day to you! I’m very intrigued and have learnt so much about right brain education–thanks to you for such an informative blog!
From what I understand, Shichida do sell their line of products from their centres in KL, but I’m in Sarawak.
I am contemplating purchasing Shichida Math Dot program and Shichida Holistic Kit from http://www.babyworld.com.sg, but if there are Malaysian online stores where I can purchase them (to save on time and shipping!), please do recommend.
Thank you so much for your informative right-brain parenting blog and have a blessed week ahead!
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Hi Lily, Shichida’s books translated into Chinese are available at Popular bookstore and I bought one at ibaby.my (service is good and delivery is low cost). I came across the 63-day set at http://shop.ibaby.my/?product-1916.html. But I’m not sure about the quality as this set is not produced by Shichida Institute or Tensai.
Shichida centre actually doesn’t sell a special set for the 63-day Programme — the detailed instructions are in the handbook and parent can use any set of 1-50 random dot cards plus homemade cards to complete the Programme. But since you don’t have the handbook, this set seems a good alternative. I just hope the contents are reliable and cards are of good quality. Have fun! 🙂
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Hi Lily – Looks like MieVee has answered your question. Even though Shichida products are available at their centers in KL, you can’t purchase them unless your child is attending their center. I went there hoping to buy their products, but they said they couldn’t sell them to me because none of my children were in their schools.
I didn’t know about shop.ibaby because I can’t read Chinese 😦 It’s starting to appear that not being able to read Chinese is a real downer because a lot of Shichida stuff is available only in Chinese…
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Hey MieVee & Shen Li
Thanks for the suggestions! I have noticed too that there are many Shichida materials such as books and activity kits in Mandarin…and ibaby.my does have several selections to choose from. Anyway, just like what MieVee has said, the kits are not endorsed by Shichida Academy, but they “replicate” the activities espoused by Shichida.
I am not proficient in reading Mandarin, but in order to learn more about Shichida, it does give me some motivation to brush up on my Mandarin. 🙂 Btw, I’ve read that reading Mandarin words is an excellent right-brain activity…
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Lily – yes! I’ve also ready that reading Chinese characters helps to develop the right brain because they are more like images than words. Unfortunately, I can’t read any Chinese and my spoken Chinese is rudimentary at best. I hope my children can learn…
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Hi Shen-Li,
I’m new to this Right Brain education. I would like to know the how many times a day do I need to flash the cards. For example, as you mentioned on Day 1, we show red dots card 1-10. Must it be a red dot card? Can it be a picture dot card? Let say after I flashed him the 10cards and he wanted for more, what shall I do? Do I continue with dot 11-20 or keep flashing the 1-10 cards for the whole day of Day1?
Pls advise…thanks
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Hi Annabelle – you need to flash once a day. Shichida method is red dots but he also said you should show picture dots. You can flash more if your child really wants it, but I would be careful not to overdo it. Doman says it is important to stop before your child wants to stop so that you keep him interested. If you want to flash more cards, start with 11-20. Don’t keep flashing the same set over and over. Too much repetition activates the left brain.
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Hi shichida parents,
63-day Programme that is selling in ibaby.com is EXACTLY the same material in shichida center ? Can any parents confirm that?
Thanks
Lygine
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I cannot confirm, Lygine. As mentioned, Shichida only sell dot cards (1-50) and give instructions on how to carry out the 63-day Programme. I’d presume most buyers of the 63-day set aren’t Shichida students.
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hi,
i hv few questions :
1. when we flash the dot cards, do we need to say out the numbers as well?
2. can i show red dot cards on first day…then maybe picture cards on the 2nd day? mixing dots & image cards throughout the program?
3. when can we start with our kids? my babies just 6mth nw..can i start with them? if yes, how do we teach the Image calculations part?
thanks.. 🙂
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Aryl – yes, do read out the numbers as well. As far as I understand, Shichida says you should show picture cards, too, but he was not specific about how it should be done. The Doman program is just red dots in random order. Shichida’s program includes dots and pictures, random and ordered.
6 month old is fine to start. It is probably easier as well because your baby will be more receptive. Older children can be quite restless and may not want to sit down to look at flash cards. If your child is too young, I would ski the image calculation and just do the flash card part.
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Hi ShenLi,
Thanks for the great info on Shichida’s method. I had a question. If we follow doman’s method, we ‘ll be showing each dot card around close to 15 times, and I think in tweedlewink, they show it around 2-3 times(I am not sure, please correct me if I am wrong). And looks like Shichida recommends around showing only once. I tried showing the cards to my kids around 3 times, and tried testing them, but they got it wrong. I was wondering what your experience has been and your suggestion on the number of times we should show.
Thanks,
San
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Hi San,
May I ask how old are your children? I think somewhere in between is a good. I generally adopt a mixed approach now. I’ll show them 1-4 times depending on how well they receive the flash cards. If really interested, I’ll show more times. For subjects they don’t like, I’ll show only once. I don’t really test my younger one because right brain philosophy is that from 0-3 is meant to be input and he has another year before he turns 3. After giving the flash cards a break, I take them out again to flash a couple more times. The idea behind this is that when they are older, reviewing the flash cards again will form new connections with the new information they have now stored in his brains about the world they live in because a child six months older has learned a lot more about life.
I hope that helps.
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thank you SO much for this wonderful article!
i’ve been researching the methods for my four-month-old and have found a bunch of material, but very little regarding the Shichida method – you’ve answered my questions!
i’m very excited to get started on this!
we’ve been doing letters and number flashcards since she was about 2.5 months old and she seems to enjoy them, however, i suspect that this method will be much more effective in developing her right brain and making her into the genius that she’s destined to be!
thanks again for your help!
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My pleasure Trix. I started writing about it because I, too, found it difficult to find information on this method and it was very frustrating. I’m glad it has been helpful for you! Good luck!
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Hi shen- li I cannot thank you enough for taking the effort and time to pen down all your experiences into this blog for sharing. It has opened up a whole new world for newbie parents like me.
Would like to ask you if my child is 9 mth old, and 20 mth old, how do I get them to do the ‘image calc’ part for day 59-65? They are too young to write it out for me. Should I skip that and go straight to ‘which one’?
Many thanks
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Hi Nic,
Yes, that’s what I did. You just do whatever they are capable of participating in and skip the other bit until they are older.
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Hi Shen
I have a question, I have 8th month old baby, We are on Day 14th we stop for a week because he got sick and confined at hospital. i dont know if im going to continue the red dot method or we have to start over?
Thanks,
Misty
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Hi Misty Aira – to be honest, I’m not sure. But even when we stop for a couple of weeks (when my sons have shown no interest to continue) I usually resume where we left off when they are ready for lessons again. If you are concerned that a little “revision” might be in order, you can probably continue where you left off and repeat some of the earlier sessions as you go along for a bit more reinforcement. You should follow your child’s lead and gauge his level of attentiveness to new and old material to decide whether it is necessary for a “refresher” or not.
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Hi Shen-Li. I’ve confused about instruction from day Day 55 to 58: Introducing numbers. As details in the day 55 mentioning: Show 1 dot equals “1?, 2 dots equals “2?, 3 dots equals “3?, 4 dots equals “4?, 5 dots equals “5?, etc. It means that we have to show 1-dot card then say “equals” then showing number 1, next showing 2-dot card then say “equals” then showing number 2….. Thanks a lot for your advice by return.
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Duyhoa – No need to say equals. Just show the card with one dot and say “1”, then the card with 2 dots and say “2”, and so on. When showing equations, you would say “one plus one equals two” showing only the dot cards as you say the corresponding number. If you follow Doman, he says that eventually, all you need to do is show the answer card – so you say, “one plus one equals two” and flash the card with two dots only.
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Additionally when showing equation, supposing 1 + 1, we say 1 (showing 1 dot card) plus 1 (showing 1 dot card) and flash 2 dot card without saying “equal”?
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Thank you so much shen, your advice is very helpful. 🙂 Godbless
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how would I teach mandarin to my child for right brain activity if I don’t know how to read it? it is only spoken very little. Also, is this acceptable for teaching more than one child at the same time?
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Hi Sonshi,
I strongly recommend using a program that teaches proper pronunciation and you learn alongside your child. I used BrillKids Little Chinese program because it is a flashcard system. They do not follow right brain per se, but you can tweak the program to make it run faster (in keeping with right brain flash card methodology). There is also another program called “wink to learn” which has a Chinese series that plays at rapid speed that you can try. You can take a look at it here:
http://www.winktolearn.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=7&category_id=25&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2&view=details
And yes, you can definitely teach more than one child at the same time. In fact, I do believe it is better with more than one child because they can provide positive reinforcement for the other.
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Hi! I’m so glad to see your blog. I have been doing the doman method with my daughter for about 8 months now and we are covering equality/inequality and she seems to have lost interest. When I do some problem solving with her on previous material she seems to either look away or choose the wrong card. I am worried and not sure how to re-start… Do you recommend moving to Shichida 65 day math program or do you think it would be too much.. Thanks so much, I hope to hear from you.
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Hi Adrienne,
I think you might have to try recapturing her interest. The looking away and choosing the wrong card may go hand in hand. I found that whenever my son didn’t want to do what I wanted him to, he would deliberately get it wrong as a way of stating that he no longer wants to play this game.
You can try Shichida Math and check her response, move on to something new, or give it a rest for a little while. There are no hard and fast rules because every child is individual. You’ll need to test the water to see what works.
Good luck!
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Hi Shen- Li, could you pls correct my understanding about this method, in day 10 of this programme, when we start teaching the math fomula, only say 1+1 = 2 ( show the 2 dots card) OR show 1dot + 1dot equal 2dots? and my child is 30 month kid, so i can teach this for my gal? tks much,
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The problem with older children is that they may not be interested. Personally, I would do it unless my child was really protesting against it.
As for teaching the formula, you show the equation: 1+1 (on one side of the card) equals (flip the card over and show the answer) 2.
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Hi shen-li. Can I check with you for the flashing of these flashcards, is it speed flashing too? Any idea if it is included in the shichida syllabus or just additional home lessons to do with out kids? Thanks!
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Hi Jenny – yes. It should be speed flashing, too. I do not know if they do this in Shichida class as we have never attended a Shichida class. It is not done in Heguru, though. I only know about it because it was covered in the Shichida home practice manual.
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Hi for the reply. My boy is currently 2 year old but has speech delay so he can’t talk much and I saw some steps that I have to ask him questions that he will not know how to answer me. Is there any age guide to do this? Thanks.
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Jenny – I also did this program with my son before he was old enough to speak, too, and I just omitted the ones he couldn’t do.
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Hi, I’m a bit confuse abt day 15, that is not addition of one?
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Hi Regina,
I just followed the Shichida guide and this is what they had. I’m afraid I cannot explain why they did it this way.
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Hi Shen Li, Can I start this program with my son at the age of 1 ?
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Hi Kiri,
Yes, you can. Although you may have to modify the questions to facilitate answering.
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Dear Shen- Li, pls explain to me that, in new shichida math programme, only teach until 50 intead of 100, tell me which are the reasons about the change ?
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Dear Shen-Li,
when we start flashing equations like for example (6+10)÷2, do we need to say out the word ‘bracket’?
For example, say out loud……”bracket 6 plus 10 divided by 2″…..or “6 plus 10 bracket divided by 2”.
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Hi
Thank you so much
Ive been doing it with my daughter since 2 months, she’s 22 months now
I Never tested her
But the other Day she repeted “ten” after me
So I showed her a 10 dots card and a 20 and asked her To show me the 10 dots card
She showed me the wrong one…
This really discouraged me
As I often read testimony about little babies showing the good card
I haven’t a lot of money so i did the cards smaller than the original
I wonder if that the reason of her wrong answer
I became To ask myself if I did everything for nothing and if i should continue or there is no point in continuing….
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Can u plz tell in detail for cycle 2 also as u hv tell fr cycle 1. M Nt understanding addition form n further how to keep introduce 2nd cycle to them in addition n futhur. In cycle 1 u hv keep addition in vry different method m Nt understanding. Pls explain. Tht I can do further. Thank you.
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Cycle 2 is similar to cycle 1 except that you are using the higher number dot cards. Some days are repeated from Cycle 1 – so just go back to Cycle 1 and follow the instructions for the days you have to repeat.
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My LO is 3 years old. Can I still do Shichida math program with her?
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I would still give it a go and see what happens. At the very least, it will help develop some numeracy foundation that she can build on later on.
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