Abacus Mind Math Instruction Book Level 3: Step by Step Guide to Excel at Mind Math with Soroban, a Japanese Abacus (Abacus Mind Math - Level - 3 ... Book, Workbook 1 of 2, Workbook 2 of 2)

I purchased the entire curriculum: all Instructor’s guides and all workbooks. I began using the curriculum for my two children, who were 4 and 5. First, (as mentioned before) students do need to know how to read numbers from 1-99, know place values (ones, tens and hundreds) and be able to write numbers.I had no previous exposure to the Soroban; therefore the Instructor’s Book was essential. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly - with dedication and work - my children picked up the skills necessary to use the Soroban. Ten months after starting the curriculum, my children are halfway through book three of the six workbooks. We have taken two weeks, instead of one week to repeat about three lessons which they found to be difficult. Additionally, I am currently taking about three weeks to practice mental math with them, as this skill has provided the greatest challenge (although both children are doing better than I would have predicted).I would highly recommend this curriculum with some caveats:1. You must be committed to sticking to the 5-6 day per week schedule.2. This commitment includes practicing with your child daily; it is likely that they cannot do this without a parent unless they are older than 12. (For example, I spend an hour on Mondays introducing the new lesson and practicing. Tuesday-Friday, I spend from 30-45 minutes with my children as they practice/do Soroban homework).I have found the customer support to be extremely helpful. They have emailed me detailed responses and spent a good deal of time on a phone call to answer some of my questions and concerns.If you have the time and discipline, this program can work very well for your child/student. I would never have imagined that my 5 and 6 year old would be capable of doing three digit mental calculations before I started using this program; it really does work and I am hoping they have plans to release additional levels that introduce multiplication, division, percentages, decimals and negative numbers for children.

The reason I am writing this negative comment is that this Kindle version (just a replica of the paper book?) is down sized to the screen of the Kindle AND NOW, it is VERY HARD TO READ for two reasons: 1. the letters are tiny 2. the contrast of the image is poor and the contrast is uneven, therefore the letters are also of uneven grey tone, additionally to tiny size. Even a couple of pages are quite tiresome for the eyes.The paper book has color coded representation of abacus beads in the figures. These colors only show as quite similar tones of grey on the Kindle screen and it is hard work to interpret. The reader's mind should not be exhausted by the effort of reading and understanding the presentation of the material due to poor imagery. More than that, there are some instructive color figures that look undistinguishable, identical grey tone, also. In other words, the Kindle version is useless on a black and white Kindle screen.I cannot return this expensive book but I cannot enjoy it and probably will not have the patience to go through reading it even once. What is my recourse? Purchase the paper form now? Obviously, not enthused! I feel like I got sucked in.So far, I only got readable, good Kindle books. From now on, I will ask a sample to see if quality has issue, ALWAYS!The only remedy I have is that I found the downloadable PC app for Kindle and this book looks ok on the PC screen. Can I carry my PC with me? No.