Manage to chance this thread..
My son started Abacus when he was 3yrs 10mths and he was not the youngest then
He is in CMA.. they will do an assessment on the kid before intake.
So able to start young or not, depend on school also the child ability to write the numbers and if the child able to know at least 1-10 basic.
My son now in K2 now and going to his Abacus advance level end March, but I am going to withdrawn him soon, as he has got too many ECAs .. however starting young, give him the head start to be more discipline in his work , cos Abacus work (CMA) has to be done repeative .. that mold him to be discipline and patience.
And I agree with PET that Abacus is not relevant in Primary school anymore.
My sisters two daughters from MGS, withdraw abacus when the reach Primary school like P2/P1, cos the Primary school Mathematic is not as simply solving number statements alone, a lot of comprehension on the Maths problem, also working need to prove the answer, so they have to use modelling instead. however since they did CMA before, this enable them to count much faster, that's all.
The lead teacher in the CMA school once told me this that Abacus is mind training for younger kids and should start young , since their brain is like " sponge" can absorb things faster