Vedic Mathematics
I keep myself busy nowadays reading a lot of books. A few years ago when I was traveling to Delhi and had about two hours to kill in the airport, I went into the bookstall and was brousing for some books. A book by the name of Vedic Mathematics by Sri Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja caught my attention. The cover had the picture of a yogi sitting under a tree with a lot of animals around him writing. The title itself was very intriguing. I knew that our ancestors were very good in math and were credited with inventing the zero. I also knew that they were very good in astrology and cosmology which are entirely based on mathematics. I always wanted to brag about this with my foreign friends. This was a good opportunity to learn about this and I though I would get some facts to support by bragging.
All mathematical calculations boil down to four basic mathematics operators: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. Addition and Subtraction are the basic operators as multiplication is repeated additions and division is repeated subtractions.
Traditional methods expect the children to remember at the least multiplication tables from 2 to 15. We as children were expected to know the tables up till 20 by heart. My father had this mean streak in him which made him catch me unawares at all times and ask me what is 16 x 8, and believe me I was in for a trashing if i was not able to answer him within a quarter of a second. The other day I was helping a girl with her Xth board examinations in quadratic equations where we have to split the middle term as factors. She was not able to give the result of 13 x 6. She had to recite the 13 tables and come to the result. I was surprised and at the same time a little saddened that she had not learnt the tables by heart. Maybe the children nowadays are not taught to learn the tables by heart. After I read the book on Vedic mathematics my whole concept of multiplication has changed. The book claims that all multiplication can be boiled down to learning tables up to 5 X 5. I have been able to teach some young children multiplication techniques and they are able to give the product of bigger numbers by some mental gymnastics without using pen and paper.
These techniques need to be taught to children. They are very easy and easy to implement.
Squaring big numbers and finding out square roots of perfect squares is very easy once the children practice them a bit. Finding out cube roots of perfect cubes is still more easier. Similarly divisions and some higher math problems can also be taught to children easily.