Young maths whiz wows in Japan
Mfundo Mthimunye went with a group of learners as part of A+ Students for a maths boot camp and brought two trophies home.
A nine-year-old mathematics whiz from Sherwood Gardens recently attended the World Soroban Festival and Bootcamp in Tokyo, Japan.
Mfundo Mthimunye won an International Soroban Diffusion Foundation (ISDF) award and trophy for the levels he achieved during the camp and festival competition.
A+ Students is a Japanese method of education that teaches children as young as two to solve complex arithmetic problems by playing with educational toys like the soroban (abacus) and A+Play Maths range of educational toys.
In the programme, A+ Students help children to develop their left and right brain capabilities.
According to his mother, Palesa Mthimunye, Mfundo began showing a fondness for numbers in Grade One, bringing home certificates for numeracy.
“This year he requested that he be entered for math competitions and vowed that despite the fact that he had only three weeks to prepare himself for the regionals, which were held in Benoni, he was going to put in his all and give it a go,” Palesa said.
Read: Why mathematics matters
Mfundo’s A+ teacher, Alishia Erasmus, took the challenge upon herself and did everything she could to help him manage.
Mfundo performed well in the regionals, which motivated him to join the group that was going to Japan in three months, although his peers had been with the programme for a few years.
Mfundo’s teacher had to deal with a tight programme, but expressed her level of confidence in him.
Mfundo and Alishia fit in the required practice for him to be at an acceptable level for Japan, even if it took waking up at 2am every morning to practice.
The Grade Four learner at Veritas Preparatory School in Springs is a busy nine-year-old.
He plays cricket on Mondays, has swimming and chess on Tuesdays, cricket and Afrikaans lessons on Wednesdays, swimming and karate on Thursdays and golf and English classes on Fridays.
All of this he does as extra-mural activities after school.
The youngster’s next goal is to compete in Germany and receive a first place at an international maths boot camp and come back to teach other children who don’t have the opportunity to do soroban maths.
The goal-driven boy is now raising funds to cover the cost of the camp.
Mfundo’s wish is to learn how to build aeroplanes and be a pilot one day.
“When I grow up, I am going to sell helicopters which I am going to build myself, and to do that I have to know maths and social science,” he said.
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