Perfect Score on the Zento-sho Math Test! How to Create a Home Environment That Nurtures Mathematical Talent

The other day, my eldest son brought home a perfect score in math from the Yotsuya Otsuka National Unified Elementary School Test.

As a parent, this is, of course, a happy event.
However, to be honest, when I saw the results, the first thing I felt was not "I did it" or "That's amazing," but rather something closer to relief, thinking,
"Oh, it's functioning properly."a feeling more akin to relief than anything else.

And at the same time, I also thought:
How can I explain this perfect score without being misunderstood?

This article is likely not about the "strategy" you might be expecting.
"What textbooks did you use?" "Which cram school did you send him to?" "At what age did you start advanced learning?" "What were the specific test preparation methods?"
If you opened this looking for such reproducible "recipes," honestly, you might be disappointed by what follows.

That is because what we have done in our home is actually the opposite.

This is not a story about techniques.
It is a story about how the "environment" of the home during early childhood shapes the way a child's brain functions.If you are interested in something deeper than just how to get points in the short term, please bear with me for a moment.

1. A "Health Checkup," Not a "Goal"

If I may be so bold, this perfect score was not a surprise to me.

This is not bragging.
Rather, it is the opposite; it is closer to the feeling that I was not surprised by the score precisely becauseI have almost no memory of making the "score itself" a goal.

Most math test preparation is an approach that repeats patterned problems and enables the rapid reproduction of solutions as "symbol processing."
To give a simple example, memorizing multiplication tables or formulas.
Or, "If this pattern of problem appears, solve it this way."
If this kind of text appears, it's a certain type of math problem, so use this method to solve it. That kind of thing.

Of course, this has a certain effect.
I was also a middle school entrance exam tutor, so I know well the importance of practicing "how to solve efficiently within the time limit" when it comes to actual tests.
However, its essence is the "reproduction of memorized patterns." To put it extremely, this is also the area that AI is currently best at.

On the other hand, when I watch my eldest son facing a difficult, unseen problem, what is happening in his head seems to be a different phenomenon entirely.

He does not treat problems as "drudgery that must be solved," but rather as"a game of playing with puzzles in his head."The ability to visualize space and the ability to think logically are linked relatively smoothly. I think it is closer to that state.

Therefore, for me, this perfect score was not an "attainment point," but rather the result of a "health checkup"to confirm whether the environment we cultivated in early childhood is still functioning correctly.When he came out of the classroom after the test, what I asked him was not "How was it?" or "Did you do well?"

"Which problem was the most fun?"

He answered that question with a shining face:

"The very last problem!!"

I am watching much more closely to see if "his thinking is still moving happily" than the numerical value itself.

2. Things many parents do thinking it is for the best

I will go a little deeper from here.

Regarding math education, there are two major misconceptions that I feel are a real waste.
Neither of these involves parents who are cutting corners.
In fact,the more enthusiastic and loving the family, the easier it is to fall into these traps,which is what makes this problem so difficult.

A. Does fast calculation mean you're good at math?

Making children memorize numbers as "symbols" and competing on processing speed.
How many digits can they solve in how many seconds? Timed challenges or math drills filled with similar patterns of arithmetic. You know the ones.

However, in that process, the"sense of quantity"that children naturally possess—that is, the ability to physically grasp numbers as "groups" rather than symbols—can gradually wither away.
Even if that approach works in the lower grades, it suddenly stops working the moment they reach the higher grades where the level of abstraction increases. It's a common sight.

B. Reaching the correct answer efficiently

As I mentioned above, in many cases, studying math refers to memorizing formulas and patterns for solving problems, and then applying them to the questions.

When you look at the explanations in math textbooks, the solution is there, but the "why" behind that line of reasoning is very often missing.
Sometimes a geometry problem starts with "If you draw an auxiliary line here..." and the child panics, thinking, "How am I supposed to know to draw a line there all of a sudden?"
Because that "why" part is missing, they are forced to memorize, "When this kind of shape appears, I have to draw an auxiliary line here."
Ultimately, that is because it is the most efficient way to reach the correct answer by the shortest route.

However, once that habit becomes deeply ingrained, children freeze when they encounter problems that cannot be solved by patterns.
What we really want to nurture isthe ability to find joy in forming one's own hypotheses and continuing to experiment even while making mistakes,yet that is exactly what is being lost.

I am not trying to deny the value of massive amounts of worksheets or paying for famous cram schools.
However, I wonder if these things sometimes becomeacts to soothe the parents' own anxieties rather than for the child's learning.This is something I have asked myself many times.

3. The Mirai Plus style: "Tricks to make math a strength in early childhood"

Working backward from the current results, there were three "environmental designs" that were naturally embedded in our daily life between the ages of 0 and 6.

These were not special teaching materials or gifted education programs.
In that sense, we did not send our children to preschools or math schools, and we still don't.
Most of what I did wasthe way I interacted with them, woven into our daily lives.

The specific methods for math education are summarized in detail in videos at Mirai Plus, which we lead.
That currently consists of over 20 hours of lecture videos, and it is still growing. Since it is impossible to convey everything here, I will show you a small portion of the essence.

① Numbers are "blocks that can change shape"

Before rushing into reading, writing, or reciting numbers, I casually blended the "structure" behind numbers into words and play in every situation of daily life.

For example, in a situation where there are "4 cookies," instead of just having them count "1, 2, 3, 4," I would say something like this:

"There are 4 cookies, right? ...Look, they split into 2 and 2! Oh, if you move one over here, they become a group of 1 and 3. The shape has changed, but it's still '4' in total."

• "How many are there at a glance" for the group in front of them

• "How can that be broken down and how can it be combined"

I blended these concepts into every moment of daily life, such as when eating snacks or lining up toy cars.
It's not about buying drills, but about using your voice to translate the scenery of daily life into "numbers."

The result. The other day, he saw the clock pointing at "7:06" and laughed, "Oh, the devil is coming. It's 6:66." 7:06 can also be called 6:66. He must have heard somewhere that 666 is the number of the beast, and that's why he laughed, saying the devil was coming.
He isn't bound by the "rules" of the sexagesimal system; he can freely manipulate and rearrange numbers in his head for fun.
It seems that for him, numbers have become toys that he can move around at will.

(2) Seeing through to the "essence of shapes"

Another thing I was conscious of was cultivating an eye for extracting essential shapes and patterns. I won't go into detail here, but for example, whenever we had spare time, we would classify the "circles," "triangles," and "squares" hidden in our daily lives.
It's about the accumulation of small ways of showing things and interacting in daily life.

As a result, he can take one look at a complex QR code densely packed on a pamphlet and correctly guess, "This one and this one lead to the same place." He sees through the isomorphism of the structure, not the details, in almost an instant.

(3) Do not subtract from what they "love"

The third thing was to let him use his hands and body to the fullest during his early childhood.
I had him experience tens of thousands of times how the world changes when he uses his own hands, not on a screen or on paper, but in real space.

I started full-scale worksheet learning when he was in his final year of preschool.
I had bought worksheet materials before that, but they were more like "reference books for parents," and I didn't make my son do them.

Instead, I had him focus entirely on concrete objects.
Using his hands, seeing with his own eyes, grasping space, and strengthening his connection to the real world.

I had let go of the ideal image of a "well-balanced child who is reasonably good at everything" somewhere along the way.
In his case, there was a fierce love for "rules and structures." You could call it a singular obsession. So, I spared no household resources in allocating them there.

His current hobby is shogi.
He has become a child who can tirelessly run simulations of tsume-shogi (shogi puzzles) in his head, thinking, "If A moves like this, B changes like this, and C is checkmated."
I think that for him, difficult math test problems are just an extension of that "usual game."

4. Why this prescription might not work for your child

Some of you who have read this far might be thinking, "I see, I'll try the same thing at home."
Or perhaps, "Isn't it just that your child was a genius after all?"

So, I will be honest with you here.
Even if you trace our family's methods exactly, you probably won't get the results you expect.
In some cases, it might even become a slightly stifling burden for your child.

The reason is very simple.

At the very least, the reason he ended up this way in the field of "math" is not because he was a special genius.
It is because I systematically adjusted the environment to match the "visual and logical individuality" he happened to possess.

His mathematical ability would not have blossomed if he had just followed commercially available textbooks or cram school curricula.
Where he wanted to stop and do more, where he sometimes wanted to step back, or conversely, where he wanted to skip ahead.
I adjusted the environment to accommodate his comfort.
I believe that is what kept his interest and curiosity in math alive without closing them off.

So, this is the most important part of this story.

Where does your child's individuality lie?
Depending on the child, their unique talent will bloom from a completely different entrance and in a completely different form.

You probably have wonderful, classic educational toys in your living room, like Magformers or pattern blocks.
But have you ever felt frustrated when you tried to apply the "Instagrammable ways to play" that you often see on social media, only for your child to get bored immediately or start playing in a different way?
With this wonderful activity, such a skill should have blossomed in my child, but my child showed no interest at all. Oh, maybe it was impossible for my child.

That is not because the child lacks concentration, nor because the educational toy is a bad fit. It is just that the way your child perceives the world and the way you are presenting the toy are slightly out of sync.

No matter how wonderful an educational toy may be, it will not become a key to unlocking a child's true potential unless it is translated and presented in a way that matches their unique way of perceiving the world—their individuality.
Even with the same teaching tool, if a parent develops a 'custom interpretation' for their child, it transforms from a mere plaything into a tool for cultivating a genius-level cognitive operating system.

We have interacted with thousands of parents and children, and among them, no two children were exactly the same.
When you consider the combinations of parent and child, the possibilities are likely infinite.
Even if another child had the same mathematical personality as my eldest son, the approach and the results would be different.
This is because even if you give them the same blueprint, what grows from it will be different.

Therefore, what is truly meaningful is not copying someone else's success story, but rather,
for the parent to become a 'dedicated editor for their one and only child.'
It is about setting up the home environment to suit that child's individuality.

Whether it is math, language, art, or music, I believe the essence remains the same.
That is the substance of the 'individuality education' we have practiced in our own home.

5. Conclusion

In this article, because my eldest son achieved a perfect score on the Zento-sho math exam, I have written as honestly as possible about our family's education so far, including 'why we did what we did' and 'what the results were.'

On the other hand, I have intentionally avoided delving too deeply into the details of 'specifically what we did and how.'
As I mentioned above, Mirai Plus currently has over 20 hours of math lecture videos available, but the answer to what you should actually do is completely different for every family and every individual child.

You can find plenty of 'what to do' by searching on the internet or social media.
Accompanied by spectacular success stories and sweet promises that make it seem as if your child could become a 'successful person' just like them.

But the moment you turn to those generic recipes, the most important thing—the child's own uniqueness—spills out and is lost.

There is no magic method that works for everyone.
So, if you have felt,'I want my child—not anyone else's—to learn with excitement and sparkling eyes, and to be absorbed in what they love,'then please know that we at Mirai Plus are here to continue providing that kind of support.

If reading this article has moved you even a little—don't overthink it, just take a look at the official Mirai Plus LINE account.

That small feeling of curiosity is surely the most reliable starting point.