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This abacus is flimsy and each time my kids or I touch it, I fully expect the thing to break. I've used the abacus with my older child for homeschooling and teaching basic numeracy; however, it's cheaply made and I would prefer larger beaded abacus to use with my younger child. If I could go back in time, I would purchase a wooden Slavonic abacus.Best Deals for Learning Resources Desktop Abacus
We are using this abacus to supplement my first grader's math skills. Its been working really well so far as she likes the tactile feel of using it to add and subtract. Its a great kids abacus, although I am learning along with my child as I never used one growing up. My 2yo also likes to get in on the fun. RightStart Math required an abacus which started this journey and its really been more rewarding than I expected.Honest reviews on Learning Resources Desktop Abacus
This abacus goes with Rightstart math. It is not really a toy. It is a math tool. It may seem flimsy (as one reviewer wrote), but mine is used daily by a 5 and 2 year old and has held up fine. I have a wooden bead abacus too, but we use this one because it actually does something...like I said, not a toy...a tool. I am actually buying a second one today because my boys fight over the one we have. We have had ours for 1 1/2 years now and it's still in perfect shape. I can't say the same for many of the other well loved toys we own around here. If you are actually doing math with an abacus...you need this...not the cute wooden bead one such as what Melissa and Doug sell (I love their stuff, but their abacus does not lend itself to really be used for math).I want to clarify too...it is not flimsy. It is lightweight and the beads move very easily which is great when little ones are calculating. Not much fun to have to struggle with your abacus when calculating something. If you get it and don't know what to do with it...check out Rightstart Math. My son is doing incredibly well with it and can manipulate numbers easily due to what he has learned through that program. We really love it!
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In the middle of the school year, we moved to a more rigorous school system and I needed to help my first grader catch up to his classmates in math. As a kid I remember having a traditional Fisher Price abacus with rows of ten beads in alternating colors. I never really "got" that abacus.After reading the explanation that came with this one the logic made perfect sense to me and seems brilliant in its simplicity. It even made me think about how I add in a different, more intuitive way. I believe this helped my son get a handle on beginning addition. He definitely liked moving the beads about and having a physical way of figuring out the problems.
We already had Cuisenaire Rods (http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Connecting-Cuisenaire-Introductory/dp/B000F8T9HW) and a Plastic Base Ten Number Concepts Set (http://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Base-Ten-Number-Concepts/dp/1564514498) But, for the way his class was learning addition, the abacus was particularly helpful. After using it for a while you start to visualize the answer in your head, and if you don't have the abacus, you can use your 5 fingers on each hand using the same concepts.
Sometimes we get out the Cuisenaire Rods or the Base Ten blocks instead depends on what's getting covered. I'm actually glad I have all three ways of showing math concepts.
I will note that my father-in-law, a former high school math teacher, briefly looked at the Abacus declared he didn't get it at all and said we should just get a "chinese" style abacus instead. My husband grew up with a Chinese style abacus (obviously his Dad taught him on that) and also claims he doesn't understand this one at all. (I think he's only put about 3 minutes into looking at it.) But, I'm the one who usually goes over the homework and I "get" it, as does my son, so, I'm sticking with this one.
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