A Tale of 3 10-bead Abacuses

     The abacus is a wonderful math tool.  After trying numerous math manipulatives in our homeschool (pennies, Cuisenaire Rods, plastic interlinking cubes, etc.) we settled on "beads on a wire (or string)" as our very favorite.

     There is something satisfying about pushing the beads along a string or wire -- and besides, with an abacus, all the little pieces stay in the abacus-- not ending up scattered on the floor, in a crawling baby's mouth, or finding their way to unusual locations all around the house.

     Although the abacus was originally a Chinese counting system that is a bit more complex than the ten rows of ten beads that we've used, the term "abacus" has been borrowed to describe the simpler type, also.

     We used a 100-bead abacus for kids in K-2nd grade.  And for preschoolers, we found that offering a 10-bead abacus was just right; they might know how to count much higher, but when adding and subtracting they were using just numbers up to 10.  And giving them a 10-bead abacus made doing their math activities so easy, successful, and enjoyable.

     There are many versions of the 100-bead abacus available in stores, but it can be difficult to find one that is only 10-beads.

     The first one we used was a homemade abacus, made with a metal coat hanger.

     We used this type for many years (with several of our preschoolers), and the kids loved it! It was a little bit tricky to make, but very sturdy and worked great.  This abacus has very large wooden beads (the type used by preschoolers for stringing).  Instructions for how to assemble a coat hanger abacus are given in Gentle Shepherd's Preschool Math: Number Tiles (also there are lots of different work pages in this ebook, to be printed out and used with "number tiles" for simple adding and subtracting).

     In a recent journey online, I came across a unique type of wooden abacus.  This one can be 10-bead, or 20-bead, or 30-bead, or . . .  up to 100-bead.  The individual 10 bead sections are stackable, so they can be used in any combination or individually.  This looks like a great option for a preschool, and/or early elementary abacus.  It is sold by www.imaginechildhood.com.

     For more info take a look at this blog post about it: http://blog.imaginechildhood.com/imagine-childhood/2014/09/-our-favorite-things-.html

       And here is a third 10-bead idea.  This handmade abacus uses string instead of wire or wood, for the beads to slide on.  It is a sewn abacus, made using felt and string-- with the type of wooden beads used for macrame.  These felt and string abacuses can be found in my Etsy shop, Allthetimelearning.  One advantage to this soft abacus is that it can be folded or rolled up-- so it would be easy to travel with, tucked away in a bag or even in a purse.

       You may find ideas for other types of abacuses to make-- for example, using cereal loops on a string or building a very large version using rings from a baby's plastic stacking toy . . .  but no matter which version is used, the abacus is a learning tool that is very useful and helps kids learn math in one more way; besides thinking and seeing, they are also touching the beads.  Using the tactile sense is especially helpful for kinesthetic learners, but also can make doing math problems easier and more fun for any young learner.

       If you're looking for a joyful math experience for young children, give the 10-bead abacus a try!

Counting Cards . . . for Re-Doable Counting Fun!

My older kids, in elementary grades, were doing math work pages and other written schoolwork.  My young 3 year old was just beginning to learn his numbers, and I was looking for a special activity in number recognition, for him.

Thinking it would be fun for him to place number tiles to match with pictures, I made up some pages with pictures of items in groups . . . and a blank square near each group, for placing a number tile.

And it worked!  This activity was one of my young kids' favorite ones. The picture pages were passed down through several children, and it gave them something special to do for school-- just for them-- and just like their older siblings, they were doing "math pages."

Because we had a variety of different pictures, a very young child could go through them, doing one each day, and then start over again in random order-- so these pages could be continuously used for quite a while.

Later on, I redrew the pictures (our originals were getting worn), and made a set of these full-color pages that can be printed out (onto card stock); it is called Counting Cards, and is available either by itself, or in a preschool math bundle (along with Preschool Math: Number Tiles).

Here are some examples of the picture pages; there are 15 different printable pages:

For more info see www.gentleshepcurr.com/math.html

Math Without Writing . . .

Number Tiles! guest post on Dinah Ely's The Traveling Classroom blog: http://thetravelingclassroom.blogspot.com/2013/04/math-without-writing.html

 

A Preschool Big Bead Abacus

Here's a 10-bead abacus I made when my kids were younger.  We really enjoyed using this.  See the info below for instructions on how to make one.

Making a large-bead abacus is simple, but can be a little tricky.

First, find a wire hanger (this part is not always easy, as there are so many plastic hangers now). We did have quite a few wire hangers, so finding one was easy.  Also, you'll need some large wooden beads-- the kind that are used as lacing toys. They need to have a fairly wide hole.

Then, untwist the wire at the top, so both ends are open. Straighten out the end without the hook, so you can put the beads on.

Slip beads onto the wire, and past the curve so the rest on the bottom of the hanger. If you make 5 beads of one color and 5 of another color, this makes it easier to recognize larger numbers shown on the abacus.

Then retwist the wire at the top (the trickiest part; once taken apart sometimes it doesn't go back together exactly like it was before-- but if you work with it a little, jiggling and bending as needed, the two wires will twist together).

One more thing-- the hook needs to be bent inwards, so it won't be poking out, as a safety precaution.

Voila!  Now that the abacus is finished, you can try it out; your young preschooler will enjoy moving the beads one at a time, to count from one to ten. You can also work simple addition and subtraction problems by sliding the beads.

If you'd like some easy, extra-large-print math problems that are all ready to print out and use, take a look at   Preschool Math: Number Tiles.  In this one e-book, there are 4 sets of 20 pages each-- half the pages are for adding, and half for subtracting. Once printed out each set can be reused as needed, so this is a resource that just keeps going!

A Number Rhyme

One, two, three, four, Mary at the cottage door . . .

Five, six, seven, eight, eating cherries off a plate!

This was a favorite rhyme for some of our kids; we used it in a preschool notebook that we went through in the early mornings.  Number rhymes are a good way for young children to learn counting, and when a picture is added too, numeral recognition can also start to happen.

The picture page above is from Preschool Beginning Notebook Pages Set I, an ebook with 15 print-out pages.  Am hoping to have Set II completed this summer, and have already started making the pages.

Using a read-through preschool notebook (with pages that changed now and then, according to interests and needs) was one of the things I really enjoyed when my kids were young, and I know they liked it a lot, too.

Math With Fred

This morning James and I were reading his math lesson.  He's using Life of Fred textbooks, and is over half-way through the decimals book.  Just recently he started asking me to go through the lessons with him, even though they're written TO kids to read on their own (they are also written in a way that encourages kids to do all the correcting-- it's great!).  I'm not sure if he's asking me to read with him because he's needing help with math or because he wants someone to laugh with him about all the hilarious stories and language in this math textbook.

Huh, math textbooks funny?  Well, yes . . .  I wouldn't have thought so, either, because in my own school years, the textbooks we used for learning math seemed just barely tolerable. In teaching my own kids using many different programs and books, math has continued to seem like a necessary evil . . .

 . . . that is, until Fred came along . . .

Now, math is fun for me.  Not sure if it's always fun for James, as he still has to work all the problems . . . but it is much MORE fun than any other math book or program.

Thanks, Fred, for making math learning much more interesting and enjoyable.

And, you know what, since I've started doing these last few lessons I even remember things like how to find the area of a circle and a triangle-- things I NEVER remembered (beyond about 5 minutes) my whole life, whether in school math classes myself or in teaching math to my own kids.

It's said that laughter is a good medicine.  I think it's a good teacher, too. :)