Our modified, wannabe "Right Start" Abacus

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I have been hearing so much on the forum about the Right Start math program and while it looks nice, I wasn't sure if it would be a good fit for us. I was intrigued by it but not 100% sold.

So, lately we have been practicing more skip counting with the kids with LM and reinforcing with the abacus. What I liked about the abacus was that there is no mess to clean up after, but it didn't seem to be as effective as it could be. I decided a long time ago to paint our Melissa and Doug brand standard 100 bead abacus, but finally buckled down and took a few hours out of my morning to actually do it. I used a paintbrush and it's definitely a mediocre, amateur paint job, even my  spray gloss coat completely missed some of the beads somehow. I realized as I was finishing that I should have just replaced the beads with colored ones from a craft store, but I used what I had on hand didn't cost me a cent out of pocket. I previously looked at the RS abaci but I didn't care for the plastic ones and though the sturdier wooden ones were overpriced.  I bought this one for about $8 last Christmas but I have seen them for $5 or less at kids thrift shops, on craigslist, and garage sales from time to time, any brand will do.

It started out looking like this-



I started to paint it while the beads were still on it, I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to take the thing apart. However, right away I could tell that it was going to be a pain and was better off taking it apart. Turns out, it only required a screwdriver and 1 minute to easily disassemble it. Plus, this allowed me to separate the beads to pain the yellow & natural beads with the brighter yellow paint (which required less coats than painting over dark blue). I painted the blue and green beads with bright blue. I split up the red beads and those were the biggest pain to cover, took quite a few coats.    I slid them on bamboo barbeque skewers to dry and spray with a clear coat.



I could have used any color paint I suppose, but I chose RS colors in case I decided to use their iphone/ipad app or official workbooks in the future things would match. 

 

An "official" version for comparison, $35 plus shipping on their website.

 

The results were profound and instantaneous! I highly recommend dismantling an abacus you may have at home to paint or slide on new beads. It really helps the kids learn to think in 5's and 10's and it helps ME teach more effectively when sliding the beads around for skip counting. The kids' interest in their abacus has risen dramatically from just a few coats of paint. It was time well spent and I only regret not doing it sooner. Using the supplies you have around the house will save you money if that's important to you, but using spray paint versus a brush will speed up the process a lot and save the frustration of multiple coats to cover the red, for example. I happened to find some spray primer in the shed AFTER the fact and it would have really helped to get the paint to stick easier, I wish I had found it sooner. 

I like that it's super sturdy wood and I don't have to worry about plastic cracking like the cheaper RS branded ones. One of the points of the RS abacus is that it can be "flipped" horizontally  once kids reach a certain level. That can easily be resolved by simply taking the base to home depot or a similar hardware store and having them cut it exactly in half. Then, the "frame" will be flush all the way around and it won't cost me a penny.  (They typically do 1-3 cuts at no cost, much easier than begging  nagging asking my husband to do it.    I am waiting to do this until the need arises and if we decide to purchase a few workbooks from them or something. If you're not opposed to plastic and don't already own a basic abacus, the cheapest place to buy one is here, although it may be generic, not sure: http://www.rainbowresource.com/pictures/004083/bbefffc017e50c65d1b6c7d7 If I had to do it again, I would probably try to get one that was even bigger for my son's little hands, he is still working on fine motor skills, and then painted it myself still but this time with spray paint. If I can find a cheap, ginormous school/daycare type abacus used locally, I still might. If you google "homemade right start abacus" or "Paint right start abacus" you'll find some other ways to make one of these yourself, such as with wire coat hangers and a wooden picture frame, or with pony beads and popsicle sticks. HOWEVER, being that most of our kids are still pretty young and can be hard on things, I felt safer knowing that just repainting this old one was better than giving my kid something that can be broken easily that they can potentially hurt themselves on, like exposed wires or wire coat hangers. I have no qualms about letting them play with this Melissa and Doug one until their hearts content without worry, today Lily was "teaching daddy" math on it.

So, go be inspired and take apart your abacus and slap some paint on it! You'll be glad you did. 

PS This was actually inspired by another lovely, talented member here who made her son a giant RS styled abacus. I hope she reads this and decides to share her beautiful handiwork!

[Korrale4kq]

I am sold! I will be doing this now too. I agree about the RS abacus. I like that thus one will stand up.

[bella]

i did the same with ours . i do have he righsart abacus but was too little for my toddler to use , and since we already have a melissa and doug one they play wiht , i ook it apart and spray painted , and it made such difference , my daughter early righstart lessons were with this one , of course now she graduated to the smaller rightstart one . like her , her borther didn't treat the small abacus well , too light and small , he was playing with it happy slidong the beads back and forth making noise . when i gave him the big one that can stand on the floor she immediately started moving beads and counting the right way . i really recommend using a bigger abacus whith your tiny tots .
also i wonder if anybody made another more exciting colorful bigger version of early right start cards , beads , finger counting , tally sticks ,... the cards supplied by the ki are not exciting at all for babies .
viv

[Mandabplus3]

It looks great! The extra size alone would make it completely worth the effort of doing this. The right start abacus is fairly small. Fine for my older kiddies but a bigger one would be better for younger kids. Regardless of their fine motor skills bigger is more "obvious"  for learning. If I had another abacus here I would attack it like this, a spare would be infinitely useful, especially a spare that stood up!  My kids often want ours at the same time.
I find teaching with the abacus in groups of five SO much easier. Very inspiring TMT
Bella, The cards we are working on I sourced all of my extra supplies locally and many of them are much bigger, brighter and easier to manipulate.
Simple things like a bigger venn diagram or physically solid 100s cubes can make a big difference. Also copy all the cards you have onto coloured card stock or paper for a little more interest.

[bella]

hi Manda , i have actually 4 right start abacus , 2 minis, 2 regular , and the one i modified huge one like the melissa and doug , and because the small ones are so  ligh kids don' take them seriously , so the big one worked better for us . you will need two at some point to add hundred , but by now tina is ok with the small ones , i keep one in each room for quick access , and on ein the car .

[seastar]

What a great idea! I have the IKEA one & I can't figure out how to take it apart. Any ideas?

[lzp11]

I think this is a great idea too, but my DIY / woodworking skills are fairly terrible 
Do you think it is possible to spray or paint the beads without removing them from the frame?!?! 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/archive/index.php/t-291877.html

According to this page, this woman cannot take apart her IKEA abacus either. However, I pulled up another google search which returned a forum post that MAY say that it's possible with a hammer, but the full post won't load and is no longer on the site even when searched directly. I will include it as an attachment below.

Hypothetically , let's say it cannot be disassembled. What I would do it gather up some masking tape and spray paint ideally, and a Mr. clean magic eraser if necessary at the end.  This will be a bit of a pain but its possible to do. (just a little time consuming.)

1. Use masking tape to cover the rods that the beads are strung on. Slide all the beads to one side and wrap the metal or wood horizontal rod. Slide them to the other end and repeat.

2. Cover any and all bases and side of the abacus in masking tape as well. The ONLY thing that should be exposed is the beads.

3. Tape off HALF of the beads, leaving only 50 exposed, of the first color you want to paint.

4. Spray those beads with spray paint. Separate with a tooth pick or barbeque skewer  as needed so they don't dry stuck together.  Reapply a second coat if needed.

5. I would probably wrap the newly painted beads in paper power or paper BEFORE putting masking tape on it, just in case it leaves a sticky surface or tries to take the new paint off along with the tape after all your hard work.  So first add a protective layer of something then masking tape off the newly painted beads. After covering the freshly painted beads, UNCOVER the beads that still need to be painted.

6. Paint your second color beads with 1 or 2 coats as needed.

7. Once dry, carefully remove all of the tape and voila! Your masterpiece is complete. If you got paint on the metal rod or elsewhere, use a magic eraser to take it off. They work on just about anything, but go lightly to try not to damage the surface any more than necessary.

[CVMomma]

Just curious how hard it is for a young one to go from using this type of abacus to using the soroban??

[tlyoung]

I love this idea! I purchased our M&D abacus today and hope to get the paint this weekend.

Thanks!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

CVMomma,
I wondered the same thing and it's one of the reasons I held off using a slavonic abacus with the kids for so long. After hearing about the great success of AAngeles Daughter Ella, I decided to give it a go. What I've found is that the RS style in particular helps kids think in 5's and 10's which is a fantastic lead in to the soroban which is a lot of 5 + ___ because the upper heavently beads are worth 5 and the lower earthly beads worth 10. So both involve a lot of 5+___ but the RS helps visualize the initial understanding better I think. We have not been at it nearly as much as Aangles & Ella, but that has been our short term experience. There has been no conflict, and if anything one complements the other. If you would have asked me this question a year ago without experiencing it for myself, I would have given you an entirely different speculative answer. Now I know better. 

[CVMomma]

Thanks, Tmt.  I have been thinking about getting a M&D abacus (still trying to convince Hubby that it is a good thing to spend $ on).  I was thinking about taking it apart but not painting it.  I would just switch the colors that are already there so there would be 5 of one color and 5 of another color on each rod.  Maybe if we were using RS already we would go with blue and yellow.   What do all of you experienced moms think about mixing the colors up like that???

Anyway, hopefully, I will convince him that it would be better to buy so I don't have to try to make one of those too    

[jamiew]

Thank you! I have a weekend project now.

[Mandabplus3]

CVMomma, if I wasn't using right start I would just switch the colours up. I am naturally quite good at minimizing work And see no reason to paint them unless you see your self doing right start in future.
The only other consideration is it would be easier to visualize the abacus in your mind with only 2 colours. So if eventually you were aiming for Anzan then paint them. If you plan to use your abacus for introductory math concepts and are not looking for a long term abacus program then just switch the beads.
Or buy two! Then you can swith them by 2's for skip counting by 2's then by 5's then by 10's, 3's......

[CVMomma]

Thanks Manda! 

I am very interested in RS math, but my hubby isn't     so...maybe someday.

I know it would be easier to visualize the abacus in my mind with 2 colors, but since it is my 2 yo who needs to do the visualizing, I'm not too worried about that.  She can visualize way better than I can!!

Buy two?!?!  I am having a hard time convincing him that we need one!  It does sound like a great way to learn skip counting though!

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