Customer Reviews

Learning Resources Ten-Row Abacus

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Plastic is cheap. Wish that I could have found the same abacus I had as a child, one made of real things like wood and steel only, with a bowed front as to easily access he beads. My child can't really play/learn with this item because it is so cheaply made. My child doesn't particularly enjoy working with it. I feel because of the lack of quality as well as the deficient design aspects, this important learning tool has been cheapened to trash. It's not that expensive but for what I received it should have only been a $3to $5 item.

I bought this for my daughter because her preschool teacher said she was "not progressing" in math - she just wasn't interested. We've had this abacus for just 4 weeks, and I've personally seen my daughter advance dramatically - from counting 1-20 (she had a hard time with the teens at first), she went to 100, to simple addition, to counting by 2s and 10s, and now she's doing simple subtraction - all in the space of a few weeks. But the great thing is she loves it - to her, it's a toy, not work. She loves to show people the abacus and asks them to do math problems with her.

I suspect the key to the abacus may be that it uses the senses - kids can touch it, and I think that really helps. Now she doesn't even need to count out, say, 5 beads - she just clicks over 5 and off she goes. And the great thing is that she's started doing math on her own in her preschool class - she loves it now.

I can't say that this product is better than other abacuses, although it is well built and quite durable, but it certainly fit our needs.

The funny thing is that my wife wants me to buy another one for our 2 year old son, who is also fascinated by it.

Admittedly, I did not buy this product for the use they advertise - I pretty much have counting down, and this *does not* function as a real abacus in terms of learning to do more complex math functions (as it is easy to see it does not have the split and the 5/2 bead arrangement).

However, I've found two very handy uses for it and am quite happy with the product.

1) I originally bought this to keep track of the laps I swim in the pool. I like to relax and let my mind wander as I swim, and would inevitably lose track of the lap I was on - an issue in that I'm really trying to keep to a regime and increase the number of laps. Being mostly plastic, this can sit on the edge of the pool and get wet, and it takes only a second to flick a bead over as I turn (true, I don't flip-turn under water, that would make it impossible). The metal rods that hold the beads have not shown any signs of taking issue with the water, and I'm optimistic it will hold up well.

2) As mentioned in another review, this works great for knitting and crocheting, and keeping track of rows. I have a crafting pegboard made specifically for that, but it take a lot more time and effort to move the little pegs - you don't even have to put down your work to shove the bead over, and not more pesky trying to count the rows to remember where you are.

This may be a useless review for those wishing to purchase an educational toy, but maybe if it gives someone an idea of another way to tackle a different problem, it's worth it.

Learning Resources Ten-Row Abacus
I bought this because I do a lot of crocheting and decided this was an easier way to count rows while crocheting than to use pen and paper and I was right ...I really like it, even if it is listed as a Toy !!!

This is a great toy that really helps to teach math skills. My 5 year old grandson uses it as he is learning to add and substract.

I actually bought the abacus to keep track of the laps that I swim. I try to swim every day for my hip and used to use leaves. The abacus works perfectly because it lets me keep track of the different types of strokes as well as the total. I use it outside. It gets wet quite often and has been great.

This was a great buy. I bought one for a 2 yr old and one for a 4 yr old. It is durable, fun and educational. It occasionally gets banged and thrown around the room. The kids learn to count and learn colors too.

My daughter used this to help her learn addition & subtraction. Its a
great tool for children who are being introducted to math.

My son was having difficulty in 1st grade math. I bought the item to help my son learn his numbers and adding.
I chose this one from other reviews on the quality. My son is sometimes not so tidy and this cleans up easy and has been a great help for him.
He can now do his math homework in a few minutes, where before I had to struggle with him for the better part of an hour to do simple addition and subtraction.

This is a nice toy for our baby daughter who loves to play with everything that is round or has balls. It is rather solid but made of plastic, while for some reason I had the impression it was made of wood. Our daugther has dropped it to the floor multiple times and it is quite sturdy, still looks like new.