Customer Reviews

Plan Toy Fun Abacus

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There are no real surprises with this little teaching tool, which is a good thing.

The abacus frame measures roughly 10.5" x 10.5" x 1" depth. The frame is solid, unfinished rubberwood, and the 100 beads are separated by tens on a durable plastic cord that is woven through holes on either side of the frame and tied firmly in one place. The cord, which is translucent blue, is recessed into grooves in the sides of the abacus, so that you would not know it was cord rather than, say, the more traditional metal rods that are used on most abacuses, without a closer examination. The cord, of course, is less rigid than metal, so the beads can bounce a bit, like if you're carrying the abacus around.

The 1/2" wide wooden beads are brightly colored with a stain (the wood grain, as is the case with all Plan Toys, is still visible beneath this water-based stain), meaning that over time and use, you won't be subjected to chipping paint as would be the case on many of the competitor's abacuses (ie. Melissa and Doug). I think this is important, because these little beads are going to see a lot of wear and tear, and if there were paint to be chipped and lost you could end up with a shabby-looking and possibly hazardous toy if the paints are not as non-toxic as is claimed. I appreciate that Plan Toys has devised a safer method of brightly coloring their wooden toys. The beads move very smoothly and easily on the cord provided, perhaps a bit too easily, as my daughter seems to move ones a row below or above that which she is working on, quite unintentionally. No matter, I think she will learn quickly what way to move one row of beads at a time without accidentally manipulating others.

The abacus sits on two wooden blocks which can be rotated to make feet for a standing abacus, or turned in until they are flush with the base for a wall-hanging abacus. There is, of course, a blue rope handle at the top for carrying or for wall hanging.

My four year old daughter - who we purchased this for - has recently developed an intense interest in all things mathematical. Thus far, she has been using her fingers to add random numbers, though with only ten fingers this limits the possibilities. We initially bought her some dry erase workbooks, which she enjoys, but she seems to be so visually-oriented that I think this will be a much more useful and comprehensive tool. Within the first five minutes of exploring it, she grasped the concept of subtraction - something which she was previously unsure about - and was able to create and solve her own subtraction problems verbally, while using the beads to demonstrate.

I have no doubt that any 100 bead abacus would serve as a great learning tool for any child awakening to the world of mathematics. The visual concepts, the convenient easy access layout of numbers 1 - 100 can't be matched elsewhere.

So, why choose the Plan Toys abacus over any other standard abacus? Well, for me it's because I believe it's made of safer materials, and will be more durable in the long run. Frankly, if the cord which holds the beads were to break (and I don't really think it will, but just hypothetically) it would be a cinch to restring the beads.

My only single complaint - and it is a minor one - is that I wish five of the ten beads on each string had been colored differently, to make counting by fives easier. Counting by fives is something my daughter already knows - at least up to about 60, and it isn't an impossible task via the abacus with the single-colored rows, but it will require a little more visual acuity.

I purchased this abacus so that my son could take it to school. He is used to the playme abacus at home. This abacus is nicely colored like playme abacus, but my complaint is that it is hard to addition or substraction with this abacus as the bead are small and on a string. If the abacus was bigger, there would have been enough spae to create between the beads to sort or to addition, bu that is not the case. I wish that the abacus had larger frame. All in all this is an okay abacus, it is sturdy and should last a long time. We have had the abacus for more than 2 months now.