Abacus

[jrabbit]

I'm shopping around for an abacus for my almost 7 year old.  She "gets" math, but I'd like to enhance her understanding.  We mainly unschool, 3 girls approx 2, 7 & 11.

Here's what I've found - now I need help deciding!

wooden abacus from Kid Energy - 3 different styles

http://www.kidenergy.com/27-pacchi.html

http://www.kidenergy.com/27-us100.html

http://www.kidenergy.com/27-slavonic.html

or

Al Abacus from Right Start

http://activitiesforlearning.com/alabacusstandard.aspx

http://activitiesforlearning.com/alabacuspacket.aspx

[Googy]

I really like the RightStart abacus.  I love how each wire is bi-colored to help the child mentally group in 5s.  I also love the reverse side for working with larger numbers.  I really credit the RS abacus for helping my daughter really "get" advanced math concepts.  If your unschooler is interested, they also have a book of games/activities to do with their abacus:

http://activitiesforlearning.com/alabacuspacket.aspx 

[bass chick]

I would prefer either the Right Start Abacus, or else the 3rd link you posted from Kid Energy. I like having each number represented by a bead instead of the seperated upper and lower sections. I feel like it is more concrete, at least for starting out.

We are using Math-U-See and my son uses the abacus I picked up from Ikea to help him figure things out. I put a thick stripe on 5 of the beads in each row and it works the same way as the RS Abacus does IMO. I totally prefer the abacus to the base-10 blocks. I actually wish I had known about RS math before I invested in MUS, but I think that's just because it's MY preference, not necessarily ds' preference.