First through third grade in the early 1960s, we learned arithmetic with the aid of an abacus our parents purchased in September at the beginning of the school year. Now, plastic is not my favorite material for tools and equipment, but I acknowledge the plastic abacus was a thing of beauty. Smaller than the one illustrated above, it had a dark colored frame with four spindles, each divided into a lower and an upper level. There were five beads on each lower level (for single units), and two on top (for fives). The first spindle (onesies) on the far right had translucent green beads, like candy Life Savers. The second column (tensies) had transparent red beads. Not sure, but the beads on the third spindle for hundreds may have been yellow, and perhaps the fourth, for thousands, were in blue. You counted out a number below, and traded five below for a bead on top. When you reached ten, you traded the two beads on top for a bead on the next column.

The new abacus was colorful, gleaming, more like a toy gift under a Christmas tree than a work aid. But it was very useful. Instead of just memorizing addition and subtraction tables, we could visualize and touch the numbers, and experience what 2 plus 9 meant, the logical process of adding, rather than just learning verbal labels for the answers. I can still see the colorful beads of my very own abacus, twinkling on the top of my school desk, so thrilling.


(I found the above image via Google images. The URL is http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/abacus.gif
I found no information about conditions for use, but I suspect it's ok to share it in this way. The number on the abacus above, by the way, would be 123,456)