Valerie,
First of all, I am not an official rightstart rep, just a parent using rightstart.

You can either use a second abacus or erase side one, and proceed to do the problem on side 2.

As far as the columns between the place values on side 2, you don't really have to "do" anything with them. They are mostly there just to give a little space between the different units (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.)

Hope that helps some.

Lisa

Thanks Lisa.

After reading a few things on the forum, it became clearer to me.

thanks for taking the time to reply.

Valerie