Hello Ann,

It's okay that he doesn't know them as well as his sister. They all develop differently. Just keeping doing what you have planned to do, it sounds like a good plan. And now that he is taking to the board give that time for him to catch up, I saw results with my son in about 3-4weeks. I noticed his understanding come alive.

As far as the abacus I hear that regularly that they think it is a "sissy" toy or a "baby" toy. Just continue to remind him it is a TOOL for math, Just like his pencil and paper are tools to aid in his math.

The abacus is the concrete tool he needs to learn the the facts, or better said the strategies on how to solve his math facts. Have him use it more until you see he doesn't need it anymore.

He may need some games that help him in the "quantity" area. The cards would be the beads, the tally sticks and the hands, have him spend more time doing the visual games that have quantity and not just the numberic symbols.

But never stop playing "Go to the Dump" it is too valuble, also, do rosw and columns, and corners.

Have you done the Cotter's Fractal yet?
If you haven't you may want to consider that so he can also have time constructing the place values of ones, tens and hundreds.

Overall, keep doing what you plan to do, add in the games that teach numeration, or quantity; focus on his place value, as he needs to understand what makes a ten and what makes a hundred and so on. Use the abacus as long as it takes for him to visualize it. And take your time, there is no hurry, give him time to find the method he understands.

Keep me posted on how it goes.

Thank you,
Carissa
Customer Service Rep