Hi: I have been homeschooling for two years now and it has taken me this long to discover that my child is truly hands-on when it comes to learning. She is going into the 5th grade, has been diagnosed with ADHD, loves math but is still having problems with the basics. She still uses her fingers to count. My question is: would the AL Abacus help her to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or will it just become another crutch like finger counting? Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

Kathy

Thank you for your email!

The AL Abacus is a wonderful tool to get away from the finger counting! It may seem in the beginning that your daughter is using the AL Abacus as a crutch, but really she is just using it as it needs to be used. I would advise not to take away the AL Abacus at any point, even having it sitting on the table helps the child visualize the answer. Once she realizes that she can visualize the answers in her head it won't be long before she notices that the AL Abacus takes more time to show the problem! When this happens she won't be using it anymore, and its usually a gradual transition! Of course each child is different but by the sounds of it using the AL Abacus will be very successful for your daughter!

The AL Abacus can be used for many different functions and both of you will enjoy how easy it is to "see" the answers appear before your very eyes!

If you are using another program I would advise purchasing the AL Abacus and Activities for the AL Abacus. The two together add a large variety of activities! In addition if you are looking for something fun for her to do with learning all of her math facts, I suggest the Math Card Games Kit. This does come with an AL Abacus, and has over 300 card games to play on a large variety of subjects!

I am confident the AL Abacus will be a great hands on visual that she needs in order to gain confidence and success in math! :)

I hope this helps! Let us know if there is any thing else we can do to be of assistance! :)

Make it a great day!

Cassie

Cassie:

Thank you so very much for your help. I had been sitting here for so long trying to figure out what to do about the problems she has with math. We will certainly work then with the AL Abacus. Thanks again for all your help and your time. Kathy