Lindsay,

Thank you for your message. Also thank you to Kristina for her spot on reply. We do sell a variety of different abacuses.

The difference, besides price, between the standard and classic are the frame type. Standard has a red plastic frame, while the classic has a wood frame.

Make it a great day,


Cassie
Activities for Learning-RightStart™ Mathematics
Cassie@ALabacus.com
www.ALabacus.com

Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics.

I have one of each. I love the look of the classic, but the beads do not slide as easily as on the standard. It doesn't bother me when entering numbers, but resetting it is a little annoying when they get stuck half way across and you have to push each row back individually. I don't know if all are like this. I can only speak for mine.

I've heard that the 'sticky beads' problem is common. What we did, is I rubbed the beads back and forth, back and forth, along the wires, as much as I could stand. I'd find which individual beads were being 'sticky' and I'd spin it and rub it and press it on the wire while rubbing it...

Eventually the stickiness did wear down and it works fine now. But it was VERY annoying at first and I did have to work at it quite a lot. I'd still rather do this and have the wooden abacus than go for the plastic, but it would be even better if they were smoother.