Thanks so much for your reply...I did end up taking a long Dec/Xmas break, and we came back to it just this last week. I don't know what happened, but she is now "getting it". All I did during the break was write out some equations on our dry erase board, and have her do them with or w/o the abacus (her choice). Now she can do them w/o the abacus. I am still looking into SM simply because it seems to provide more independant work for her, and I would eventually like her to do some work on her own. I like how RS is set up, so does anyone have thoughts/comparisons on the two programs? (I will be starting RS with my younger son this Fall.)