Sorry that abacus won’t do. The beads need to move longwise across the wire. Order the books you need and JUST the abacus from rightstart. Tell them ( by phone or email) that you are only buying the abacus and not the complete kit as the postage price is scaring your wallet and ask them for minimal packaging and cheapest possible shipping for your goods 
They have gone to a bit of effort to make their abacus quite user friendly for children. I don’t know if you will find a good alternative for the long run. The abacus we have is a VERY popular toy in this house. Money well spent. Better value than the zuzu pets and barbie car they got! lol
Painting a wooden one would be better than not having one at all though
Thanks Manda. In that case, I’ll definitely get the abacus. Do you think it is necessary to buy the math games cards? They are $30 which seems expensive. The card game DVD is only $5 - I’m wondering if it’s possible to make the cards (but of course you’d need to know what should be on each card!!)
Ok so I dont have the cards, just the CD. The cards are too small. I don’t like using resources that I don’t love so I figured making the cards would be one of the many chores I end up doing in the next month or two. We have played a few games using regular cards but it isn’t ideal. I can look into this question further (study my CD) and let you know my ultimate verdict Oh we already have a photo of the cards somewhere on this forum I saw it months ago…if not we have ways 
We are way off topic, I just wanted to check that we have fully answered the original posters question. I am pretty sure we have turned half the forum into rightstart sales people on the way! lol
You could absolutely make the RS cards yourself although after watching the DVD on games I just realized it would be fairly difficult to glean everything you needed from them…
It is unfortunate that the cards are such poor quality, and VERY tiny…they are very plain as well, just printed on card stock. Truly too bad as the games themselves are great!
I actually believe that these card games would be a fantastic addition to any math program! Indeed, the WTM forums are filled with parents doing just that :yes:
If there are a few of you wanting these, I am sure I could take a couple of pictures and maybe write out the sequence for DIY cards? Would that be helpful?
Ooh - that sounds like a great idea, thank you Kerileanne :yes:
If others are interested, perhaps we could work together to create better printable materials to use for games? I’m happy to be involved and we can print out onto card or laminate at home.
Apologies if my questions have drawn this discussion off topic! I’m coming to the conclusion that taking small bits from many curriculae is the best way but does not need to involve buying the most expensive items that a particular company sells.
Hopefully between us we can help find ways to include as many different maths teaching methods as possible without breaking the bank
Are we allowed to discuss the content of the JG packs? I have purchased one and it does seem to me that some of the steps for the first level could be carried out with homemade materials without necessarily needing to buy the entire package. I don’t want to upset Dr Jones though!
I’ve also just created a Yellow is the Sun powerpoint presentation that can be used alongside the video on youtube. I’ve uploaded to Brillkids, so hopefully will be available for others to download in the near future.
IZP11-
No problem, love to have a bit of help as it will be a bit labour-intensive?!
Still, a great-cost benefit ratio!
Also, please PM me with your UK details! Hubby is from UK and we are arriving via York in July! Possibility of meeting and or swapping of materials!?
Okay, RS… I will work on details and pics in the next few days! Truly believe that BrillKid Moms could do a much better, higher quality card!
I dont think there is a problem with discussing any of the educational materials parents are using.
ThanksSkylark!
I wondered about sharing a fantastic idea we did combining the Melissa and Doug magnetic numerals we used:
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/magnetic-wooden-numbers-learning
With the JonesGeniuses ‘dot’ system to use on our dishwasher… We also used a magnetic paint additive within our regular primer to make a regular wall magnetic–as most of our new Stainless Steel Appliances would not attract magnetic letters and numbers in the kitchen!
We used stcky dots punched from blackened pre-stick dots, if anybody is interested!
Planning a new blog about how we teach and incorporate various math programs with Alex! Any recomendations for where to place it?!
Loved your idea about magnetic walls, – simply brilliant, we might do that! :yes: Just need to persuade hubby we need the walls re-painted :ohmy:
Skylark!
It might help him to know that the area in question can be added to paint the same color as the rest of the kitchen!
For example…on a recent visit to our house, Dr. Jones stared at the wall area under our kitchen breakfast bar for a while, quite puzzling me, before asking…“how are those magnetic letters sticking to the wall?!”. It really does appear very similar to the surrounding paint, although if you look VERY CLOSELY, the texture is different!
Here is what we used, mixing in into a primer (2 coats!) then sanding before painting it with paint to match the surrounding color!
Hope this helps!
If not, sure I can manage a picture!
He He lol Dr Jones is obviouslt a clever man to have even noticed! Lets face it most people wouldnt even question why, they wouldnt notice it was unusual at all! I didnt know you could get a magnetic paint! Very cool. I could think of a hundred uses for that!
I was thinking maybe rightstart would sell/give us a digital copy of their cards so we can expand them to a more early childhood friendly size and print them ourselves on colored card. Kerileanne do you think you would have any success asking them? as a “prefered” customer :laugh: Or I could shoot them an email… Lot less work than us making them all, they have to have a digital copy to make them themselves…worth a try I reckon.
Hhhmmmmmm, don’t know about the preferred part, but willing to ask!
It definitely would save a lot of work!
I’ve spent the afternoon pricing the RS manipulatives on amazon.co.uk and it works out pretty expensive that way. What a shame the shipping costs are so high as it looks like a great programme.
Seastar-
If you can hold off for a couple of days I might have some more cost effective ideas for you!
So, I spoke with the RS coordinator that deals with the very young this morning and explained the problems we are having with the card games…too small and too flimsy/plain for toddlers…they are just designed for older kids…I will know for sure tomorrow, but it seems as though they will be willing to provide a digital version of the card games, although not sure what the cost will be. They really are very interested in how the program can be adapted and tailored to toddlers…we are keeping a written and recorded version of our progress and lessons…
So that is quite exciting and I will let you know as soon as I do!
A couple of other things…there really are not very many manipulatives that you couldn’t find locally, either exactly the same or similar enough not to matter. Things like tally sticks popsicle/iced lolly sticks, a clock, coins you will want local currency anyway!), very little that is not easily found. In fact, much of the day-to-day lesson materials are things you cut out from printed sheets in the appendices!
Also, don’t know if you guys have seen but they sell a CD version of all the worksheets and appendices for all of the levels!
The Yellow is the Sun song that is the basis for most of the early lessons in on YouTube, posted there by RS…I will again post the link!
So if you teach your kiddos how to show up to ten on their fingers, and how to do the same thing with the tally sticks, according to the song, you really can get started. Then make sure they can go back and forth between tally sticks, their hands, and the abacus (although you could easily add that later). For example, when we first started I would show Alex a number of fingers and have her show me the corresponding number of tally sticks, working our way through all possible permutations, if this makes sense. If not, I can probably get her to do it on camera and post it on her YouTube channel…
Try to avoid counting fewer than five items, as the goal is to get them to see things in blocks of five and ten.
Just in case, here are the lyrics to the Yellow is the Sun song to get you going! Make sure they can show you on their left hand numbers up to five…
Then…
Yellow is the Sun
Six is five (left hand) and one (right hand)
Why is the sky so blue?
Seven is five (left hand) and two (right hand).
Salty is the sea,
Eight is five (left hand) and three (right hand)
Hear the thunder roar,
Nine is five (left hand) and four (right hand)
Ducks will swim and dive,
Ten is five (left hand) and five (right hand)
Hope this helps get you started, and I will let you all know regarding the card games!
In the meantime, you can absolutely get started
Wow Kerileanne99, you move fast! Thank you for looking into this for everyone - karma to you! I’ll be following this topic with major interest. And I hadn’t realised they sell a digital copy of the worksheets etc, that should definitely cut down on postage.
We watched the Yellow is the Sun video on youtube a few times today - she seemed interested enough in it. Looking forward to tackling maths more systematically, thanks to the other parents on this, and the other maths threads!
Of you are just starting with math with your little one I would suggest using the song “one two buckle my shoe” to lay it the tally sticks. You can use your fingers too.
One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six lay down sticks (I change that because I am laying sticks down)
Seven, eight lay them straight
Nine, ten, begin again…( Or a big fat hen.)
Oh, yes, Thanks Korrale4kq!
I had forgotten about that as she already knew that when we started! If you are starting very, very young or are just setting out on your math journey, that rhyme is incorporated into the very first lesson!
And now that I think about it more, the Yellow is the Sun Book (not the YouTube version) actually includes the song for teaching from one…we just never used it…here it is in it’s entirety, the song simply repeats the chorus for both hands:
Yellow is the Sun,
This is only one.
Why is the sky so blue,
Let me show you two.
Salty is the sea,
One more and it’s three
Hear the thunder roar,
Here’s the mighty four.
Ducks will swim and dive,
My whole hand is five!
Yellow is the sun,
Six is five(left hand) and one (right hand).
Why is the sky so blue?
Seven is five(left hand) and two (right hand).
Salty is the sea,
Eight is five (left hand) and three (right hand).
Hear the thunder roar,
Nine is five(left hand) and four( right hand).
Ducks will swim and dive,
Ten is five (left hand) and five (right hand)!
** the handedness is due to the fact that we read left to right!**
If anybody has trouble understanding my descriptions, please post as I am quite sure you won’t be the only one! I am so used to doing this with her that I well might neglect something necessary for understanding!
Ooh thank you for the rest of the song!
We also song the Ten little Indian boys song tune.
1 little, 2 little, 3 little tally sticks. (or fingers)
4 little, 5 little, 5 little tally sticks (fingers)
7 little, 8 little, 9 little tally sticks (fingers)
10 little tally sticks (finger) James has.
Korrale4q-
Great idea on the song using Ten Little Indian boys!
We used that song to teach place value, as in, "how many digits are in one hundred, how many digits are in one thousand, how many digits are in, etc…, count then and you’ll see! (after singing the question each time she would tell me in a shout and find the corresponding number on a bingo chart I made!
And we ended with, " how many zeros are in a zillion, etc…" oh, that represents infinity!". ( no real number for a zillion, just represents an infinite quantity…’
When you are ready this is a tremendous amount of fun!