How to use an abacus with young kids: the counting frame
The counting frame is the abacus most families have at home: ten rows of ten colored beads. Push beads to the left to count them. Tap a bead below to try it.
Count with the beads
Counting (ages 2 to 4)
Start with one row. Push the beads across one at a time and count out loud together: one, two, three. Then ask for a number ("show me four") and let your child push that many. Moving each bead while saying its number builds one-to-one counting, the first big step in early math.
Seeing 5 and 10 at a glance (ages 4 to 6)
On this frame, the first five beads of every row are darker and the last five are lighter. Children soon see that seven is "five and two more" without counting each bead, and that a full row is ten. Ten rows make one hundred. This "fives and tens" picture is the same idea the soroban uses, so it prepares children well for the abacus course.
Adding within 20 (kindergarten to 1st grade)
Press Add two numbers. Show the first number, then push the second number across, filling the row of ten first and going on to the next row. For 8 + 5, the first row fills with 8 + 2, and 3 more go on the next row: 10 + 3 = 13. This "make ten" strategy is one of the most useful mental math tricks children learn in 1st grade.
Next steps
When counting and making ten feel easy, move on to the place value abacus (ones, tens and hundreds) and the soroban, where one bead can be worth 5 and each rod is a place. Printable practice is on the worksheets page, and there are more ideas in our guide for parents.