Professional private math tutors at both the Math Genie schools in the state of New Jersey in the United States of America use a number of methods and ways to teach children in their abacus math lessons how to use an abacus to solve their math calculations. Children can be taught to eventually and quickly count to solve math problems when using an abacus. The abacus is a counting tool. It consists of beads referred to as, heavenly beads, on the top of the abacus and earthly beads at the bottom of the abacus. The heavenly beads are worth five points each and the earthly beads are worth only one point each. There is a bracket in the middle of the abacus that divides the beads and is used for counting. From right to left, the first column represents the ones or the number ones place, the next column represents the tens place and so on. Counting with the beads is not difficult to demonstrate to children once the teacher understands the abacus math counting system.

One way that parents as well as the teachers at the Math Genie schools can teach their respective children how to use and abacus is as follows. Step one. They can show how to represent the number sixty three on the abacus. This is done by placing the abacus on a flat surface. Ask the child to count four columns from the right to be in the thousands place. Step two. Write out the number on a blank sheet of paper where the number will land directly underneath the column it represents. Leave the ones and tens columns alone. Have the kid move one heavenly bead down and one earthly bead up to represent six in the thousands place and move three earthly beads up to the hundreds column.

Step three. Show the child how to add. Ask the child write eleven point one one underneath sixty three on the blank sheet of paper and add the two numbers to equal seventy four point one one. Ask the kid to move one earth bead up in the thousands place and in the hundreds place to represent seven and four. Then move one heavenly bead down and one earthly bead up in the tens column to represent eleven. Step four. Show the child how to subtract. Ask the child to write seventy four point one one subtracted by eight to equal sixty six point one one. Ask the kid to move one earthly bead down into the thousands place to represent six again. Ask the child to move one heavenly bead down and push one earthly bead up to represent six in the hundreds place.