Age 3+. Solid wood construction. 100 wooden beads. Helps teach color and pattern recognition, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; encourages problem solving and hand/eye coordination. Extension Activities: Move any number of beads to one side of the frame. Ask the child to match your move on the wire below yours. This can also be done with a repetitive pattern - arrange the 10 beads in different groupings (eg 3 beads, 1 bead, 3 beads, 1 bead, 2 beads) that the child has to mimic on the wire below. Move a certain number of beads to one side and ask the child to count how many beads you moved and how many remain on the other side. Or have the child count from one to one hundred as they move that number of beads on each of the ten wires. Quickly move a certain number of beads to one side and have the child say how many were moved and what color they are as fast as they can (eg 7 yellow beads, 4 red beads, etc). See if they can get all 10 wires correct, or how many in a row can be answered correctly. Have the child try to make simple shapes using beads on multiple wires - a square, triangle, rectangle, diamond, or a perfect straight or diagonal line. Choose a number and determine how many different combinations you can find to achieve that sum. (Combinations of ten would be 9 + 1, 8 + 2, 7 + 3, 6 + 4, 5 + 5, 4 + 6, 3 + 7, 2 + 8, 1 + 9). Create larger numbers by assigning different numbers to the colors - blue = 1's, red = 10's, wood = 100's, green = 1000's, and yellow = 10,000's - or to be simpler, the five colors could be the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Line up any number of beads below each other (e.g. 1st wire - 3 blue, 2nd wire - 2 red and 3rd wire - 1 wood) and have the child add the totals together to determine the sum. Do addition, subtraction, and even simple multiplication and division problems by using the first wire for the first number, the second for the second, and have the child answer it on the third (eg 7 - 1=3). After putting a certain number of beads on the first and second wires, yell out the type of problem (addition) and have them race to get the answer. Draw or say a capital letter, and have the child create its shape on the abacus (eg the letters A, I, E, L are good ones for starters). Melissa & Doug products meet or exceed all US toy testing standards and pass our high quality requirements. We care about your comments. Please call us! www.MelissaAndDoug.com. California 93120 compliant for formaldehyde, phase 2. Made in China.