Bought an abacus from a charity shop the yesterday. He saw it, did not comment. I got his spiderman mag (the young one) it has v. simple maths using pictures, but he gets annoyed if i do them with him. Anyway, I showed him the first one then did it on abacus, and he repeated it and then did the whole lot, I did not have to even explain minus 
. Then i asked 9-4, quick go on abacus, he shouts '5 mama'. Still in shock, will see if he does it tonight, as still do not believe it quite happened.
Oh ds, HFA, nearly 5, just started reception.
I'm guessing visually it really worked for him.
Oh and today on the way in he said as today was a beautiful day (sun!) he would call it a blue day.