If you have tried teaching yourself (or others) the basics of Quantum Computing (or Quantum Information Science) using one of the many already available wonderful textbooks only to feel overwhelmed by the mathematical apparatus (or just its syntax) then this workshop is for you. In just three hours we outline an approach and a curriculum for an eight-week long class, that acts as a bridge to the standard quantum computation curriculum but in which the math starts to feel supportive, organic and helpful, instead of oppressive. We should stress here that, in our view, there is nothing wrong with mathematics; mathematics by itself is not oppressive. We use mathematics to help describe things going on in the physical world around us. To a physicist, the math is an inextricable part of our understanding. Unfortunately, not everyone is good at mathematics, and most have little, if any, training in physics. We give concrete examples of proving properties for quantum gates and quantum circuits (and describe completely well-known, fundamental quantum algorithms) without resorting at all to complex numbers or matrix multiplication. Yet the abacus operations you will see and learn during the workshop are indeed mathematics (albeit extremely elementary). They are symbols on paper that we manipulate according to fixed rules. We will provide three things: free copies of “Q is for Quantum” by Terry Rudolph, complete printed set of papers and worksheets developed for this workshop, and links to Quantum Country (as an example of the standard material taught in an introductory quantum computation course) and Martin LaForestʼs excellent booklet prepared for young (high-school) students enrolled in summer programs at IQC Waterloo in Ontario, Canada (as a reference). We will then proceed to show you how one can use Terry Rudolphʼs rewriting system (which we call the “Quantum Abacus”) to guide their students to the place where we would all like them to be, no less, but going through a stage where they would feel indeed that they “really understand” what our mathematics “means” in terms of stuff that goes on in the physical world.