This is kind of hard to explain, but I'm going to try. Feel free to comment questions if what I'm going to say doesn't make sense.
Absolute Value
∞ # of spaces away from zero
∞ how far away a number is from zero
1). Draw a number line.
2). Label it from -12 to 0.
3). Count on the number line from -12 to 0 and see how many units to the right you have to go to reach zero. The answer is 12, so that is the absolute value.
|-12| = 12
