Mathematics
In the Montessori areas of Practical Life and Sensorial, your child is introduced to pre-math concepts such as temporal relations, spatial relations and one-to-one correspondence. Your child’s knowledge is enhanced by matching, grading, comparing and contrasting the qualities of the materials with which they work. Pre-math concepts of one-to-one correspondence, classification, seriation and equivalence are fostered in all the sensorial materials. Moving on to the math materials is a logical and easy transition for your child.
The materials in the mathematics area are designed to allow the child to experience the concept in a practical or concrete form. They discover quantity, shape and size through exploration with these resources. For example when learning to count to ten your child will use the number rods, these rods provide a tactile experience of length with rod ten being ten times longer than rod one. Your child counts using the rods in sequence both through tactile experience and verbally.
Having mastered this your child then moves on to learning to recognise the numerals using sandpaper numbers – once again a tactile experience for them. As confidence and knowledge grows, your child will automatically progress onto the decimal system, addition, multiplication, subtraction
and division.
With all the math materials, no matter how advanced, the child always begins to use the material in a practical, concrete way before moving on to the abstract form.
