Maria Montessori believed that the children can absorb mathematical concepts naturally. She recognized that there were sensitive periods in the childβs development whereby the acquisition of mathematics was eagerly and joyfully explored through indirect preparation and repetition of activities with concrete, scientifically developed didactic materials. By means of Montessori Practical Life and Sensorial activities, children experience the concepts of order, sequence, measurement, calculations, and exactness.
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Math can be integrated with real-life activities. Practical life activities help children develop a sense of order and logical thinking. Learning to count by rote is the easiest activity to build into your daily life. (Example: count how many spoonfuls you need to add when cooking; count steps from 1 - 10 when out walking etc..)
Children learn about making calculations and estimating by determining how many drops of water it takes to fill a jar and about precision and exactness by learning to measure out how much sugar is needed for baking. These Montessori Practical Life activities not only help the child gain independence, but also provide the indirect preparation for higher level math skills.
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It helps the child learn to discriminate between similarities and differences. Children discover relationships, make scientific hypothesis, and draw conclusions as they construct and compare a series of sensorial activities. The activities heighten the childβs awareness of the mathematical relationships found in the natural world.
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Once the child grasps the concept of counting, he/she can then be taught the basic mathematical concepts & operations with the help of games and hands-on learning materials which require mathematical skills. Concrete materials is used to introduce abstract concepts and give a sequential understanding of mathematical concepts.
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While young children can learn to βcountβ by rote, reciting the sequence of numbers from one to 10, most cannot easily grasp the difference between one QUANTITY and NUMBERS. Let the child to visualise the concepts of numbers and quantity by using a series of same objects, rather than trying to teach them to count sets of separate objects.