Mathematics
The Mathematics program provides the framework for a strong understanding of concepts. Manipulative materials are used to enhance the child's grasp of mathematics and to illustrate practical applications. Dr. Montessori observed human tendencies to abstract, investigate, calculate, measure, imagine and create.
If the child is allowed to develop these tendencies through manipulating concrete materials, allowing for repetition and concentration, there is an easy transition to abstraction and a love for mathematics.
Of all the Montessori materials, the math materials are the most impressive in design. From the 1000 chain with a thousand golden beads beaded together in tens to stretch the length of the classroom to the number rods that allow a child to physically understand quantity, these materials provide a foundation for understanding the four operations of math. They are designed to give the child his own manipulative experience with numbers as we move step by step from the concrete to the abstract. A child who doesn't love math is a child who has been to led to abstraction before he has a concrete understanding of the concepts.
In doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, the children actually carry, borrow and change the golden beads to reach their answer.
