This isn’t the blog post that you might be thinking of.
(Pictures are from a 6-12 Montessori classroom in London, hence you will see some stacking and repetition of materials unlike a 3-6 classroom)
I personally think the Montessori math materials are genius. In fact, when watching my AMI 6-12 trainer demonstrate how to use the Checkerboard to perform complex multiplication operations, I was blown away and thought, if I had learnt Math with this perhaps I wouldn’t have feared it and hated it so much as a student.
But at home, I have always leaned towards incorporating the spirit of Montessori rather than the exact materials, maybe because my children are in a Montessori school so I prefer to avoid duplication, but mostly because I think we can provide mathematical experiences that respond to the nature of the child. The first-plane child understands things in a concrete manner, and remembers best when he does so with all his senses engaged. So I am going to suggest this: maths can be learned through practical life. Lots of it.
Number sense, which is what traditional schools seem preoccupied with, is things like number recognition, counting etc. But number sense is only one of many mathematical concepts that a child should grasp.
Here are a few more:
- Estimating height (the flower does not fit into her chosen spot on the middle shelf – see our shelfie here)
- Length (just how far can that vacuum wire go before we need to find another socket?)
- Weight (it takes one person to drag the box of Playmags but two people to lift it)
- Fractions
Dividing into thirds with our three-compartment frying pan…
Yes, counting too. Counting out jars of homemade strawberry jam to give away to friends…
…Which is also why we involve the children in food prep! I really can’t think of a better or more organic way of “doing” math. I once heard my friend ask her child how many cherry tomatoes she would like to have. As the child counted them out one by one, my friend placed each tomato into her child’s hand. It was so logical, yet almost magical! My child and I were quite transfixed by the counting.
Or knowing quantities like abit, alot, more, less. And not just knowing, but seeing, feeling, even smelling and tasting them!
Those of us who do not have wild natural spaces nearby, even a playground provides loads of opportunities for absorbing concepts like geometry, angles and spatial relations in a very kinesthetic way.
Recently, my child has been asking me questions like, “How many leaves are there on all the trees on this road? 100, 1000, 1 million, 25 quadrillion!” And he asked his Grandma, “How many grains of rice do you think there are in Singapore?”
On the one hand, I love his awe and wonderment for math. And acknowledging that is enough- there is no need to get tangled up trying to answer a question that he may not even need answered. On the other hand, I also want to give him foundations for math without killing that curiosity and wonder. And as I have learnt the hard way, nothing kills wonder faster than an over-explaining adult. So I suggested to Grandma to show him a grain of rice, then a cup of rice, and let him measure out the rice for our dinner.
These aren’t toys:
They are just a collection of the items that children have been drawn to in the home and that they use. (The kitchen scale is on loan from Grandma, if I were purchasing I would choose one with a bucket so the children can see for themselves the quantity and how it corresponds to a digit on the scale).
In a simple baking session with the children, look at the kinds of mathematical understandings they can experience first-hand, like volume (whisking batter), time (kitchen timer), measurement (measuring flour).
Now tell me that that isn’t math.
nduoma says
I love everything about this post!
mrsjasminechong says
Thanks so much Junnifa, I’m delighted to hear from you as I’ve followed your blog and enjoyed your insights for years!