List in sequence and briefly describe the materials and exercises for teaching the numbers one to ten. Give specific reasons for the sequence you suggest.
The primitive people used sticks, notches and stones to count. The earliest records of counting came from physical evidence, in the form of scratches on sticks and stones, as early as 30,000 B.C. As society evolved, so did the system of enumeration. Our modern day society uses Arithmetic, which are symbols to represent different numbers. It can be said then that counting, calculations and measurement is a social requirement.
Dr Maria Montessori used to point out in her lectures that our whole civilisation was based on mathematics. Engineering, navigation, architecture, aeronautics, machinery all depend on mathematical calculations. Government bodies and almost all organizations depend on the collection and interpretation of statistics. Even the human intelligence is graded and given a numerical value, in the form of IQ level. According to Dr. Montessori,”All things created by man have one mathematical side.” (Maria Montessori, Creative Development in the Child, Volume one, pg 134)
Mathematics had been around since the beginning of human existence. Dr Maria Montessori believed that children naturally have an interest in all aspects of mathematics; weight, order, systems, series, time, quantities and symbols and so forth.
As such, Dr Montessori developed mathematics materials to serve the development of the child’s mathematical mind.
“Without a mathematical education, it is impossible to understand the progress of our time or to participate in it…. In its natural state, the human mind is already mathematical; it tends towards exactness, measure and comparison.” (Maria Montessori, internet)
In the Montessori environment the child is informally introduced to mathematics right from the moment he enters the classroom. Even before presenting him with the mathematics materials, he is being...