Math concepts are presented in a concrete approach through a variety of colored, tactile and motivating manipulatives that aid in the discovery and meaning of quantities zero through ten and demonstrate the symbols that represent those specific quantities. Introduction to the decimal system; units, tens, hundreds and thousands, is represented by glass beads known as the Golden Beads. Children learn the concept of all the math operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division) with these large quantities and then take this knowledge to gradually memorize their math facts. Glass squares and cubes of the numbers from 1 to 10 further encourage the memorization of the multiplication tables and directly aid a child in counting and identifying large numbers. The Montessori approach to math provides a meaningful understanding of mathematics to the primary-aged child and will continue to aid her/his understanding of mathematical concepts for years to come.
Our aim is not only to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.
Maria Montessori