The Mathematical Operations

We had a eureka moment in the casa today when one young man was shown the Addition Stamp Game. This is a piece of work in which the child lays out first one addend then another on two spaces separated by a barrier which is later removed so they may be both added together to form a new quantity by counting the hierarchies. The number is recorded on graph paper. This young man was so pleased he was literally giggling with excitement as he did his work and proudly took the written result home to show his family. Later in the day, we had a child who graduated last year make a return visit to demonstrate long division. These children, aged 4 and 6 years respectively, are easily able to handle elementary mathematical operations usually taught at a much older grade level – and that is pretty amazing. What is more amazing, however, is that they are so inspired by the work they have done that they are reluctant to put it away at the end of the day. Melody will be delivering a special workshop to the parents of the school this Saturday from 1-3pm with demonstrations on the mathematical materials. This workshop is part one of a series of two on the Montessori Systems of Communication.