Montessori Math Discussion for Parents at Home

If you send your child to a good Montessori school starting at the age of three, your child will start learning about counting and quantities using hands-one equipment ranging from cards and counters to Red and Blue Rods (see our archived articles for details), moving up to more advanced exercises such as long addition and division in the well-known Banker's Game with the Golden Beads. You can easily monitor your child's progress by learning a bit about the equipment and observing a class.

However, what about parents who are starting at home in mid-stream, say, with a five or six year old? A lot of people are tempted to buy equipment and rush through the process, so their child can "catch up" with the normal Montessori curriculum.

We highly suggest starting from the beginning, even if this means your five year old will be working with Math Spindles, Red Rods, or Sandpaper Numerals. The important concepts related to relative size, quantity, and numerals remain key to building a solid foundation in math at any age, so do not skimp on the basics to move your child ahead quickly!

The Golden Bead introductory exercise will quickly enable your child to begin more complex math exercises! For more details, send us a note or subscribe to our Montessori Curriculum Newsletters.


Children in the Primary class typically work with the advanced arithmetic mentioned above as well as fractions from one whole to one-tenth, the Binomial cube (a precursor to algebra), and ratios and percents.

Montessori Math: Red Rods

Red Rods are part of the Sensorial section of the classroom, but they are one of the pieces of math equipment that your child will use.

Parents notice that the Red Rods are large, red, and contain no numbers. So, how does this help with math?

An important building block of math is hierarchy. Your child learns to put the rods in order using his or her sense of touch and sight.

It is important to use real rods that your child can hold and handle.

The next exercise uses Red and Blue Rods. More later!

For more on the Montessori curriculum, subscribe to our weekly curriculum newsletter!

Montessori Math Spindles: Counting & Quantity

Math spindles let your child learn about quantities, so all the spindles are identical and each box is labeled.

These Math Spindles should come in two separate boxes -- 0 to 4 and 5 to 9.

Count out and place the appropriate number of spindles in the boxes from 0 to 4. Now let your child try.

Repeat for the boxes from 5 to 9 .


The number 10 is introduced with the Golden Beads, which teach concepts of the decimal system.