I am continually amazed at the concepts very young children can understand and master!  I was privileged to keep my little grandson while my daughter worked.  This arrangement was possible since the Montessori certification courses I teach are in the evenings and on Saturdays. Guiding him through learning was almost like breathing - it came so naturally!  Every moment with a toddler can be fun but also a learning opportunity!

Our introduction to Math began by counting everything…Cheerios on his tray, strawberries (his favorite food), his fingers, toes, books we have read, and pages in the book.  He had many little cars that he enjoyed lining up so we began counting the cars, then blocks we were stacking, or snapped together Legos.   We live near several public schools so numerous big yellow school buses would be in the neighborhood.  The busses fascinated him so we would count them!  We would count in the car and while playing in the yard.  We counted leaves, acorns, and even flowers in the flowerbed!

His obsession with counting everything started around 18 months.  After a few weeks of counting he began to line items up and want me to count them for him!  Even though his verbalization skills were just beginning he would point for me to count them aloud. 

Next I introduced the Montessori sandpaper letters.  I would sit behind him and lay my hands on his and assist him in tracing the numerical symbols. Then I counted objects to correspond with the numerical symbol.  He truly enjoyed this exercise.  I would only introduce one symbol at a time.  We would do this little exercise several times a day.  It was not forced; he would toddle over and bring them to me to trace with him. 

After learning three of the symbols, I began to lay them out in order on his work mat.  By the age of 22 months he could place the sandpaper letters one-to-nine in order!   While working with him I would sometimes create little video clips and message them to his parents throughout our day.  I really wish I had done more of this!  Hope you will enjoy this short video of my 22-month grandson working with the sandpaper numbers.  You will hear in the video how he turns the numerical symbol nine upside down and starts to make the “b” sound since I had introduced the phonetic sounds at a young age as well! 

So how do we begin Math with our little ones…simply count everything and make it fun!