Why is mathematics included in the Montessori curriculum?

The Montessori education is a natural process carried out by the child, and learning is acquired not by lectured words, but by the child’s completion of specific tasks. In the Montessori environment, pupils are challenged with problems they can think out themselves. Once they are given the opportunity to think critically, new knowledge is created.

In mathematics, the child learns actual logic through manipulation of objects. In doing this the child can determine the nature of why or why not something is logical. The child’s mind is then prepared for abstract processing, graduating from solving problems using the concrete object, to replacing those objects with abstract thoughts.

Maria Montessori understood how mathematics developed the intellect. She developed materials that would demonstrate the functions of math in a concrete way. The Montessori math curriculum provides a learning sequence, which gradually builds their mathematically knowledge while aiding their advancement of higher mathematical understanding