“Dr Maria Montessori took this idea that the human has a mathematical mind from a French philosopher Pascal and developed a revolutionary math learning material for children as young as 3 years old. Her mathematical materials allow the children to begin their mathematical journey from a concrete concept to abstract idea”.
With reference to the above statement please discuss how these children utilize their mathematical mind as part of their natural progression, to reason, to calculate and estimate with these Montessori mathematical materials in conjunction with their aims and presentations?
What is a mathematical mind? The Mathematical Mind’ refers to the unique tendencies of the human mind. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said
The sensorial materials simply present three mathematics concepts of completeness, geometry and early algebra.

Dr. Montessori was convinced that there are two things to be introduced before working with mathematics. “Before beginning mathematics work, the child must therefore do two things: explore and accept the notion of idealized things with isolated qualities, and gain practice in the requisite intellectual.” – MMI Mathematics Course Manual pg. 6
The child’s intellectual skills are developed through both practical life and sensorial activities. In practical life activities, children practice calculation skills when determining how much water to pour when carrying out exercises like pouring water from jug to bottle with an indicator line, or spooning beans from bowl to bowl with an indicator line, or from jug to jug; up to the more complex activities of sweeping which have the qualities of repetition, calculation and exactness.
The Sensorial work is a preparation for the study of sequence and progression. It helps the child build up spatial representations of quantities and to form images of their magnitudes such as with the Pink Tower, knobbed cylinder etc. These sensorial materials also provides the child with the skills of calculation with the pink tower and red rods; as the child judges the size and length of the cubes and rods respectively, as well as repetition with baric tablets etc.,
All of the materials in the Montessori classroom have been