Additions board

I've been wanting to show this!  Another one of our fabulous pieces of equipment that we have at Sunshine Mountain!  Some of our 4 year olds who will be going off to kindergarten are ready for our additions board!   

In the beginning a child will work with a teacher on this and after they understand the concept they get to work on their own.  There are two different ways for the children to work with the additions board.  One is the child is given a page dedicated to each fact family and they fill out the page using the addition board.  The other way is slips of paper with equations (yes, we use the word equation when we work on the addition problems) printed on it for the child to explore.  We do not start this kind of work until we are sure the child is ready for it and has done other work that leads up to this.  Here is one of our children working on the additions board. 

I made this next picture bigger for you to see how the child uses the additions board.  If you have any questions about the additions board, please let us know!  Sorry it cut off part of the picture ):

One of the ways to we use the montessori method to teach addition!  The Montessori philosophy can be applied to teaching some complex concepts to young children including reading, math and geography. Basic addition is one of the easiest lessons to start with once a child has an understanding of numbers having a specific quantity attached to them. There is no minimum age for this, but you must make sure the child is ready to learn and can count, recognize and write their numbers up to ten.