Teaching Addition

Now, i know it might be too early to teach addition to a toddler who's going to be 3 in a few weeks time. However, N seems to be intrigued and keen on this topic. So instead of limiting him by what I THINK is correct, i decided to take his lead.

It started when N flipped open his activity book, to a page on addition. He asked to do it, and just for fun, i briefly introduced to him addition. Since then, he kept bringing the book to me requesting that we 'play'. I had wanted to let it be, till i remembered about the sensitive period that Maria Montessori talked about. I realised N was going through a sensitive period for this topic, i felt i should help him instead of letting it aimlessly pass us by.

I began a series of adhoc introduction to N. At night, while lying on the bed, i would use my fingers to teach N simple addtion. From this he has learnt that 1+1 = 2 and

5+5 =10. I also borrowed a book on addition just to fuel on his interest.

After i felt that N is ready to move on,  i went to purchase this set of Mathematical cubes (only to realise i could've used our lego toys instead. What a waste of money! Sssh, don't tell my husband! He seems to accept my rationale for this purchase!). I also purchased a set of addition flash cards (another lame purchase, you can easily DIY). 

I took out the flash card, pointed to the first number, in this case, 1.

I instructed N to put 1 cube above the digit.

I pointed to the number 3 and asked N how many is that, after he determined its 3, he placed 3 cubes above the digit. I would ask aloud '1+3=?', N would count the total number of cubes aloud and say 4!

I got N to place the Montessori Cut out numeral next to the equation, just to complete the question. We did 4 sums today!

Again, i was very careful to do this activity because i don't want to kill his interest. I had to be sure that he was ready for his and that my demonstration was clear and accurate. Thank God, N was receptive towards this. As i was busy snapping photos of this, he quietly did the equations again this time all by himself! :))