Introducing math master. The nursery child must understand the base ten number system in order to write numerals correctly. It is known that the first operation learned in early mathematics is counting but it is not well understood that there are more primary concepts upon which counting is based. They are sets, mapping, cardinal number and order. The notion of set to young children, is the collection of objects in a group considered as a whole. For example, a young child can differentiate thus, “These are mine and those are yours.” Mapping involves one to one. For example, the child may distribute objects to a certain number of people and based on whether there is just enough, less or more, the child learns the quantities required. Math Master is designed to help the pre-nursery child grasp basic mathematics concepts. The child learns by absorbing items in a way that reveals their functions and essential idea rather than through memorization. The activities are introductory concepts and the child should not be expected to know them or work alone. An adult must guide the child’s learning. The concepts here may be presented to very young children as familiarization exercises through discussion and object exploration rather than abstract completion of exercises. Montessori urges teachers to observe the child’s errors and think of them as an indication of the child's level of understanding rather than something that must be corrected. According to her, “contradicting the child makes him unsure of himself, because without the necessary cognitive structure, the child has no way of understanding why his way is not right.” Teachers should therefore focus on helping children understand concepts rather than correcting. The Math Master serves as a companion for the activities the teacher presents in class. The book should be used as a representation of the teachers concrete presentation of concepts. In this book, children are exposed to a variety of math concepts of: seriating, transitivity, conservation, reversibility, corollary, ordinal and cardinal numbers; through a variety of activities on: Rote counting and the sequence of numbers 1 to 10. Counting forward to 5 and backwards from 5. Identification and counting of numbers, colours, shapes, animals, objects, parts of the body, Drawing objects and number outlines. Matching and sorting by concepts. Picture story relating to numbers. Comparison, finding similarities and differences, size discrimination, more or less. Completing patterns and numbers. One to one correspondence. Missing and positioning of numbers. Addition and subtraction games.
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