Montessori: Number Work Board book – Picture Book, August 1, 2012

I am shook to my core at how much my now 3 year old loves these books. We have shapes, numbers, map work. He got these when he was about 1 year old and showed tremendous interest at that time as well. My 3 year old now knows the continents and some countries on those continents (not included with the book, just mamas addition). I can’t say the sandpaper does much, although he does touch it so what do I know? He’s 3, has known numbers for awhile, and still squeezes knowledge out of these books. He creates little games - I.e. counting the feathers on the hats as well as the hats. Highly recommend these books, I am blown away!

I purchased this for my 5 year old who has struggles with number and letter recognition. Some reviewers have noted the numbers and images should be on the right and left sides of the pages. I actually appreciate that they do not line up like this. My son can count the images and then it is reinforced by stating/recognizing the number. If the numbers and images were side by side he has learned coping skills and would not have as much incentive to truly learn to recognize the number. I think this is helping him to count and identify numbers independently. It would be even more helpful, at least for our purpose if it wasn't in numerical order (much like the letter work book which we also love).

Number Work wasn't my kid's favorite of the Montessori "work" books but he did pull it out with the rest and took a strong interest in tracing. I'm giving it a 5 star because I think it was just his personality and the concept is actually a "5 star" concept. Another kid might be drawn to this where he preferred the map work. At any rate I thought these were kind of uninteresting and neutral little books at first but boy did my toddler love them! His favorite books for like a year. I highly recommend these.

My 3 year old will go to this book before sandpaper numbers/letters. This book is set up so the child needs to count the object first and then turn the page to see if he/she counted the correct number of that object by seeing the numeral. It can be a bit distracting for a 3 year old to turn the page and look at the page on the right versus the page on the left. If I can, I will glue a white piece of paper inbetween the pages so the younger child can stay focused on the correct page.

This is a nice counting book for young child to use as a introduction to counting. There's a set of animals on one side and the correct numeral for the quantity is on the back side of that page so they can self check. Each numeral is textured, but smooth to the touch with an arrow showing the correct starting point and direction for writing. If you do use Montessori for introducing math, the tabs for each page correspond to the colors of each of the Number Rods. On the last page(double page spread) there's a replication of all ten number rods The one rod is red, so that is correctly designed. I think this series rendition of Montessori Continents is not color coded, but this one does line up with the standard colors used for Number Rods material. I thought was a nice touch to do a pre-introduction to that material as I'm preparing to introduce that to my son soon. Even if you don't use the Montessori method, this is a very useful book to have in your child's library.

This book is good for "body memory" work in forming numbers. The numbers on each page have a fine grain texture for the child to run their fingers on. It encourages them to follow the lines to form the numbers properly. The sturdy construction of the book means it will be around for years. This might be an especially helpful book for a child who needs tactile prompts to remember their numbers.

My daughter attends a Montessori school which is why I purchased this book as well as the Montessori Letter Work book. My daughter loves both books and pulls them out frequently. The books do follow the Montessori method, but be warned, the Letter Works book is in print, not script. That said, my daughter loves both books, and the Letter Works book is not hindering her progress in learning script. I do recommend these books.

Least like in the set. The pages would open up with a number and a picture that do not match in count. I get why it's so designed (the mismatch is a side effect, design oversight). But the visual is too unfortunate. I plan to cut loose the pages and use as flash cards instead.