Counting Number Rods and Cranberries

Last year Maddux was my wanderer in the classroom. Paying close attention to his classmates work, but not choosing any work for himself. This year he started out staying busy in the Practical Life area and now he is breezing through the tradititional Montessori lessons.

 He loves to lay out the Number Rods from longest to shortest and then begins counting them one by one. He starts with Number Rod 1, because he says it is the shortest and then counts them all. He is still working on identifying some numbers but any day now he'll get it.

 Being a wanderer has helped Maddux out tremendously. Maddux is familiar with the presentations and knows exactly what work he may be interested in me showing him. He remembered the cranberry work I had in the Practical Life area last year and went bananas when he saw a pail of them next to the Sandpaper Numbers. Maddux knew just what to do because he has been wandering  observing the classroom for a long time.