We had Cuisenaire rods because I thought they might be good for teaching (exposing, discussing if asked, but not outright instructing) relationships between numbers, kinda like the larger rods my DD's montessori preschool had, but it turns out my kids never really seemed to *not* understand those kinds of relationships and concepts. Like others have said, my kids liked building with them and making pictures out of them, so they had value like blocks or other creative toys.

She thought she could, so she did.