We present findings from an experiment with 6-year-old children in Norway who are getting started with the process of learning the numbers from 1 to 10. The findings provide information on number line estimation - that is, translating a number to a spatial position on a number line. The results show different categories of representation of the magnitudes on the number line, which may represent different stages in a learning sequence. On this basis, we show a proposal for a cognitive model of the learning process towards a linear representation of magnitudes.