MONTESSORI METHOD 



3918 



MONTESSORI METHOD 



FRAMES FOR EXERCISES WITH BUTTONHOOKS AND HOOKS AND EYES 



The chairs and tables are light, so that they 

 move and make a noise if the children knock 

 against them. An environment of this kind is 

 sensitive to the child's mistaken movements. 

 The child who moves badly and causes a chair 

 to grate upon the floor is denounced by the re- 

 sulting noise. The glasses and plates which he 

 carries are breakable. Erroneous movements. are 

 thus revealed to him, and he tends to correct 

 them and perfect his muscular control. If, in- 

 stead, the chairs and tables are heavy, or fixed 

 to the ground, and the utensils which he uses 

 are unbreakable, the child may make many 

 mistaken or clumsy movements without being 

 aware of them, and may then form habits diffi- 

 cult to break later. 



These activities of the children, in fact, have 

 not only a practical value, but also an educa- 

 tional one, since through them the child gains 

 control of his muscles. The coordination of the 

 movements forms one of the principal parts of 

 the child's physiological development at this 

 age; and to provide opportunity for intelligent 

 and purposeful activity is therefore to respond 



to a vital need of his life. In the "Children's 

 House," the grace and deftness of the children's 

 movements are clearly marked. The ease and 

 certainty with which a child will carry a glass 

 of water, or a little toddler of four carry around 

 a tureen of hot soup to his companions at lunch, 

 forms a striking contrast to the usual helpless- 

 ness of children of this age. Instead of being 

 prevented from moving, and made to sit still, 

 in order to obtain order and quietness in the 

 room, the children learn to move without cre- 

 ating disorder. 



The Frames. Another of the operations of 

 practical life which the children learn to do for 

 themselves is that of dressing and undressing. 

 To assist them in acquiring this accomplish- 

 ment, Dr. Montessori has designed a series of 

 light wooden rectangular frames, to two oppo- 

 site sides of which are attached pieces of cloth 

 or leather, as the case may be, which can be 

 fastened together down the middle of the frame 

 by means of buttons, hooks and eyes, bows, lac- 

 ing, etc.; in fact, by all the different modes of 

 fastening of which man makes use. 



FRAMES FOR EXERCISES IN LACING AND TYING 



