Hand and eye work in connection in exercises of practical life.
Gymnastics for the home will accomplish this result, Dr. Montessori tells us, and these include simple exercises such as one sees in the Children’s Houses. They are planned taking into account the biology of the body of the child from birth to six years of age—the child who has a torso greatly developed in comparison with his lower limbs. They have for their basis these goals:
Helping the child to limb development and control.
Helping the child to proper breathing and articulate speech.
Helping the child to achieving the practical acts of life; dressing, carrying objects without dropping, and the resulting co-ordination of hand and eye.
To bring about this physical development, Dr. Montessori has planned and put into the Children’s Houses in Rome certain very simple physical exercises, so simple as to seem to us almost obvious, but the results in child poise, control, and grace have drawn the attention of the entire world. These exercises include:
Swinging and “chinning” on a play fence, modeled after a real fence or gate.
Climbing and jumping from broad steps, a flight of wooden steps being built for the purpose. Ascending and descending a short flight of circular steps, these steps built for the exercise at slight expense. Climbing up and down a very short ladder. Stepping through the rungs of the ladder as it is laid upon the ground or the floor.