What Your Child NEEDS As They Start School

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2 min read

With another school year starting, this is a good time to consider just how important it is to develop and strengthen the hands in the early years.

Dr. Montessori's approach focuses on the hand for two reasons:

1. It helps to prepare children for more complex academic tasks - writing, drawing, manipulation of objects in science and math, puzzles, art, etc.

2. It helps to develop independence.

You use your hands to:

eat, prepare food, open up snack containers, open and close lunch bags
care for yourself - wash your body/hands, brush your teeth, etc.
get dressed/put on outerwear & shoes

The stronger a child’s hands are, the easier these tasks are going to be for them and in turn, the more confident and independent they will become.

How Montessori Classrooms Develop and Strengthen the Hands

All of the materials in Montessori environments either directly or indirectly develop the hand.

For instance, the knobbed cylinder blocks (pictured above) develop the pincer grasp in preparation for the coordination of the hand for writing.

Dr. Montessori was very intentional in her design of the early years materials to develop the hand.

There is also lots of time available for repetition of activities in the Montessori classroom.

Repetition develops, strengthens, and refines the hands.

How You Can Strengthen the Hands At Home

There are lots of ways to develop the hand in the home environment, if your child does not attend a Montessori school:

Let infants and toddlers explore objects with their hands - food, toys, items from around the home that are safe
Once they’re showing interest, invite your child to participate in practical life activities around the house - cooking, chopping, sweeping, putting away dishes, folding clothes, etc
Transfer activities - let them transfer with their hands, scoop, pour, tong, etc. In my opinion, these are the best activities for strengthening the hands. Here's a post on how to set up transfer activities.
Playdough
Art activities - peeling stickers, using markers/crayons/pencils, using clay, painting
Snap cubes, Lego, Brio Builder, Plus Plus, any other block where they have to work hard to pull the blocks apart and stick them together.
Playing outside - climbing, hanging, swinging, etc.

What Your Child NEEDS As They Start School

How Montessori Classrooms Develop and Strengthen the Hands

How You Can Strengthen the Hands At Home

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