Introduction to Practical Life

Introduction to Practical Life * The purpose of Practical Life is to help the child gain control in the coordination of his movement, especially development of the hand`s coordination. “The hands are the instruments of man's intelligence”. Maria Montessori- The Absorbent Mind. The fine muscles coordination is closed connected with the child`s conceptual development. As Dr. Montessori quoted it: “The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself”. Practical Life activities help the child to gain independence and enables him to correlate his own physical, psychic and moral desires: * Physical desire to move and exercise growing limbs * Psychic - to perfect the movements * Moral - to become useful and helpful to the other.
The area of Practical Life aids the growth and development of the child’s intellect and concentration and will in turn also help the child develop an orderly way of thinking. In addition, Practical Life initiates in the child respect and love for any work, steps for creative art and helps the child to perform the activities of daily life with joy, skill, and grace through which he is attaining perfection.
In an ideal situation, Practical Life would be located near the entrance to the classroom, as a link between home and school and a basis for the curriculum. Beautiful area: color coded, beautiful flowers, paintings, vases… to draw child to Practical Life.

Concentration: The child will be given uninterrupted work time to help him to develop the ability to concentrate and an opportunity to develop good work habits. He/she will learn to observe, organize, analyze, and problem solve. Concentration leads to normalization, enables the child to focus on work, and increases his attention span. The child who laboriously scrubs a table and attends to the details of their work is laying the foundation for calm effortless concentration levels for creative thought patterns.
Coordination: The child will be encouraged to