ncerned, to hold especial weight
in regard to point-work.[79]

[79] The development of motor-ability in children and its
furtherance or arrest by the kindergarten materials concerns
the occupations more particularly, and as such will receive
full consideration in a later volume.

We need not consider here the physio-psychological tests lately made
of the early motor-ability of children and the results which these
have shown, but simply concern ourselves with what we have seen and
noted many times in daily kindergarten practice. Is it not true that
the laying of beans and lentils one inch apart on the tables, for
instance, is an occupation which requires very delicate handling on
account of the smallness of the object, its easy mobility, and the
exactness required to place it precisely at the crossing-point of
vertical and horizontal lines? Is it not true that such work requires
considerable effort from the kindergartner to make it interesting to
the child? Is it not true that there is a cramp of the fingers, shown
by a slight trembling, in getting hold of the tiny object and placing
it, a cramp of the eye in foreseeing and following the movement, and a
cramp of the body accompanying the tension of hand and arm? If all
these observations are correct, or measurably so, if they hold with a
majority of children, then point-laying as an occupation clearly needs
considerable modification in the kindergarten.

What are then the objections to the point as illustrated in bean,
coffee-berry, seed, and wooden lentil? In a word, that when
represented as above, it becomes too small and too mobile. The
difficulty of using these materials is immensely increased by the fact
that a slight movement of the child's table will send them all on the
floor, while even an ill-timed cough or sneeze, or puff of wind, will
blow them out of position. Point-laying is quite difficult enough for
the child's small powers under the best conditions, and need not be
made more so by undue mobility in the materials with which it is
carried on. This criticism would not hold of course as against large
shells or pebbles or as against Miss Marwedel's hemispheres and
ellipsoids.

How these Objections may be obviated.

The only good reason for using the small materials to which the
preceding objections have been made is a very good one, viz., that if
we are to take any concrete object to represent the point, it should
be as small as possi