handwriting.

The drawings lend themselves to _limiting_, in very many ways, _the
length of the strokes with which they are filled in_. The child will
have to fill in geometrical figures, both large and small, of a
pavement design, or flowers and leaves, or the various details of an
animal or of a landscape. In this way the hand accustoms itself, not
only to perform the general action, but also to confine the movement
within all kinds of limits.

Hence the child is preparing himself to write in a handwriting
_either_ large or small. Indeed, later on he will write as well
between the wide lines on a blackboard as between the narrow, closely
ruled lines of an exercise book, generally used by much older
children.

The number of exercises which the child performs with the drawings is
practically unlimited. He will often take another colored pencil and
draw over again the outlines of the figure already filled in with
color. A help to the _continuation_ of the exercise is to be found in
the further education of the chromatic sense, which the child acquires
by painting the same designs in water-colors. Later he mixes colors
for himself until he can imitate the colors of nature, or create the
delicate tints which his own imagination desires. It is not possible,
however, to speak of all this in detail within the limits of this
small work.

_Exercises for the Writing of Alphabetical Signs_

[Illustration: FIG. 29.--SINGLE SANDPAPER LETTER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--GROUPS OF SANDPAPER LETTERS.]

In the didactic material there are series of boxes which contain the
alphabetical signs. At this point we take those cards which are
covered with very smooth paper, to which is gummed a letter of the
alphabet cut out in sandpaper. (Fig. 29.) There are also large cards
on which are gummed several letters, grouped together according to
analogy of form. (Fig. 30.)

The children "have to _touch_ over the alphabetical signs as though
they were writing." They touch them with the tips of the index and
middle fingers in the same way as when they touched the wooden insets,
and with the hand raised as when they lightly touched the rough and
smooth surfaces. The teacher herself touches the letters to show the
child how the movement should be performed, and the child, if he has
had much practise in touching the wooden insets, _imitates_ her with
_ease_ and pleasure. Without the previous practise, however, the
child's hand does not follo