w the letter with accuracy, and it is most
interesting to make close observations of the children in order to
understand the importance of a _remote motor preparation_ for writing,
and also to realize the _immense_ strain which we impose upon the
children when we set them to write directly without a previous motor
education of the hand.

The child finds great pleasure in touching the sandpaper letters. It
is an exercise by which he applies to a new attainment the power he
has already acquired through exercising the sense of touch. Whilst
the child touches a letter, the teacher pronounces its sound, and she
uses for the lesson the usual three periods. Thus, for example,
presenting the two vowels _i_, _o_, she will have the child touch them
slowly and accurately, and repeat their relative sounds one after
the other as the child touches them, "i, i, i! o, o, o!" Then she
will say to the child: "Give me i!" "Give me o!" Finally, she will ask
the question: "What is this?" To which the child replies, "i, o."
She proceeds in the same way through all the other letters, giving,
in the case of the consonants, not the name, but only the sound. The
child then touches the letters by himself over and over again,
either on the separate cards or on the large cards on which several
letters are gummed, and in this way he establishes the movements
necessary for tracing the alphabetical signs. At the same time he
retains the _visual_ image of the letter. This process forms the first
preparation, not only for writing, but also for reading, because it
is evident that when the child _touches_ the letters he performs the
movement corresponding to the writing of them, and, at the same
time, when he recognizes them by sight he is reading the alphabet.

The child has thus prepared, in effect, all the necessary movements
for writing; therefore he _can write_. This important conquest is the
result of a long period of inner formation of which the child is not
clearly aware. But a day will come--very soon--when he _will write_,
and that will be a day of great surprise for him--the wonderful
harvest of an unknown sowing.

* * * * *

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--BOX OF MOVABLE LETTERS.]

The alphabet of movable letters cut out in pink and blue cardboard,
and kept in a special box with compartments, serves "for the
composition of words." (Fig. 31.)

In a phonetic language, like Italian, it is enough to pronou