Indirect preparation is a process by which Montessori students engage in developmentally appropriate activities that provide a foundation for future learning. For example, each of the Montessori sensorial materials has an indirect aim;, the child grasps the knobbed cylinders with the three fingers that later she will use to grasp the writing instrument. She will have a muscular memory of that action when she is presented with the writing instrument. (Boehnlein)

“The first efforts the child makes are not aimed at imitating, but at forming in himself the capacity to imitate, they are aimed at changing himself into the thing desired. This shows the universal importance of Indirect preparation.” (Montessori, Maria, The Absorbent Mind, p. 142) “It also depends on certain preparatory exercises which the child does at an earlier stage… a new principle has found its way into our method, the …principle of ‘indirect preparation.’” (Montessori, Maria, The Absorbent Mind, p. 154)