Preschool Activity Ideas | Toddler Activity Ideas | Mommy With Selective Memory: fine motor skills

Showing posts with label fine motor skills. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Finger Strength Activities for Preparing for Kindergarten

My little Buddy will be entering Kindergarten next year and with an April birthday, he will be one of the youngest. I've never been a huge fan of drilling them with flashcards, as I believe they learn much more valuable skills through playing, but with Kindergarten around the corner I have decided I need to make sure he at least knows his letters and can hold a pencil correctly.
When I finally sat down to assess what he knew, I was a bit dismayed to realized that he didn't quite know all his letters and his pencil grip was a little lacking as well. I decided to start working on his finger strength. Kids can't hold the pencil correctly unless their fingers are strong enough.
First, we used push pins to improve strength. Make sure you supervise this activity, as these pins are sharp, but I find at ages 4 and 5 they are perfectly capable of handling this.
First, start out with a pin cushion and be sure to place the pins on the left and the cushion on the right to simulate reading and writing from left to right. Then instruct your child to make a pattern with the pins.

Just look at that great pinching grasp! That's exactly what I've been wanting him to do with his pencil!

He had a great time with the pins and once we finished that I got out the tweezers and our colored poms. Again, I organized this activity to go from left to right and he had to pinch the tweezers and move all the poms from the left tin to the right one.

Again that correct pinching motion was at work!

A few days later, we did a coin drop into a coffee cup. An empty salt container works great for this too.

I hadn't planned to have him work on writing at that point, but he really wanted to (probably since we were getting ready to go to bed and this was delaying it), so I worked on letters with him for a few minutes and I could already see him grip improving. Still not perfect, but much better!

For more ideas on working on finger strength and preparing for Kindergarten, please check out my book The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble and Motivated to Learn

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Friday, August 3, 2012

Toddler Games: The Importance of Watching for Frustration

Poor Little Buddy. He often gets stuck doing what Munchkin Girl is doing, especially as far as arts and crafts are concerned. I guess that's the nature of being the little brother. However, last week Grandma was spending the afternoon with Munchkin Girl so I had the afternoon to myself with him. I pulled out all of our craft and project supplies because I really wanted to give him the chance to do whatever HE wanted to do.

He picked colored Poms and at first I just picked what Munchkin Girl would have used: a clothespin. The idea was to dump out all the colored Poms and let him put them into the tin. My daughter loves this game and counts as she goes and it's great for her muscles strength. At first, he was thrilled.

As you can see, he kept getting confused about which way was up, and which way was down. He would pinch it, and then when the other side opened, he would turn it upside down.

It wasn't long before he was whining and I was feeling sad that this wasn't turning into the fun bonding afternoon it was supposed to be! But then I realized that I was seeing first-hand something that my co-author and former Kindergarten teacher, Susan Case covered in our book. On the chapter about fine motor skills, she said:

Developing fine motor skills can be frustrating and challenging for some children. Watch your child’s level of frustration. Gradually

increase the time of activities. This play/work time needs to be pleasurable, attainable and rewarding so that your child will continue to

engage and make progress.

Then it clicked. Using clothespins just wasn't attainable for him. It's not something he is capable of so I simply made a switch. I put the clothespins away and pulled some tongs out of our kitchen drawer. They aren't something I've used before, but I realized that if Munchkin Girl had been then, Little Buddy probably would have just wandered away to find something else to do so I wouldn't have realized that he wanted to participate but simply couldn't. Since he was alone, I was more in tune to him. The difference was amazing. He was able to use the tongs very well and was SOOO proud of himself. See how in the first picture none of the Poms were in the tin? Check out this picture! He had them in there in no time and did it about three times before he got tired of it!

Not only did we have a great time, but I now fully understand the meaning of "developmentally appropriate activities".

If you want to read more about activities that are good for toddlers and preschoolers, you love my new book (which is currently ranked #6 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!). Here is one of the reviews on Amazon so please consider buying your own copy!

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is a Life-saver! July 10, 2012

This book seriously saved my sanity. I've read a bunch of parenting books but this is literally the only one that actually gave me real and specific advice and ideas for things to do with my daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year old and I was at my wits end trying to come up with ideas of fun, easy, creative things to do with her that will keep her busy and occupied and help her learn. I wasn't very good at following through on ideas that I heard about from friends or read in other books or online because they seemed too complicated (aka: messy!) but this book broke it down and made it so simple. I highly recommend it!

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Stickers Aren't a Waste of Money!

How Stickers Help Little Kids Learn
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The Little Mermaid is the latest obsession around our house. We even have to read the book every night and of course I can't skip even one single page. If I try, Munchkin Girl immediately stops me and says, "Mommy! You skipped the page about Ariel's Daddy!"

using stickers to improve fine motor skills, toddlers using stickers

The good news is there are lots of projects we can do that are related to The Little Mermaid. I saw a tub of ocean stickers the other day and thought it would be a very easy craft for Munchkin Girl to create her own "ocean". I used to think stickers were a bit indulgent...really just a waste of money until my friend and child expert Susan Case helped me realize that stickers can be a really valuable way for children to work on strength and fine motor skills. We've been doing lots of stickers lately and last weekend we went out breakfast and they gave us a plastic case of crayons. Normally Munchkin Girl would have made me open hers, because it was clear plastic and pretty tricky to open, but this time, she opened the package herself without even asking for help! I really think this is from all the sticker practice she has had lately.

how to tell good stickers from bad stickers, why stickers can be frustrating for kids

However, I noticed something this sticker project. Not all stickers are created equally. First, we started with a book of stickers that I bought because it had a lot of variety. I liked all the choices she would have. However, as it turned out, these were too small for her. She could get the stickers started, but then the head wouldn't come with the rest of the body and she would get frustrated and whine for me to come help her. I could tell this project didn't booster her self-confidence at all. In fact, it was the opposite because she had trouble with almost every one she tried to remove. We had much better luck with the larger, foam stickers. They didn't look like they would be as much fun because they didn't have any detail, but she didn't care. She definitely preferred the ease of the larger stickers and so did I because when she was able to take the stickers off by herself, the project took her a lot of time and she worked quietly by herself while she created her ocean.

little mermaid activities, stickers for kids,

So, if you're ever wondering how to improve fine motor skills in preschoolers, go with this cheap craft! Who knows...you might end up with smarter kids!! :-) All I needed for this project was construction paper and the stickers. It took no prep work from me and was easy to clean up!

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PS...I've been nominated for Top 25 Most Creative Blogs on Circle of Moms. If you have a second, I would love it if you voted for me. Just click the button below to get to the site and then find me (I'm about #10 currently but would like to move up!! :-))

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