One of the most important things you can do with your child, is help them develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor movement requires use of the small muscles in the fingers and wrists and fine motor skills is how well your child can control this small muscles.
Some common tasks that need fine motor skills include: holding a pencil, buttoning clothes, using scissors and typing on the computer. Fine motor skills are extremely important because they help your child be self sufficient. They allow them to eventually button their own clothes, tie their own shoes and zip their own jackets without an adults help. They are also important for playing musical instruments and even video games.
So how do you make sure that your child is developing excellent fine motor skills? Easy. Practice. You are trying to build the muscles in their fingers, so those little muscles need to be exercised.
One of our favorite ways to work on fine motor skills is threading. Who doesn’t love to make a fruit loop or pasta necklace? For our pasta necklace, I like the wagon wheels. They are easy to thread, but she still has to have the patience to put the thread through the correct hole.
To make it a little more fun, we spray painted our pasta and added some glitter, but plain pasta works just as well.
The best thread is a shoe lace. You can buy a package of 8 pairs at the dollar store and they are perfect. The end is finished so there is no fraying and it makes threading so much easier.
Let your child thread and then let them wear their handiwork.
What are some other ways we work on fine motor skills?
We love to play Connect Four with our little girl. It requires her to pick up the pieces and fit them in the slot, also working her hand-eye coordination. Pick Up Sticks is also a great game for teaching fine motor skills. Practicing cutting lines on paper or holding a pencil correctly will also develop these skills.
Fine motor skills are extremely important and are something that should be developed BEFORE your child goes to kindergarten. With some easy and fun activities, like these, you can build your child’s muscles so they can be independent and on target for their age.
Thanks for sharing! It is definitely very important for kids to work on their fine motor skills. My little guy loves to "play" Connect 4. His older brothers are good at leaving it out, so we play pretend games.
The necklace idea sounds fun. I think I might go pick up some wheel macaroni.
We have been doing fine motor skills with Paul lately. I picked up a pack of 12 "lacing strings" at Hobby Lobby for $2. Basically shoelaces, but in different colors and a longer aglet for easier threading.
I love this idea! You are a woman after my own heart. I homeschooled for 21 years and loved making manipulatives like this for my kids! If you have those wheels spray painted different colors, you can also have her practice sorting and sets, giving her an egg carton and placing wheels of the same color in a section. My daughter LOVED that stuff! She would sort dried beans, putting them in the little sections. I love seeing these sweet pics of your little daughter. Think of how many kids do not have this individual attention to essential skills.
Where were you when my kids were little? That's a great idea! Enjoy your weekend.