Fine Motor Skills - Practice with Scissors

My son loves scissors. He loves cutting paper.
See that look of concentration on his face!?

Whenever we get the chance, I pull out some old recycling papers and his little scissors and let him cut until his hand is too tired to cut any more. Then we switch hands...

Although he is definitely right handed, we practice cutting with his left hand as well to strengthen all those little muscles in both hands.

This exercise helps develop fine motor skills, works his eye-hand coordination and gives my son confidence in his own abilities.

Happy Cutting!

Balancing Bottle!

I am always looking for new ways to work with my son on his gross motor strength. Balancing on one foot is great for working his core muscles. But he is not strong enough to do it on his own and is easily frustrated.

Here is my inspired idea this week. We filled an empty bottle with water (and a little food coloring for excitement).


Then he stood with one foot on the bottle. It provided just enough balance to keep him from giving up, but was still wobbly enough to require he really work those muscles!

What do you do to encourage your little kids in their gross motor development?

"Reminder" Cards

I made some scripture cards last week to post around my house. I have been thinking about posting "reminder" verses for quite a while - reminders to set my thoughts on "things above" - but only managed to get them done last week. With my husband traveling all week and me home alone with the kids, it seemed like a really good time keep uplifting verses "in my face."

So here are some that I made and have posted around the house.




I made seven so far and posted them in random places where I would be sure to see them. Three are in the kitchen, one by the family calendar, three by doors (front door, bedroom, bathroom).



They were super easy to make. I already had the 5 x 7 design card stock that I picked up on clearance for $1.24 (down from $6.99). I just printed some verses on heavy paper (in 3x5 sizes) and cut it down to size, and glued it onto the design cards.

I have ideas for how they could be even better, but I needed something really fast. I already have a list of verses to make for round two, whenever I get around to it.

A Plan for Art and Action - week 3

We had so much fun last week. We ended up changing our kitchen time to activities more green for St. Patrick's Day - like green jello jigglers, green macaroni and cheese, etc.

Now that the weather is getting nicer outside, it is easier to get in some good gross motor exercise. We didn't do very well on the fine motor skills last week; my son gets very impatient with these activities because he can't do them very well yet.

My son is very excited about Brown Bear right now. For speech, we played different games around this book. I found a used Brown Bear Board Game; it is missing the instructions, so we don't know how to play the actual game but we used it to play Go-Fish and made up our own version of the game.

We also had fun with the Dinosaur song, but he had no interest in the Bear Hunt. I'm going to get a copy of the specific song they use at school; maybe that will be more familiar and more comfortable.


Gross motor development:

• Sand Box play - encourage pushing, pulling and lifting of sand filled trucks, buckets, etc.
  


• Balance on One Foot – I have a great idea for adding some variety to this. I'm going to fill some empty bottles with colored water and have him place one foot on the bottle. It gives a little more balance, while providing a game-feel to the activity.
  


• Jumping – we always love jumping.

Fine motor development:

• Lacing Beads
  


• Cutting with scissors – cutting paper, play dough, anything with a fun texture.
  

Speech development:

• "Going on a Bear Hunt" – We are going to try again using the song from school.
  


• Music and Dancing – As long as he is excited about these songs we'll keep using them. “We Are The Dinosaurs” and “The Airplane Song” from Whaddaya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner will be our primary songs. This activity is great for speech and gross motor skills.

Arts and Crafts:

• Easter Decorations - not sure exactly what we will do yet, but maybe something we can hang in the window.
  

Kitchen Fun:

• Blueberry Muffins - we are going to try these again; one of these days we will make muffins.

Enjoy your week of art and action.

A Plan for Art and Action - week 2

Last week I had a great plan for days of fun, but I ended up a little less productive and "fun" because of persistent migraines. But we are going to try again this week, with a less aggressive plan.

The only part of the plan that we really worked on was the gross motor development. The other activities are the same as last week.

Gross motor development:

• Obstacle Course – my son loved the obstacle course. This will stay on the list for another week.
  


• Balance on One Foot – I just add this activity anytime, like while waiting at the grocery store or the doctor’s office.


• Jumping – this also works anytime. Sometimes when we are on a walk, we’ll jump over cracks.
• "Car" Rides – for animals in laundry basket, both kids love pushing the basket around the house. We never got to this last week, but will try again this coming week.
  

Fine motor development:

• Lacing Boards – we will first need to make the boards (see crafts projects below).


• Clothes Pin Game – not sure what the game is yet, but it includes pinching the clothes pin open to work those little fingers.


• Tissue Paper Creations – this is a fun craft project that really encourages fine motor development (see craft projects below for more details).

Speech development:

• "Going on a Bear Hunt" – Using this song and the book as a launching point, we will go on our own bear hunt (maybe becoming a bear at some point, walking like a bear to throw in some gross motor exercises).


• Music and Dancing – “We Are The Dinosaurs” and “The Airplane Song” from Whaddaya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner will be our primary songs. This activity is great for speech and gross motor skills.

Arts and Crafts:

• Make Lacing Boards
• Decorate Clothes Pin Game
• Tissue Paper Creations – using sheets of tissue paper, fold, cut/tear, and scrunch the paper; then glue the little balls onto a piece of construction paper.

Kitchen Fun:

• Blueberry Muffins

There may still be too many activities for the week, but hopefully this will be a "normal" week and we can better gauge how many activities we can accomplish in a week.

Enjoy your week of art and action.

A Plan for Art and Action

As promised in 31 Days of Crafts for kids ... and more, I am publishing this week’s list of activities to do with my children.

Gross motor development:

• Obstacle Course – this is great game, especially when you are stuck indoors (check out the recent pictures at our family blog). Here are some of my ideas for both indoor and outdoor versions.
  

indoor – step up on stool, jumping, tunnel (or crawling under a table), bouncy horse (balancing/ jumping), “crazy” walk (bear, frog, crab, wheel barrow, etc)

outdoor - rock wall climbing at playground, balance beam (walk along curb or low ledge), jumping, stepping up and down

• "Car" Rides – for animals in laundry basket, both kids love pushing the basket around the house.


• Balance on One Foot – I just add this activity anytime, like while waiting at the grocery store or the doctor’s office.


• Jumping – this also works anytime. Sometimes when we are on a walk, we’ll jump over cracks.

Fine motor development:

• Lacing Boards – we will first need to make the boards (see crafts projects below).


• Clothes Pin Game – not sure what the game is yet, but it includes pinching the clothes pin open to work those little fingers.


• Tissue Paper Creations – this is a fun craft project that really encourages fine motor development (see craft projects below for more details).

Speech development:

Note: My son’s speech issues center around his creative language. He is very limited in his creative and pretend play, and this has limited his speech development. Most of these activities focus on pretend play and music.

• Tents and tunnels – we are going to turn our living room into a big tent.


• "Going on a Bear Hunt" – Using this song and the book as a launching point, we will go on our own bear hunt (maybe becoming a bear at some point, walking like a bear to throw in some gross motor exercises).


• Music and Dancing – “We Are The Dinosaurs” and “The Airplane Song” from Whaddaya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner will be our primary songs. This activity is great for speech and gross motor skills.

Arts and Crafts:

• Make Lacing Boards
• Decorate Clothes Pin Game
• Tissue Paper Creations – using sheets of tissue paper, fold, cut/tear, and scrunch the paper; then glue the little balls onto a piece of construction paper.

Kitchen Fun:

• Blueberry Muffins

We are excited about a fun week of activities and play. I may have planned too many (or too few) activities. I’ll adjust the plan in the coming weeks, once I have a better feel for how this works.

This is a really long post. Did I include too much information? Or would you like to see more specifics? Let me know if you would like more details on any of the activities I have listed.