Ready for Kindergarten?

This part two of a series.  In part one we focused on developing social skills while playing games. This time we will focus on Fine Motor Skills.

Fine motor skills are the small muscle movements of the finger that help your child do activities such as:

• Painting with a paintbrush
• Cutting with scissors
• Drawing and writing with a pencil or crayon correctly.
• Holding and manipulating small objects
• Making crafts

Here are some fun activities you can do with your child to help them develop these muscles in their hands and fingers:

• Make cookies with real or play dough, allowing your child to roll the dough into balls using the palms of his/her hands.

• Make little tiny bird eggs by rolling playdough into pea-size balls using only his or her fingertips.

• Use pegs or toothpicks to make designs in the dough.

• Scrunch up a sheet of newspaper with only one hand.  

• Use a squirt bottle to squirt plants.  

• Use large tweezers to pick up objects.

• Play games using dice.  Just shaking the dice and picking them up encourages fine motor development.

• Do some lacing and sewing activities.  These can be made easily by printing out a picture on cardstock, laminate for durability if you desire, and punch holes all around the edge.  Or you could try just gluing a picture on piece of cardboard from a cereal or cracker box and punch holes around the hedges with a single hole-punch.

• Turning over cards, coins, checkers, or buttons without sliding them to the edge of a table.  Play a game of memory on the carpet!

As you do these type of activities with your child, they will be developing important fine motor muscles in a way that can be more fun and exciting then completing a bunch of writing worksheets.  Try some of the above and make some fun memories with your child!