Fine Motor Skills Activities

I have personally had to go through learning more about Fine Motor Skills as a result of my oldest son Ethan having struggled a bit in school. I have done some research and now have put together a few ideas for other Moms who may need some ideas on how to help their kids with their fine motor skills. I hope this helps!

Raising a well-balanced and talented child is what every parent aspires to, and defining and sculpting a set of fine motoring skills is really one of the major starting points. Enhancing a child’s fine motoring skills essentially means improving the coordination between small muscle movements and the eyes. By developing these skills, we as moms ultimately pave the way for our little ones to thrive in all areas of life – from learning to tie their shoes to one day hitting that much anticipated home run.

Unlike potty training and teaching discipline, improving a child’s fine motoring skills is really all about having fun! Here are a couple of simple ways in which you can help your child build that detailed hand-eye coordination from an early age:

• Encourage them to build and play with cookie dough, mud and play dough.
• Sort objects (like pasta shapes, candy, cereal or buttons) by colour, shape and size.
• Create various “art works” using toast, cookie cutters and butter or peanut butter.
• Do simple weaving exercises using paper strips or pipe cleaners and a wire cookie rack.
• Lace string through holes in a piece of cardboard or practice with shoes from an early age.
• Build structures with toothpicks or dry spaghetti and grapes, cheese cubes, marshmallows or cherry tomatoes.
• Do a fair amount of finger- and rock painting
• Decorate cupcakes together for a birthday party or paint eggs for Easter.
• Use stickers to create patterns and pictures on the wall or a piece of paper.
• Play a variety of ball games in the garden – from kicking a pall to attempting ten pin bowling.
• Practice balancing by placing marbles on golf tees or ping pong balls on the mouth of a cooldrink bottle.

Original images and their credits available on Pinterest