It’s never too soon to start thinking about your children’s educational development. Fine motor skills — like writing, dressing, and using utensils — play a vital role in everyday activities and are essential for children’s development.
Fine motor skills are the ability to use the hands and fingers for precise movements. This requires strength, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. Here we take a look at fun activities for developing fine motor skills and why it’s important.
Drawing and Coloring
Drawing and coloring improve hand-eye coordination and finger strength. Holding (and controlling) a crayon, colored pencil, or marker requires precise hand movements, which can develop fine motor skills. This activity also fosters creativity and self-expression.
Playing with Blocks
This classic activity helps improve hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. It requires children to use one or both hands to hold and manipulate the blocks, which can improve their finger strength and dexterity. Playing with blocks also engages a child’s imagination.
Create with Playdough
Playdough is a fun sensory activity that can help improve hand strength and dexterity. Rolling, pinching, and shaping the playdough requires precise hand movements, which can help develop fine motor skills. This activity also engages a child’s artistic and inventive abilities.
Cutting and Pasting
Cutting and pasting improve hand strength and dexterity, as it requires developing children to hold and manipulate both the scissors and the paper. This can improve their finger strength and control, while also boosting creativity and promoting problem-solving.
Building with Legos
Everyone loves Legos, right?!? Building Lego projects improves fine motor skills in children as they must snap the pieces together to build various objects. This activity also teaches sequencing and spatial skills.
Stringing Beads
Stringing beads requires children to use both hands simultaneously — but for different tasks. They must hold, manipulate, and string the beads. This improves finger strength and dexterity, and also refines hand-eye coordination. This activity can also help with color recognition and counting.
Tried & Tested Fine Motor Activities
As parents and educators, play time is about more than just fun — it can develop and strengthen our childrens’ abilities. These fun activities can help children build their fine motor skills via improved hand strength, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and imagination.
As the weather improves and the spring season descends upon us, it’s a great time to get outdoors whenever possible. Many of these activities can be performed on your art table or outdoor classroom table. If you need assistance creating an outdoor classroom, The Adventurous Child can help – contact us today.
