Developing Fine Motor Skills

It's important to work on developing fine motor skills with toddlers in ways that are fun so that they forget it's the hard work that it is! Here are some ways we do that while playing that are low cost, easy to put together, and work for us!Cutting playdoh ropes, as you can see we still need to work on scissor grip. Cutting straws is also fun as is making confetti bits out of paper. We have a wooden bead stringing set, but she can't quite do it and it gets her so frustrated. So we switched to stringing fruit loops onto pipe cleaners. The extra stiffness of the pipe cleaners makes all the difference when it comes to being sucessful. You can also use the fruit loops for sorting by color, counting, and for making simple color patterns. Large pieces of pasta with a hole in the center will also work for stringing, if that's what you've got in the pantry.Don't throw away old greeting cards! Save them to make attractive sewing cards by gluing them shut and then punching holes along the perimeter. Use a shoe string to practice lacing them, as the ends of shoe strings are sealed with a bit of plastic so they won't fray. If the card gets torn, just toss and easily make another. I like how this gives me another use for the cute cards my family sends her. Put some of these in a plastic baggy along with a string and you have another quiet toddler activity you can carry around in your purse for an activity on the go.Go get more great ideas at the Works for Me Wednesday blog carnival at We Are the Family.