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Did you know that kids’ hands aren’t fully developed until at least seven years old? Check out this comparison between a preschooler’s and a seven-year-old’s hand:
Isn’t that amazing?!
This is why when we ask our five-year-olds to write and we expect our six-year-olds to have good handwriting, we are working against their natural development.
It takes a lot of time for our kids to develop the fine motor skills for writing and drawing, and we can encourage these skills with lots of practice!
Here are some simple fine motor activities that you can do with your kiddos. They’re easily adaptable to your child’s age and ability.
Fine Motor Activities
Clipping clothespins – you can do this with a color wheel, clip laundry to a line, or have them clip flashcards or artwork to a line to use as a banner or display.
Stringing beads – string them onto pipe cleaners for younger kids. Have older kids make bracelets with beads.
If your kids are 7-8 and need more fine motor practice, string tiny beads onto floss/fishing line for bracelets or safety pins to make decorative pins.
Sorting objects – sort small objects by color, by size, etc. Pom poms are great for this because you can use small tongs or tweezers to pick them up, which adds extra fine motor practice.
Embroidery – this is one of the best kind has to practice fine motor skills, especially for older kids. My kids have all started with embroidery around 4-5 years old. This post will help you with some supplies and getting started.
Older kids can graduate into other hand sewing, like making pillows or small stuffed animals. The Suka the Sloth pattern from my shop is available free for VIP members.
Here are a few more projects your kids can try:
Sensory bins – fill a bin with rice, beans, popcorn seeds, etc. and have your child go searching for objects in them.
Sensory play – Playing with playdough, kinetic sand, modeling clay, etc is an excellent way for kids to practice fine motor skills. Try pressing beads, dry noodles, beans, etc into the playdough.
Wiki sticks – wiki sticks are kind of like flexible, sticky pipe cleaners. They’re great for making shapes, forming into letters, etc.
Life skills – pouring, wiping, squeezing a Turkey baster or eye dropper, wringing out sponges or wash cloths… all of these help with hand-eye coordination, hand strength, and fine motor skills. So have your kiddos either play with these in a water table or dish tub OR have them help you in the kitchen and use them in real life.
Hole punch – this is a great tool to help build hand strength. Have your kids make their own confetti, write numbers on index cards and have your kids punch that number of holes in them. Punch holes in leaves outside to curb the mess indoors.
Washing toys – have your kiddos use a toothbrush or a sponge to wash small toys
Tongs or tweezers – pick up Pom poms, ping pong balls, pinecones, acorns, etc with different sized tongs or tweezers
Tracing – trace shapes, letters, and words into a small dish of sand, shaving cream, or salt
Legos – this is one of the best ways for older kids to practice fine motor skills! So many small pieces that they need to grasp with their fingers and build carefully
Perler beads – putting all those tiny perler beads into place is great fine motor practice for older kids
Q-tip painting – use Q-tips to paint small dots onto the paper. Have older kids use small paintbrushes to practice painting small objects – you can find small wooden toys at craft stores, rocks, acorns, etc.
Whittling – this is an excellent activity for older kids to practice fine motor skills
Knitting or crochet – my boys love knitting, and it’s a great practice of dexterity. Knitting and crochet definitely help to improve handwriting!
Tracing and cutting along lines and circles – download the printable below to print out and practice this! You can slip these pages into a dry erase pocket to trace the shapes and lines with a dry erase marker.
