One of the bases for learning to write is the correct handling of the pencil or pen. But for this it is necessary that the children have strengthened the muscles of the hands and fingers, which can be done with fine motor skills.
The activities that I bring you below are very didactic and aim to strengthen the fingers of our little ones. These activities can be introduced from 18 months.
1. Sticks in a container with holes.
The container that I show you below is recycled from a herbal container. If you don’t have one like this at home, you can also make the holes yourself so that you can insert the sticks one by one. This exercise is very good for visual-motor coordination.
2. Poker chips in boxes.
As you can see, here I used a box in which I made slots, and accompanied it with some poker chips that I had at home. We can make the activity more complex, painting the slots, and asking them to classify the tiles by color.
3. Buttons in small packages
Here we work on the clamp, in order to strengthen those muscles that are very important for the manipulation of the pencil. I used very small buttons, so that the effort is greater.
4. Spoon Transfer
With this exercise we practice the rotation of the wrist and the precision when distributing the pasta in the different containers.
5. Inserting accounts.
Surely you have already seen this activity somewhere else, but it is one of the easiest to prepare and with very good results. We simply use pipe cleaners, and we ask our little ones to insert the beads.
6. Pairing clothespins with buttons.
This exercise has a double purpose. The first to learn colors and also improve motor skills. You will see that placing the clothes hangers will be a challenge for your child.
7. Inserting toothpicks.
Here we use an empty salt shaker, and I asked my little one to insert the toothpicks inside. Notice that the way he has to hold the sticks simulates the way we hold the pencil.
8. Inserting pipe cleaners.
We re-used the pipe cleaners above to insert into a container that has multiple holes. We can also color the holes for your child to insert them where they belong.
9. Classification with tweezers.
By using the tweezers, we add complexity to this activity. We strengthen the muscles of the hand by classifying the pompoms in each container
10. Stringing/embroidering.
With a sheet of foami, cut out a figure that your child likes. Make some holes around the figure, and with the help of a shoelace, teach him to string.
11. Screwing nuts.
An activity to encourage wrist rotation and finger precision.
12. Playing with the dropper.
The last activity that I suggest helps to increase the concentration of your little one since they need to control their force when squeezing the dropper. To make the activity more fun, you can add numbers to the container and ask your child to put the amount of corresponding drops.
