We’re looking into homeschooling, and I know that one of the things that my daughter needs to work on is her fine motor control. Fine and gross motor control have been a challenge for her, although she has learned how to ride a bike and is now excited to try a lot of the playground equipment that once seemed daunting.
However, like many preschoolers my preschooler is not keen to do things simply because I ask her to do so. She’s not a worksheet kid either. Sitting down at a table and being asked to copy letters is not her style. So we’re going to work on fine motor control, but we’re going to do it in ways that are fun for her.
Here are some of the ways we are working on using pressure to make marks on surfaces:
Use rainbow-colored crayons to draw on paper. Any kind of different crayon is fun, whether it’s rainbow, glitter, or just a funny sort of shape.
Draw on black paper with colorful chalk. It’s a little more difficult to see marks on black paper, so this gives a good incentive to really press hard.
Drawing on fine sandpaper and other rough textures. Tree bark, anyone?
The Magic Slate. Do you remember these? If you are a child of the eighties like I am you might remember the little plastic piece of paper with a thick piece of black material underneath. Write on top of the slate, then lift up the plastic to erase it again.
Use toothpicks and blunt pencils to create designs in play dough, or make peanut butter balls or bread dough, add designs, and bake them.
Find some fabulous stencils and trace around them to decorate t-shirts and other household objects, including paper.
Using very small objects to write letters when we do write, since this encourages the use of proper grip and pressure.
Have you thought about your child’s fine motor control? What activities do you to do help build your child’s fine motor control, consciously or unconsciously?