You can help your child to hone his fine motor skills. In fact, the more you vary daily activities, the more developed these skills will become and the better he will be prepared for kindergarten. These may seem like very simple activities that all children learn to do sooner than later, but some children start kindergarten without knowing how to use scissors or having played with puzzles. These seemingly mundane tasks should not be taken lightly, as they are really essential to fine motor development.
Activities for your child:
- Try fingerpainting.
- Play with clay. Show how to roll balls in your palm and how to roll skinny snakes on the table.
- Line up blocks or dominoes.
- Tear paper into strips.
- Complete simple mazes, available free online or in dollar store workbooks.
- Button their clothing and tie shoes.
- Draw circles and lines, encourage to color inside the lines.
- Put a puzzle together. This also helps develop spatial relationships.
- Try simple dot-to-dot puzzles.
- Use scissors to cut photos from old magazines.
There are other activities that you might think of, but, basically, anything where the child has to use their hands for simple tasks will help with this development.