Fine Motor Skills Activites: Part 3

 

To repeat what I said during "Fine Motor Skills Activites: Part 1":

"I have been busy lately doing activities with my kids that are more learning-type activities and not as blog friendly as kids crafts. I wanted to do a series of post about fine motor skills though because that is something we have been focusing on at my house. My daughter started kindergarten this year and I spent so much time before kindergarten making sure that she knew her letters, sounds, shapes, colors, starting basic reading and site words, etc that in retrospect I didn't probably spend as much time on fine motor activities like writing her name and scissors as I should have. She is a little behind in those categories so I searched the internet for a variety of activities I could do with her that would help her fine motor skills that were fun activities and not just practicing writing letters and scissor cutting (although we do that too). I thought maybe this might be helpful for someone else in my same position. I actually made a little fine motor activities bin that we work from and she just gets to pick activities from it and the best part is she gets excited about it and doesn't know she is 'working'. "

 

Tennis Ball Walk

 Supplies:

-Tennis ball or small ball

Take a tennis ball in one hand and with only your fingertips walk the ball from your hip to your toes and then back  up again.

 When I read about this idea online it sounded like such a good idea to work those tri-pod fingers, but then when I actually tried it I thought, "Man, this is way too easy." Then after having done it for a minute I could feel my fingers working.

 The true test was when I had my daughter (who needs this fine-motor help) do this activity, the ball kept dropping. I realized then that it was doing exactly what it should be doing, making those fingers work. This is such a quick and easy one to do with your kids. I made it into a game and who ever could make it all the way from hip to toe and toe to hip without dropping it or using their other hand could earn a piece of candy. (Sorry, I am not above bribery.)

 She did it and we officially put the small ball and tennis ball into our fine motor bin to use later.