Hello!
This week I have been focusing Luke’s activities upon improving his fine motor skills – connecting the tiny movements in the wrists, hands and fingers (and feet and toes) with the eyes and improving coordination. Ultimately these skills go hand in hand with handwriting, scissor movements, buttoning up/unbottoning clothes etc etc.
Searching the internet brings up tonnes of activities to try – I am often lurking around various blogs/vlogs, twitter accounts, instagrams and pinterests to find activities suitable for Luke’s abilities.
These are our top 4 favourite DIY pom pom related fine motor skills play activities.
Pom poms are so cheap! I’ve collected several packets from various supermarkets like Sainsbury’s and Tesco, as well as shops like Wilko and The Range (if you have a Range near you, their craft section is amazing and worth a visit!).
One:
Use scoops, tupper wear, tongs, stacking cups etc to enhance play and build up those tiny muscles.
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| A teeny tiny selection of tools we used… |
Two:
One of Luke’s favourite activities (he also likes to do this with craft sticks) is to squeeze pom poms through tiny cut out holes in an empty egg box (make sure the holes are slightly smaller than the largest pom poms so that there are some problem solving/challenging moments). Luke squeezes in pom poms, flips up the lids and they fly everrrrywhere – this leads him to then gather all of them up again and play all over again. Kept Luke bust for at least half an hour and he kept coming back to it.
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| Pom poms and craft sticks combined! |
Three:
Empty cling-film tubes, kitchen roll and TP rolls make great little tunnels to drop pom poms down. The larger pom poms will fit through the kitchen roll and TP rolls, but not the cling-film tube, again creating this problem solving element. This helped Luke to grasp the concept of ‘big’ and ‘small’, though he does occasionally still try to put a huge pom pom down a tiny tube (it gets stuck and I have to fish it out!). An idea I haven’t yet tried is painting the tubes different colours and matching the pom pom colour to the correct tube. Or you can just jazz the tubes up with wrapping or coloured paper for a more stimulating play. Masking tape these tubes to the wall at different heights, or onto the side of a box for further exciting play.
Free tubes from brownies, yogurts etc also aid in the creation of an awesome pom pom shoot game. Cut a hole in the lid of the tub, put your tube in and tape the lid shut. Pom poms fall, collect in the tub and then, because the lid is sealed, little one has to work out how to shake all the pom poms out again. Today we discovered that cold drinks containers from coffee chain, Costa, make awesome containers for this game – there’s already a hole cut for you!
Sorting pom pom colours in egg boxes using tools is another one we have played this week. Each segment of egg box is dedicated to a specific colour – you could also paint the egg boxes if you so desired. We also used stacking cups as sorting containers, Luke isn’t so great with colours, but he got better at sorting big and small.
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| Sorting is really fun too. |
These are really simple activities and there are oodles of variations. Like you can see, instead of pom poms, you could use craft sticks, or maybe straws, pegs – the list is endless. All of these play activities can be adapted to incorporate more skills – such as learning colours or sorting big from small. I hope you enjoy them as much as Lukeosaurus did!
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My name is Rachael (Ray), I’m 26 and I live on the Surrey/Hampshire border. I live with my son, Luke who is 4. Join me on my journey through life as I tackle everything from personal finances, days out and crafts, to vegetarian recipes, fashion and house bunnies!