Happy Fine Motor Friday! My co-hosts (Lalymom, Craftulate, School Time Snippets, Little Bins for Little Hands, P is for Preschooler, Racheous, Still Playing School, House of Burke and Powerful Mothering) and I are excited to share fun activities for toddlers and preschoolers that help build fine motor skills every Friday. At the end of this post you will find links for more great fine motor activities from my co-hosts. Be sure to check them out!

Every once in a while I like to write a post about how to improve skills with basic activities. These activities do not require any planning or preparing, there is no cutesy theme, they can be done at any time, in any place and are “nothing fancy”. It seems these more basic activities hold Caden’s attention for much longer than any Easter-themed tweezer sorting activity that I could come up with (which is what I had planned to do for this week). Probably because they allow him to explore his own creativity. 

We have been doing a lot of drawing here lately, as Caden has suddenly taken an interest in it. He draws using a pencil, markers or crayons and I usually just let him explore how the writing utensil moves across the page and let him experiment with different mark making. I do make sure he is using age-appropriate proper pencil grip. This Handwriting post on Be a Fun Mum has a great diagram for age-appropriate pencil grip.

Other times I give him suggestions for something to draw. The other day he said he wanted to draw a “guy”, and when he said he was done after just drawing a large purple spiral shape I suggested that his guy needed some eyes, a nose, mouth, ears, hair, arms and legs. Caden added these features to the “guy” and I was impressed by his ability to control the markers and place the features in approximate locations on the face. The features are just scribbles, but they are smaller scribbles than the large spiral head. 

I am fascinated by his drawings and love to watch him draw. To learn more about the stages of children’s drawings, this article from Planning with Kids is great! 

I wrote all this to say I am content to let Caden develop in his own way and at his own pace as long as he continues to work on his skills. As I have said before in my Everyday Fine Motor Activities post there is no need for elaborate fine motor activities and crafts. Those are just for fun! Mostly my own fun. The more he practices drawing the better his fine motor skills and pencil grip with become. This is laying the foundation for learning how to write and proper handwriting skills. No Time for Flashcards has also written about some great prewriting activities in Get Ready to Write without Worksheets. 

For more great ideas on Handwriting, Prewriting and Fine Motor Skills check out my Handwriting and Fine Motor Skills boards on Pinterest! 

Follow Samantha @Stir the Wonder’s board Kids: Fine Motor Skills on Pinterest.

Follow Samantha @Stir the Wonder’s board Teach: Handwriting on Pinterest.

Happy Fine Motor Friday!

Be sure to check out these great fine motor ideas from my co-hosts!

Easter Basket Ideas that Promote Fine Motor Skills from Lalymom

Pom Pom Collage from Craftulate

Five Little Ducks Fine Motor Play from School Time Snippets

Confetti Eggs from Still Playing School

Quiet Book Fine Motor and Name Recognition Page from Powerful Mothering

Bunny Tail Pom Pom Painting from House of Burke

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