Preschool Learning Toys To Develop
Fine Motor Skills
Preschool Learning Toys To Develop Fine Motor Skills
Much has been written about preschool learning toys and developmental toys for toddlers...with much disagreement as to the real benefits of educational toys and games.
We parents are the very first teachers of our children. They learn from us by example and by interaction both through activity and through conversation. We all want our children to be prepared for school and prepared for life, but for many of us the question is "how do I make sure that we are giving our preschoolers all the tools they need to prepare them for school".
After the first week of kindergarten for our son, the teacher pulled me aside to inform me that his fine motor skills were way behind those of the other children in his classroom. Apparently he was unable to manipulate his scissors, etc. during art time. "What!". We'd kept him away from scissors up this point. After all...aren't they dangerous and potentially harmful to our children? How could we possibly teach him how to use scissors and at the same time keep him away from them?
I was a young first time mother and at that time I didn't really comprehend exactly what fine motor skills were. It felt like a degradation to my motherhood to hear that our son wasn't up to speed with the other kids on these tasks. How had we failed him? We'd spent hours and hours reading to him, teaching him his colors and practicing counting to 10, then 20 and up.
Determined to get figure out how to develop his "fine motor skills?" to save him & myself from further embarassment, and at the same time NOT make the same mistake with our then 2 year old daughter, I went on a mission to turn those little hands into fine tuned tools.
We found out that fine motor skills are small muscle movements of the fingers that help your children to accomplish school readiness activities such as cutting with scissors, drawing and writing with pencils and crayons correctly, and performing certain other craft activities. Yep...if he couldn't use scissors properly and craft projects were a total frustration for him, then we needed to work on helping him to develop his fine motor skills.
There are many things we can do as parents to develop and prepare our children for kindergarten in a fun and playful way. Here are a few inexpensive or cost free activities you can do with your child that will help to prepare them for school.
Unfortunately we parents and caregivers are very busy people, and there are times where we are just too tired or have too many other things that need attended to. That's the benefit of preschool learning toys. These types of toys not only keep your child busy and happy while giving you time to accomplish other tasks, but they are also helping your child to develop their fine motor skills...and best of all your child will be having so much fun that they won't even realize they are learning.
Between the ages of 2 and five, children should demonstrate rapid gains in fine motor manipulation and finger dexterity. Fine motor skills don't develop overnight, but the following educational toys and games will speed up the process for your toddlers:
Many children will catch on quickly and develop their fine motor skills once they are in school, but the child who arrives in kindergarten with an inner core of these basic skills will be more willing and ready to learn with joy without being overburdened and embarrassed. Children who match their school's and teacher's expectations will adapt more quickly and easily.
Those children who arrive at kindergarten fully prepared will feel much more a part of the inner core of their social peers and will be more emotionally settled in kindergarten.
Much has been written about preschool learning toys and developmental toys for toddlers...with much disagreement as to the real benefits of educational toys and games.
We parents are the very first teachers of our children. They learn from us by example and by interaction both through activity and through conversation. We all want our children to be prepared for school and prepared for life, but for many of us the question is "how do I make sure that we are giving our preschoolers all the tools they need to prepare them for school".
After the first week of kindergarten for our son, the teacher pulled me aside to inform me that his fine motor skills were way behind those of the other children in his classroom. Apparently he was unable to manipulate his scissors, etc. during art time. "What!". We'd kept him away from scissors up this point. After all...aren't they dangerous and potentially harmful to our children? How could we possibly teach him how to use scissors and at the same time keep him away from them?
I was a young first time mother and at that time I didn't really comprehend exactly what fine motor skills were. It felt like a degradation to my motherhood to hear that our son wasn't up to speed with the other kids on these tasks. How had we failed him? We'd spent hours and hours reading to him, teaching him his colors and practicing counting to 10, then 20 and up.
Determined to get figure out how to develop his "fine motor skills?" to save him & myself from further embarassment, and at the same time NOT make the same mistake with our then 2 year old daughter, I went on a mission to turn those little hands into fine tuned tools.
We found out that fine motor skills are small muscle movements of the fingers that help your children to accomplish school readiness activities such as cutting with scissors, drawing and writing with pencils and crayons correctly, and performing certain other craft activities. Yep...if he couldn't use scissors properly and craft projects were a total frustration for him, then we needed to work on helping him to develop his fine motor skills.
There are many things we can do as parents to develop and prepare our children for kindergarten in a fun and playful way. Here are a few inexpensive or cost free activities you can do with your child that will help to prepare them for school.
- Cutting things out with scissors. Teach them how to use the correct grip AND make sure you are using scissors made specifically for children. And here's how...thumb and middle fingers in the loops with the index finger underneath to stabilize their cutting actions.
- Thread beads and macaroni onto a piece of string.
- Making anything from playdough. Help them to manipulate the playdough into balls and logs.
- Playing with blocks. Line them up and stack them to help them with their eye/hand coordination.
- Sort things like buttons and beans. Their little fingers will learn how to pick them up and manipulate them to the correct piles.
- Coloring books are always safe and fun. Using crayons and learning how to hold them will help them develop their fine motor skills. Vertical surfaces are always best, so use an easel if you have one. If your child has strong developed hands then crayons work fine, however if they have smaller and underdeveloped hands you are better to use the larger crayons and markers.
- Put together puzzles (make sure you buy the ones with the thicker pieces for easier handling)
- Use spray bottles filled with water (no cleaning products please-our grandson prefers the real thing because he loves to help us clean- but this is a big no no moms and dads)
Unfortunately we parents and caregivers are very busy people, and there are times where we are just too tired or have too many other things that need attended to. That's the benefit of preschool learning toys. These types of toys not only keep your child busy and happy while giving you time to accomplish other tasks, but they are also helping your child to develop their fine motor skills...and best of all your child will be having so much fun that they won't even realize they are learning.
Between the ages of 2 and five, children should demonstrate rapid gains in fine motor manipulation and finger dexterity. Fine motor skills don't develop overnight, but the following educational toys and games will speed up the process for your toddlers:
- Play Cubes such as the one pictured above are designed to develop fine motor skills in your children. Some require your child to get a bead through a maze, draw with a magnetic pen, find paths through mazes or manipulate gears. These cubes all have 5 sides with a different activity on each side for hours and hours and fun and learning for your children.
- Activity Tables and Activity Centers are geared towards developing fine motor skills and other developmental skills in children such as social skills. There are lots of different activity tables including those that have beads and mazes that also help your children learn colors; those that are magnetic that teach your children to control their hand movement while at the same time teaching them about city life/transporation, bug life, sea life and much more. There are also musical instrument activity tables along with those that teach about submarines, space shuttles and much much more.
- Activity Wall Panels are not only fun and educational, but they also provide great decorations for your child's room. The types of activity wall panels are endless...from mazes to pathfinders, sea life to outerspace, tic-tac-toe to ziggidy zag and many many more. Your child will never be bored with one of these hanging on their bedroom wall.
- Arts And Crafts Activity Toys from art easels, to beads, to clay and all types of drawing activities...your child will be using their imaginations and at that same time their creating things they'll be fine tuning their fine motor skills.
- Magnadoodles work well for promoting the grasping of the thumb and index/middle fingers.
- Blocks and Shape Sorters
Many children will catch on quickly and develop their fine motor skills once they are in school, but the child who arrives in kindergarten with an inner core of these basic skills will be more willing and ready to learn with joy without being overburdened and embarrassed. Children who match their school's and teacher's expectations will adapt more quickly and easily.
Those children who arrive at kindergarten fully prepared will feel much more a part of the inner core of their social peers and will be more emotionally settled in kindergarten.
Our recommendations for the best preschool learning toys.
....... more preschool learning toys and activity toys for fine motor skill development (click on the picture to the left to view them all)
