Get them moving! Yesterday we talked about big movements: climbing, balancing, swinging, and more. Today, think small. Let’s get those hands moving and working on eye-hand coordination. As always, play is a child’s work. At any age, these activities develop skills that pay off in other areas, like better handwriting, and better coordination.
Repeated movement creates neural pathways. I know that’s kind of technical, but this is what it means. When a child plays with legos, clay, lacing cards, puzzles, etc., it develops muscle memory for fine motor skills. When it is time to learn the art of handwriting, muscle memory kicks in and can make the process easier and faster.
Remember, this is not about getting tons of toys. There are probably already lots of items around your house you can use. When my children were about 3 years old, we started with sorting when putting away clean silverware. There are lots of options. If I’m buying a gift, then I want it to do at least double duty. Choose toys wisely even if you pay more for an item that can be used in more ways. This is a short list, but these are space-saving, simple multi-taskers.
Wins: hand-eye coordination, math, communication, discovery
Quick Links:
- Counting Set: I love this set so much. There is so much double-dipping here: counting, fine-motor control, grasping, pinching, and sorting by number and color. Typically, I prefer non-plastic, but this is sturdy, safe, and easy to store.
- Lacing Apple: Instead of having lots of different lacing cards or shapes, I like to keep it simple. This is sturdy, the “needle” is safe and not sharp. It requires several motions to lace.
- Busy Board Puzzle: lots of practical skills
- Sensory Development Stuffy: adorable, squishy, sensory toy
- Aaron’s Thinking Putty for older kids & adults. I use this myself. Not only is it a great sensory experience, it strengthens hands and doubles as a “fidget” to boost focus and a boredom buster.
- Aaron’s Mini Tins of Thinking Putty
- Rubik’s Cube: Link 1: Starter Link 2: Advanced This is great for older kids and adults. It gets the fingers and the brain moving at the same time. This is a win-win! The cool thing about the cube is that once you learn the algorithms of the solutions, the skill set changes to more of a visual perception exercise that is nearly automatic. My son can solve them so easily now, that he works it repeatedly to relax. Yes! Really! This also helps teach the value of algorithms, and systems for problem-solving that you do over and over to get results.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
A portion of our proceeds go to support schools in underserved areas around the world.
💚 I wholeheartedly encourage shopping local or small businesses. Support your friends and family first. If what you are looking for is not available, then check out these links. Keep in mind a lot of small businesses use larger sales platforms to expand their markets and stay in business.
