Monday, October 7, 2013

More fine motor work

Hello friends, I'm back! Last week was pretty eventful and gave me a lot of food for thought, some parenting-related and others, not so much. I'm still sorting out a few things in my head and, once I get my ducks in a row, I'll share some thoughts here.

In the meantime, let me share this activity that I put out for Rachel recently. It's a simple set up - a wooden bowl containing pipe cleaners (chenille sticks) and straws of different widths placed next to a overturned plastic dish with holes (actually it's the thing that I put in my rice cooker when I want to steam food). As you can see, she aims and sticks a straw/pipe cleaner into a hole. That's it. 


After I introduced the activity to her, I left it on the children's table. Babydoll has sat down and done it a few times already, each time requiring zero assistance from me.


On this occasion, she started sucking on the straws, as if testing to see if anything would happen!


I especially love that she placed a yellow bumble bee on her handiwork. Lovely! I wonder if she imagined the bee among the flowers that she'd planted - hohoho, aren't I being presumptuous here!


If you are thinking of doing something similar, you can use a colander. Using pipe cleaners allows the child to create fanciful designs by bending or looping the pipe cleaners. They can create monsters or animals or whatever they imagine. This is a brilliant activity that keeps them entertained for a good amount of time and you'll see it all over the internet. For an older child, you can also use a toothpick holder or a salt shaker, with toothpicks or satay sticks, in which case, it will be much more of a fine motor exercise, with less of a creative element.

In other news, babydoll is still very much into stacking objects. Now she has progressed to placing the bigger object over the smaller one, or the smaller one inside the bigger one, such that they nest into each other, showing that she is starting to understand proportions and sizes.



I actually have lots more to share with you - this little munchkin is always up to something! I don't always manage to capture a photo of what she's doing, hence the lack of posts. Will try harder!

3 comments:

Geraldine said...

What are your thoughts on kids toys sold at department stores vs the play games you created for your children?
Are there any toys that you would recommend worth buying that helps in their development? More like reviews on specific toys from certain brands like FP/Vtech/Leapfrog/ELC/Little Tikes?
Would love to see a post on your analysis

Pinkie Pirate said...

Hi Geraldine, my philosophy on toys and games is that it should be "90% child and 10% toy", meaning that the toy should be doing almost nothing, allowing the child to do almost everything. Whether it is store-bought or home-made, I find that those are the toys that last, those are the toys that the kids play with again and again, and those are the toys that provide the kids with new discoveries, new ways to play and new ways to think. Maybe I will write a post about it ;)

Geraldine said...

Yes please do write a post about it.
That will be most helpful

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