A consistent habit of fine motor play with your kids is key to building their independence. With school out of session, Summer is the perfect time to start. We’re going to make it super easy for you with some great tips and free Summer fine motor activities to get you going too.
When I say that adding fine motor play to your days will boost your child’s independence, I truly mean it. There are so many studies about hands-on activities boosting brain performance.
Aside from that I’ve witnessed it over and over again with my own eyes.
Add Fine Motor Play to Your Summer
There are so many ways to incorporate fine motor play into your Summertime routines.
The best way is to tweak some of the activities that you’re already doing. For example, if you’re at the beach or playing in the sand box, include toys that encourage digging, pouring, pinching, scooping, etc. so that the little muscles of the hands and wrists are being worked.
Look at the things you do every day and think about something you might be able to add that will encourage fine motor skills. I always carry a little washi tape or painter’s tape pretty much everywhere I go for this very reason.
Water play in the Summer is always the perfect go to activity. Include some mini water guns or squirt bottles that require pressing the trigger. Or, just like with the sand, add items for pouring and dumping. Add some water droppers for practicing that much needed mature pincer grasp. The possibilities are truly endless.
It’s the perfect way to add a little resistance and tip pinch practice to a basic activity like playing with cars, dinosaurs or any type of miniatures. Tape them down to a surface to start and have your child remove the tape to get started with the activity.
I’d love to hear some of the ideas that you come up with too.
Building Your Child’s Independence
You’re probably heard of the snowball effect.
One thing leads to another…that leads to another…and they build upon each other…Until what started out as tiny is now this undeniable force.
When a child completes a basic fine motor task, like placing pompoms on the correct spots on a picture (easy…right!), they have an “Aha!!!” moment.
They realize that they CAN do it.
And that small victory give them confidence to try other new things…maybe something a little more challenging next time.
Then another new thing…and another…until they’re mastering complex tasks like name writing, cutting out shapes, dressing themselves…
They’re ready to face challenges that’ll come their way in the kindergarten classroom too.
It’s genius! And soooo simple!
Now it won’t happen overnight. And it will require consistency. Momentum is important when growing a snowball.
BUT YOU CAN DO THIS…Nothing to lose and everthing for your child to gain!
How to Create a Habit of Fine Motor Play
Here are a few tips to making fine motor play a habit this Summer:
- Start with a few minutes per day and build up from there. Even ten minutes can be truly life changing for your child.
- Do it at the same time each day for consistency.
- Connect it to another habit that you already have established. For example, if you always brush teeth before going to bed, add doing one fine motor play activity just before teeth brushing. This is called habit stacking, and it’s highly effective for creating a new habit.
- Keep a small kit of fine motor manipulatives on hand so that not having the right supplies won’t hold you back.
- Take fun fine motor activities outside. There’s no rule that says learning can only happen at a table.
- Download the Summer Fine Motor Activities Pack to get you started with fun and simple printable activities.
You’re going to be blown away by how independent your child is becoming after just a couple of weeks of a fine motor play routine.
Often learning the ABCs and numbers comes pretty easily with just some repetition, but teaching confidence is a whole other thing.
Here’s your chance to build your child’s confidence…and with such a minimal investment of time and money.