Ready, Steady, Cut

Turkey basters and eye droppers are perfect tools for practicing fine motor skills. They are also great for learning to focus and look closely at something.

Cups of all shapes and sizes can keep your child busy for longer than you might think. Each of these activities builds coordination and control in your
child’s hand muscles.

Fingers and tweezers do similar jobs. They both help to pick things up. Using tweezers takes lots of control and hand-eye coordination.

Tape and stickers are excellent tools for practicing small movements such as peeling, ripping and sticking.

Painting is creative and can be relaxing for children. It also builds fine motor control and coordination.

In school, children do lots of activities. They write, draw, paint, and build with different materials. As children do these things, they use tools–scissors to cut paper, paintbrushes to mix colors, and pencils to write letters and numbers.

At home, children can often get one-on-one help with what they need. At school, teachers have many children to care for and may not be able to assist right away. This is why it is important for children to learn to do tasks like zip jackets, put on shoes, and open snack containers. These everyday tasks use fine motor skills—small movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.