Form a Circle - Fine motor activity for Busy Hands

This basic shape activity will pave the way for kids to explore and create with shapes. The activity involves placing tiny objects like colored gems, buttons, pulses, stones or other small tokens along the edge of any circular object. Kids learn to recognize the shape and other attributes of it, like what the particular shape look like and how to make them.

Here we are introducing the basics of math and also fine motor and coordination skills, as kids are picking up and placing the bean onto the board using the pincer grasp action.

You will need a circular object and any beans. You can use plates or container lids or even a paper with a circle on it or a circular board like the one we used. 

LO was playing with brown beans and vehicles. The floor was messy with the beans everywhere. To make him clean up the mess I encouraged him to do this activity and it worked out!😜 All the beans went into the dump truck to ease the activity!

I showed him to how to make circle with beans and he fairly did a decent job!

LO wanted to try the same with the shapes beads!

Happy Parenting 😊

Busy Hands at Process art

This time we explored the colors in an unprocessed manner! Yes, we did Process Art this time, with Pine cones, Lollipop and Pom Poms. Process Art belongs to the child. It allows the child to predict, plan, problem solve, and express their thoughts and feelings. Its is entirely their own creation. They use their small motor skills to manipulate the materials and create their masterpiece. LO loved this Process Art and it was completely funtastic! 😊

Materials used:

• Kids washable paint
• Pine Cones
• Pom Poms
• Lollipop!
• White Papers

I chose Pom poms first, since they are absolutely soft in texture!! (Silly me!😊) More over they create amazing patterns with colors. LO wanted to make some flowers with them, so I drew a plant and he stamped different colored flowers with Pom poms. He didn't forget to complete the plant with brown stem!

The next (tool) which we chose to explore with is the Pine Cones. You can't forget the Pine Cones in this absolutely magical Fall season🌲. This is the first time LO trying around with a Pine Cone, so I didn't want to interrupt with his own way of handling it. He dabbed the cone on to the paper with colors on and tried to fill a square!

This one is a completely new category we chose to color with. Yeah, its Lollipop🍭. Ours was white in color, so it didn't create its own pattern. But if you choose to use colored Lollipops, you can explore them painting on paper just with little water and no colors! It would create amazing patterns. We will try to do one in near future. 

The last tool used was LO's busy hands! LO ran out of patience and couldn't restrain himself from making a mess with his fingers😉.It was beautiful to watch the colors get mix along with the little fingers. And yeah we also did Hand Printing.

Happy Parenting!😊

Pipe Cleaner Activity for Little Busy Hands

As I mentioned in my previous post we are set out with series of fine motor activities that would keep your little ones' little hands busy for hours. And this Pipe Cleaner activity is a perfect one. Chenille stems, or the pipe cleaners, can be bent into any shape and are thin enough to string beads too. I love them because they come in different colors and even glitter, sparkly pipe cleaners are available and fairly inexpensive.

This activity is so simple to set up, all you need is pipe cleaners and a colander. 

Turn your colander upside down and show your kiddo how to insert the pipe cleaners into the holes of the colander. 

LO was very curious in taking out a new pipe cleaner out of the pack than inserting them in the colander😁

 

LO loved the versatility of the pipe cleaners and its soft texture. He loved bending them into different shapes. He associated each color with an animal and he had his own story for each of them😁

 

 We also tried pulling the pipe cleaners out of the colander.

And finally cleanup!!

It was a complete fun filled fine motor activity with learning the colors and some imaginative play. 

Happy Parenting!😊

Busy Hands : Alphabet Fine Motor Play

Super excited to write the first post on "Busy Hands Series". In this series we will concentrate on fine motor activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Important caution: Materials used or suggested in this series may include small items and children are most likely to choke on small objects when they're between 6 months and 3 years old. Hence adult supervision is required all the time when doing these kinda activities with your kids.

The importance of fine motor skill is a well known fact and I need not discuss about that in this space. And remember 'Every child is different', and they develop differently.

This activity was initiated by LO and I just clicked the photos. You need a foam alphabet puzzle and grab some pile of whatever you have to fill the letters. We used red beans but you could use beads, dry split beans, corn kernels, dry beans or any other small item.

You can use this activity to practice letter recognition. You can call out a letter and ask your preschooler to fill the letter with beads/ beans.

Fine motor skills aid in the growth of intelligence and develop continuously throughout the stages in human development.

Happy Parenting😊

Mommy and Mee - Animals and their Young ones Free Play

This (activity) is an unplanned one from my LO👦. As always he was playing with animals, and I was busy doing my chores. He was chatting with animals and busy arranging them on the whizzy dizzy toy. LO imagines the whizzy dizzy to be the forest, as it is green in color😁. After sometime he asked me something and to my surprise I noticed, he had paired the animals as 'mommy and baby'!!😍. I was blissed out about his idea, and what else, immediately I grabbed my camera and started to click snap (just for you guys!😉)

I have come across the importance of free play for kids, but then I realized how creative, fresh and imaginative it could be!😊 I just wanted to share the pictures, so I am not gonna talk about the supplies needed nor how we did it! And of course its just a free play! 

He imagined the brown beans to be the water and let the duck and dolphin swim! You can also use this play to teach them the animals and their young ones. But I didn't do, since I didn't want to pester him! But let's have a look at the young ones' names. 

Dolphin and its Pup/Calf.

Duck and its Duckling, Spider and its Spiderling.

Bear and its Cub.

Lion and its Cub, Grasshopper and its Nymph, Praying Mantis and its Nymph, Fox and its Cub/ Pup.

Sheep and its Lamb, Goat and its Kid, Dog and its Pup, Cat and its Kitten.

Zebra and its Colt/Foal, Tiger and its Cub, Dino and its Juvenile, Cheetah and its Cub.

Horse and its Foal, Frog and its Froglet.

This free play kept LO busy for hours. He had so much fun arranging them in the forest!

Its important for the kids to have these kinda imaginative free play, which allows them to use their creativity and develop their imagination and other strengths. Share the interesting stories of your kids free play with us in the comment box.

Happy Parenting!😊