I'm Proud: Writing his Name

Trying to get Henry focused on writing, or really anything fine-motor related, has been a struggle. He was always about movement, full of energy. Too much energy to sit still and take time to learn such a thing as writing. 

Yes, it worried me. He didn't seem to be 'up to par' in this area. But I let it go. He's 3 and I know writing isn't something they should be able to do, it was just the fine motor area in general that worried me. 

So, when Henry started preschool this fall, the teachers had poked me about his hand grip and handedness. Once again. Worry struck. One day it was that he held his pencil too loosely, and the next it was too tight of a grip. But I let it go, thinking there wasn't much I could do about it anyway. Just modeled it correctly when I got the opportunity.

Finally, in just the last couple of months, Henry's been more and more interested in doing 'the little things'. Don't get me wrong, he's still completely full of energy and moves a lot. But he now takes time to work with his hands too. 

We still haven't really worked on writing at home [although they do at school], but a couple weeks ago, we moved our chalkboard into our office area [it previously had been hung out in the garage, inaccessible]. 

Henry completely surprised me when he picked up the chalk.

He wrote his name.

Completely on his own.

Left to right.

Correct order.

I'm proud.

He did start directly in the middle of the chalkboard, with the biggest H he could make. There's a conversation on the hands on : as we grow Facebook page regarding this for suggestions on how to help when they're frustration from the child when they run out of room.

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30 Kids Activities & Materials for Promoting Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills have always been put on a back burner in this house, until recently.

What a difference a year makes!
Last year, Henry wouldn't sit still, or have any desire to do anything that didn't involve a lot of running around. We were really into activities that promoted his gross motor skills at that time.

But recently, Henry's taken a turn and likes to focus on some of these littler things.
He loves to cut especially.

Now that's he's interested in these fine motor activities, what can we do?

I've gathered up some inspiration.

Some materials that promote fine motor skills, 

along with some activities to do with them!

Read more »

Toddler Activity : Fine Motor Skills with Pom Poms

Toddler play with pom poms!

Grabbing, pinching and poking at these little items are great for fine motor development!

Read more »

Learning Activity: Cutting Snowflakes

Henry's been on a cutting kick lately.

Since its winter, I decided to take advantage of this and cut snowflakes!

I tried my best to make this as preschooler-friendly as possible.

We used coffee filters for our snowflakes.

Coffee filters are easy to cut, plus they're already round!

And they were really easy for Henry to cut. He didn't struggle cutting through them at all. 

He has a Crayola sharp pointed child scissors that work perfectly for him. 

And they cut really good.

[Seriously, we've tried many others that don't work worth a hoot.]

I folded the coffee filters into eighths [in half three times].

-- You could add in another degree of learning by talking about fractions with your kid.

So Henry would know where and how to cut the snowflake, I drew marks in a simple pattern on the folded coffee filters.

We did several snowflakes, and I learned how to best draw the lines. [For example, don't draw marks to cut right across from each other, they very may well cut a little to far and cut through the coffee filter.]

We had a mishap with one snowflake being almost completely bare. 

I had almost crumpled up the coffee filter and threw it out.

But, Dad had stopped me, and told me to open it up to show Henry.

[Ah.... see, there's a consequence for an action....]

We decided to keep the mishap snowflake and hang it up with the rest.

Dad even made his own coffee filter snowflake! 

[Can you believe, he had never done this before? Seriously! Even as a child!]

-- Sorry, I don't have any pictures of Henry actually cutting because I had to hold the folded coffee filter as he cut out the snowflake.

Henry is 3 years. George is 1 year.

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