Building Fine Motor Skills for 7yos

Are you trying to help your 7 yo build some fine motor skills?   Me too.     There are so many ideas out there for preschoolers and that's as it should be, but the older kids get easily bored with them. 

So, prompted by a request from a fellow Mum, in response to seeing these necklaces the girls made this week, I've gone searching through our resources here at home, and got Miss 7 re-inspired to try some of them.  

In the photos, you can see some of the ones we have already, all purchased from our local op-shops for very little.     These are the ones I found easily without looking too hard.     There are so many more options, but these are the ones Miss 7 is most likely to use at the moment. 

I also found lots of great ideas online, which I've listed below - we'll definitely be trying some of these in the new year.  

You can also view my board on Pinterest here to see these ideas in picture form.    If you're a visual person, then it's worth a look.  

I also have a pinboard of shape activities, ready for next year when we start concentrating on shapes.    Many of these are fine motor skills activities as well.  

Before you read through the list below, you might want to read this lady's page about why fine motor skills are important for children of various ages to develop. 

So, in no particular order and in a somewhat organised fashion, here are the ideas I found, but there were many more.  

SYMMETRY
This one is about arranging shapes symmetrically within a circle.

Making symmetrical snowflakes

Another symmetrical snowflake activity   

MARBLES
This is a great game involving marbles on golf tees, which requires balance and careful positioning,  plus some strategy.  

Marble runs are also a great way to improve fine motor skills and get those 3-D skills working and developing.   We love ours and they are easy to find at op-shops or online.   

This is another great idea for marbles, which involves some sewing as well.  

PATTERN BLOCKS
We love our pattern blocks and I have found some websites that have great ideas. 

There are some great ideas here for making shapes from shapes, if you're happy to pay for the cards.

This site has lots of free printables for you to try out, from simple to more complex. 

This site has printables for making letters and numbers with the pattern blocks. 

And this lady has themed pattern block pictures, so it's worth having a look around her site for those and many other resources

Seriously, though, Google 'pattern block pictures' and you'll find a wealth of websites and pictures for all age ranges. 

STRAWS and TOOTHPICKS
We have this resource at home and the girls both really enjoy making all sorts of things with them.   Today, our loungeroom was filled with jellyfish and lionfish, squid and sharks, all made from these straws and connectors.    This is our 4yo in the midst of making her aquatic creations.   

This is a similar concept, making shapes with toothpicks and gumdrops, this time with straight lines.

And this lady prefers to use grapes instead of gumdrops.


SEWING AND WEAVING
Sewing and weaving are great fine-motor exercises for children older than pre-school level.   They can do simple weaving right through to sewing on fabric. 

This is a great, basic weaving idea on a large scale, for little hands and big ones.   Simple enough to achieve with household items and adapt to various sizes.  

This is a simple idea, great for Valentine's Day.

Or you could do different shapes like these. 

We are going to learn about shapes this coming year, so I was really impressed to find this activity. 

This sewing idea incorporates the concept of in and out of the fabric, and the dots on the fabric help the children to create lines and pictures.    I'm sure you could draw basic outlines on dotted fabric, or let them make their own pictures.   

Miss 7 made these earlier in the year to put in the Samaritan's Purse Christmas boxes.  

AND MORE MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS
This game looks really fascinating if you'd like to learn how to use chopsticks.  Fairly easy to organise, I would think.

Here's a great idea for some Christmas craft that could appeal to various ages and the kids could make it as simple or as complicated as they like.  

This looks like a great alternative painting activity for older kids that could lend itself to all sorts of creativity.

The lady at the above website is a pediatric occupational therapist and has some great ideas for building those fine motor skills in older children.  

I like the look of this one from her website, using little white balls, pipe cleaners and pieces of pool noodle.   There is no end to what children can create with these.   

So, I hope I've inspired you to find fun and interesting ways to build those fine motor skills in and with your children, using activities that can be adapted to various ages and stages, including your own!      

Have fun!     I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything you've seen or tried. 

Upcycled Pegboard Organiser

How do you keep your life organised?  I have a couple of ways.  One is good old pen and paper and a list on the fridge.

 I find that I have to make time to be organised.

The other is this upcycled peg board.  I bought the frame from an opshop, ripped out the picture, stuck in an A4 piece of purple cardboard, painted some pegs and then glued them onto the paper.   

I’ve found this is better for long term goals, a list of cute stuff that Erin has been doing lately, little recipe cards that I give to people and other randoms that can clog up my desk.   I just don’t look at it often enough and the writing is too small for me to glance at it and see what needs doing . . .  I've hung this in my kitchen

Above my desk is this navy covered pinboard, with three white frames hot glued down the middle.   I then glued buttons onto push pins, and also pegs unto push pins and pinned up a few inspirational quotes/scriptures/prayers.  I also have laminated to do lists that I can write my weeks goals on, internet shopping lists on, and other to do lists on, and then wipe clean when I'm done.

 

Do you have any particular way of staying organised?

Linking up at: Titus 2 Tuesdays

Buttons & Lace = The Gypsy Look

 

I've been looking at Pinterest recently and getting terribly inspired,

but even the simplest of designs wasn't going to work for me,

especially without a working sewing machine!

So when I went to visit my Mum recently I took advantage of her sewing machine

and tried to sew on lace, inside a heart-shaped boundary,

which she ended up doing because it was quicker that way,

and I contented myself with sewing buttons around the border.

I counted that there are 37 buttons on this shirt, I didn't have a particular

colour or pattern, just big, then little.

I also made one with blue and white buttons for my niece's first birthday,

but I didn't take a photo of it.

 

And while I'm talking about inspirational things, it doesn't matter how small your garden is,

you'll always find something to brighten your day, or someone else's,

as I discovered one day when I found all these gorgeous flowers in glass jars on the table at church.

 

 

Linking up at www.threekidsandafish.com

Creating a Card Book For Your Baby

About this time last year I was having my baby girl.  Actually, I was being prepped for a C-section after being in labour for about 13 hours and trying to push out a big stuck bubba.  Can’t believe she’s turning 1. 

So this month I’m just going to share with you some things I’ve learned in the last year, and this first post is rather fun.  It’s about dealing with the utter clutter of having a baby.    People bring you stuff;  presents, food, blankets, clothes etc, and it can all just pile up.  You’ve got cards, envelopes (if you’re like me you save them for another occasion) gift bags, plates that belong to someone else, clothes that you do want, clothes that you don’t want, and your house can get cluttered very quickly.   

We were living in a one bedroom flat that we had just moved into when my baby was born and I didn’t have a place for everything yet, so my suggestion is, to avoid the clutter, know in advance exactly where you are going to put all these things, and when friends and family come and ask what they can do, show them a pile and then show them where to put it.    Instead of them unknowingly adding to the mess, let them help clear it.  I’m sure they’d love to.    I don’t think my kitchen table got cleared for weeks after Erin was born.  I had veges, medication, food and general mess everywhere. 

And all those cards of congratulations, what do you do with them after you’ve displayed them for 3 months and they are showing more dust than anything?    I saved them in a drawer for a while along with any other momentos I wanted from the birth, like Erin’s hospital tag, Christmas present tags, etc and then I either used them in scrapbooks or, I made a little card book from the bigger cards by punching holes in them and stringing them up with a ribbon and with the smaller ones that would fit, cutitng them up and sticking them in a photo album, both of which she loves looking at already. 

Linking up at:

Titus2Tuesdays