Fine Motor Boot Camp: For Big Kids

After my son started kindergarten, it became clear that his fine motor skills needed work.  He was struggling with his handwriting and drawing, and it was impacting his confidence at school.  I spoke with the occupational therapist at the school district and she boiled my son's challenges down to one core problem: weak muscles his hands and wrists.

It's not that my son doesn't have the ability to write - he just does it sloppy.  It isn't that he can't draw a person, he just does it sloppy.  The refined movements needed to be more precise required stronger and better "trained" muscles - his hands and wrists needed a workout!

I did a lot of research and found that the majority of fine motor "activities" are geared toward younger kids - toddlers - to develop fine motor skills that were a bit too basic for my kindergartener.  What fun things could I do with my six year-old that would challenge him and still keep him entertained?

The activity that I'm showing you today is super basic, but still fun and useful for fine motor skills.  All that you'd need are pipe cleaners and any kind of sequins you can find.  Sequins, typically, has a very small hole somewhere - that hole is important for this project so be sure yours has them!  We were aiming to make a "garden" this time, so I found large flower and leaf-shaped ones.  Since this is still aimed at the kiddos, try to keep it fun with bright colors and various shapes.

Let's make things!

The first step in fine motor development is picking out the sequins they would like to use - the pincer grasp on these tiny, thin pieces of plastic is a workout on the small muscles in the hand.  Once your child has picked out enough pieces for your project (my son selected about 30 to cover two pipe cleaners), you're ready to get started on the assembly.

Because the sequins is so small and the pipe cleaner has that fluffy bit that fights against threading the sequins, this might be challenging for your child at first - I helped out by holding the pipe cleaner steady while my son figured out the mechanics of lining up the sequins with the pipe cleaner and how much pressure he needed to get the sequins to slide on.

After a while, my son was able to thread the sequins solo - as you watch your child do this, you'll notice how many precise hand movements this seemingly basic activity uses.  We even took a quick break to grab a snack after one pipe cleaner was done because my son's hands had started to get a little sore.

Once your pipe cleaners are done, twist them together to create "vines" - and Ta-Da!  Your "garden" is complete!  If a "garden" isn't up your child's alley, make other shapes and designs by connecting different colored pipe cleaners together after threading on the sequins - we've made crowns and bracelets before, so encourage your child to be creative and have fun.