Getting stuck inside on a rainy day can be a challenge with an active toddler or preschooler. A good way to focus all of that boundless energy positively is by stimulating their brains with learning games to develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are defined as any activity that involves hand movement and hand-eye coordination in everyday tasks. Below are some examples of exercises that can easily be incorporated into any form of entertainment for your child. In developing these skills, your child will be more open to exploring and learning while improving their social and cognitive skills, too. Praise your little one’s accomplishments while performing the following tasks they will love the attention and it will lay a solid foundation for learning, while also ripening their little imaginations.
Exercises of fine motor skills include:
- Clapping hands together
- Buttoning and unbuttoning
- Matching and sorting
- Working a zipper
- Building and balancing a tower of blocks
- Developing and maintaining a pencil grip
- Completing puzzles
A fun way to incorporate these motor skills into your next rainy day game may be by:
- Doing the laundry. Take your laundry (preferably clean) and have your child button all the buttons, zip all the zippers, snap all the snaps, tie any ties and match all the socks. When all is buttoned, tied, zipped, snapped, matched and folded, your little one can then help you put it all away – two birds, one stone!
- Take assorted blocks and balance a tower. Don’t have any blocks? Not a problem – build a tower with any objects around the house like coins, ice cubes, tissue boxes or paper bowls and/or cups (make sure to only give your child age appropriate items and always keep a close eye, especially when playing with coins).
Next time you run out of ideas on how to keep your child occupied on a rainy day, skip the television and sit your little one down with some blocks, a puzzle or a craft and watch them get creative – the possibilities are endless!
At all Lightbridge Academy childcare centers, we also advance fine motor skills through our curriculum and play time. We inspire exploration and development, not only through our teachings but with our learning through play philosophy.
