Threading - a classic fine motor activity. These kits are something that you probably remember from your own childhood, they have lasted the test of time simply because they are fantastic for fine motor skills! You can also use the beads for colour recognition, and for older children to practice spotting and replicating patterns and sequences. Everything needed for these activities can be found in my Amazon shop.
Milk the Cow - This my absolute favourite activity for building hand strength, it's surprisingly difficult but the child will be so taken with the novelty value that they wont mind persevering. Fill and old rubber glove with out of date milk, or very watered down white paint and, using a safety pin prick a hole in the finger tips. If you're feeling creative, you can add a cow face to the top of the glove. Demonstrate to your child how to squeeze the 'udder' to milk the cow.
Pompoms and building blocks - If you turn building blocks upside down you will see that they have perfectly pompom shaped holes. Add some tweezers for working those hand muscles, and see if your child can fill the holes with the pompoms.
Feed the tennis ball - another favourite for the Resolve boys. Do you have an old tennis ball that has lost it's bounce? Why not cut a small slit into it to make a mouth and draw eyes above it, ask you child to squeeze the ball to open the mouth and see if they can feed it! In the picture above are some small strawberry buttons, but you could use whatever you have: pompoms, dry pasta, marbles or balls of paper.
Building robots - this activity definitely has novelty value too, allowing children to play with safe items from the tool box is very exciting for them. Can they add washers to the bolts, can the line up the nuts so that they spin up or down the thread? Add some playdough to the mix and encourage your child to manipulate the playdough with the hardware to build a robot of their own.
Building with sweets and cocktail sticks - If you're doing this activity with very young children remove the sharp ends of the cocktail sticks first. Demonstrate how you can use the sweets to connect two sticks together, can you child make a square or a triangle? The precision needed for this activity is what makes it so good for fine motor skills, plus it's a good one for snack time too!
Working in miniature - These playdough poppies were a great fine motor work out because they were tiny! You see them here in a jar lid, which is a much smaller scale than most young children would naturally work to. Small-scale requires more precision so is one of the more advances fine motor activities on this page.
Fine Motor Skills are so important. We use them daily when we get dressed, feed ourselves, write or draw - they are vital skills and something children will continue to work on throughout childhood. If your child is starting school and you are looking for ways to make getting dressed and get their hands and fingers ready for learning to write then make sure you check out my School Ready play pack!