Developing Fine Motor Skills with Fun Activities

Easy Fine Motor Skills Activity

Guest post from KidsActivitiesBlog.com

A fine motor skills activity can help young children develop and strengthen their hand, wrist, and finger muscles.  Early learning skills such as writing and dressing oneself are dependent on these muscles.  Kids Activities Blog offers many great ideas for your child to have fun while building those important fine motor skills.

Easy and inexpensive activities for kids do it for me every time. For this activity, all you need are pipe cleaners and beads. I picked up these gorgeous and colorful various sized beads from JoAnn Fabrics months ago for a very reasonable price. The pipe cleaners we had in our supply closet and the small pot I purchased at Ikea for a ridiculously low price.

Is Your Family Overscheduled?

Overscheduled Child

Seek Balance with Kids Activities

 

by Kerrie McLoughlin

It makes my head spin to think about how overscheduled some families are these days: school, afterschool care, homework, dinner, sports or dance once a week, swim lessons or another activity twice a week, games, birthday parties and campouts on weekends. The range of extracurricular activities available to children today is mind-blowing, but of course we want our kids to have everything. But Jill Connors, mom of five, says, “I know friends whose kids are in school that are so scheduled that anytime they are home they are ‘bored.’”

So where’s the time for fort building, skateboarding, cops-and-robbers and other free activities that let a kid’s imagination run wild? Dad Jeff Pearlman is outraged by this overscheduling dilemma and wrote in a piece on CNN.com, “Kids are gifted with 18 years of childhood. … Yes, I want mine to do well in school, and learn the virtues of compassion and empathy and hard work. But I also aspire for them to jump on our trampoline until their legs sag from exhaustion, and ride their bikes up and down the street, … and chase down the ice cream man and watch in amazement as the pink petals fall from our cherry blossom tree.”