When children are around the preschool age, it is important to give them plenty of opportunities to do activities that require them to use their fingers. Activities such as coloring, picking up beads or cereal, and using plastic tweezers are all ways to help children develop their fine motor skills. Another great activity which helps them strengthen these muscles is to use lacing cards. Unfortunately, these cards can be quite expensive to purchase at the store. Follow the instructions below to make your own set of cards which can be personalized to your child’s interests, and they can be used again and again.
Start by selecting several pictures that will draw your child’s attention. They can be in color or you can use pictures from coloring books and allow your child to color them. The pictures need to be able to fit on a regular, letter-sized piece of card stock (8 1/2″ x 11″). Cut out the pictures right along the edge of the design. Glue the pictures to a piece of card stock. Cut out the picture but leave about half an inch all the way around. Using a hole-puncher, punch holes around the picture. Holes can be any distance apart, but you will need to put them closer together when going around curved lines. Use thin nylon string (can be found at home improvement stores and usually comes in bright, fluorescent colors) that is cut two or three inches longer than is needed to lace the card. Be sure to burn the ends so that the string does not unravel.
Demonstrate for your little one how the lacing cards are used, and then allow your child to try them out on his own. It may take some practice, but he will soon learn how to pull the string all the way through each time. It doesn’t matter if your child uses the string to go in and out or prefers to go around the edge by putting the string in the same side each time. The key is to give him practice threading the string through the holes.
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Written by BRWI Staff on August 10, 2009
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