When toddlers engage in activities such as transferring clothespins from container to container or manipulating knob puzzles, they are doing more than having fun. These sorts of activities help to build and strengthen the muscles in a child's hands, and lay the foundation needed for a variety of important tasks ranging from tying shoes, to eating with utensils, to writing.
C. loves activities such as opening and closing lids and dumping and refilling containers of blocks, so one afternoon I put together this "planting snowflakes in the snow" fine motor activity for him to work on. It has kept him (and his big brother too) occupied for several hours over the past few weeks:
To make it, I attached foam snowflakes to the backs of a number of popsicle sticks, and gave C. some sheets of styrofoam. I showed him how to poke the popsicle sticks into the styrofoam to make the snowflakes stand up, and after a few tries he got the hang of it and was able to do it on his own.
The styrofoam does break down after it has been used a number of times. Once we ran out of fresh styrofoam, we planted the snowflakes into the ground (a loosely woven wicker basket) instead. It turns out that this was actually easier than working with the styrofoam, and in the future I would begin with it.
I am already planning how we can "plant" flowers in the spring.
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