Fine Motor Activities at Home
With the shelter-in-home orders and social distancing recommendations in place, you may be running out of ideas of what to do with your children during the day. Look no further! Today, we're sharing our top 10 fine motor activities that you can do with your child using everyday items around the house:
Explore with dough
There are lots of great recipes for making homemade PlayDOH and you can even hide small toys inside such as marbles to build strength in those fingers.
Paint a picture
Open up some finger paint or try playing tic-tac-toe using a Q-tip with paint to make it a little more difficult.
Play Hangman
This is a great way to sneak in a little handwriting while working on drawing simple shapes needed to make a person. Feel free to make the phrases as silly as you can.
Be creative with computer paper
Consider making a paper airplane and racing them around the house or simply crumble up the paper and toss it into a laundry hamper.
Find some string and practice lacing
There are lots of ways to practicing lacing skills from placing cheerios onto uncooked strands of spaghetti or making a necklace with beads and string.
Make a collage with old magazines
You could make different collages based on different emotions or make a collage with activities that you can do.
Build
Take some cups out of the pantry and see who can make the tallest tower. Another fun activity could be to make a card tower too.
Board Games
Some OT favorite board games are Connect 4, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Fruit Avalanche, Perfection, Puzzles, Kerplunk, or Jenga.
Play Pictionary
Gather the family together and draw different animals or objects and have the family guess what you drew.
Make Shadow Puppets
Turn the lights off and break out those flashlights. Use your fingers to make some creative puppets and even come up with a story or two.
We hope these ideas offer you and your family an opportunity to play together, have fun, and create memories while working on fine motor skills for overall development!
For any other questions, please feel free to reach out via email at alysha@collaborativecorner.org. A timely response will be provided within 24 hours.
Alysha Stoner, OTR/L
Pediatric Occupational Therapist
alysha@collaborativecorner.org