More Fine Motor!

So every once in a while, I will browse through the lovely ideas on Pinterest! I haven't been visiting quite as much lately because it seems like I usually end up leaving with some type of anxiety attack or new cause! As wonderful as Pinterest is, I'm always left feeling like I need to do more with the Monster or should focus on whatever the flavour or cause of the week is! Aghhhhh!

So anyways, the last few weeks we have been focusing on OT fine motor activities because Pinterest told me to do so!! Hahahaha! Here is a little bit of what we have been up to!

Yules got these fancy wooden toys for Christmas that I finally let her play with!

We have been using them to work on wrist rotation. But you can use anything that twists on and off! Yules has a drawer full of containers with lids that twist on and off in varying sizes! Twisting the lids on and off can seriously occupy the monster for a decent amount of time! Once that gets old, I give her a handful of things (cheerios, pasta etc.) to fill and empty using the containers. Other things that you can use to promote wrist rotation can be nuts and bolts, and pad locks and keys... but that might be for older kids as it requires quite a bit more hand eye coordination! Anyways, Husband is not pleased that we have a giant collection of containers that should be in the recycle and that NOW the monster can open EVERYTHING!! Haha!

We have also been working on hand strength! A simple idea I came across was sticking toothpicks into Styrofoam! Well that sounded easy and I like easy! I gave Yules a Styrofoam plate and a couple toothpicks. It was easy and she seemed to enjoy it but it looked kinda dangerous and sharp. So I abandoned that idea. Husband found the plate with the sharp toothpicks sticking out and asked if it was some type of death trap I was making! Haha it is definitely a keep-your-eye-on-them-at-all-times kind of activity... which I didn't like very much! So I modified it a bit by giving her a thick piece of Styrofoam and plastic party toothpicks! Same thing but with no sharp pointy sticks! I wanted to draw a picture of a person on the Styrofoam and see what she stabs at first... but Husband said that was a little morbid... but I still might do it!

 

I've also been pushing the puzzles hardcore!! Did you know that shape recognition is the first step to reading!! No need to know the names and how many angles/sides etc. but just to be able to recognize and match. So we do puzzles lots!! Thank goodness she likes them!