Are you planning to start homeschooling your young child, but aren’t sure where to start? Are you looking for curriculum or activities to engage your preschooler while you homeschool your older children. Homeschooling preschool does not have to be difficult! With my kids I try to focus on 4 areas: Pre-reading or reading readiness, Fine Motor, Early Math Concepts, and Play. Over the next few months I will be posting some activities and resources I use for my preschoolers to make sure we are learning and having fun together. Today we will focus on my favorite! Fine motor skills!
Fine Motor Skill Fun
One of the most fun, but also most important areas to work on with your preschooler is fine motor skills. There are countless activities that your child can do to help strengthen fine motor skills. Don’t feel like you need to force your preschooler to sit and write or trace letters for school all the time. Here are a few of my favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers.
Lacing Cards
Lacing cards have always been a hit with my preschool aged kids. Learning to weave the laces in an out of the holes around the edges of the cards will help improve your child’s hand eye coordination and strengthen their muscle control in their hands. Below are some great sturdy lacing card sets on amazon. However, you can also make your own in a pinch with some card stock a hole punch and some yarn!
Scissor/Cutting Skills
Preschoolers love using scissors every chance they get! This is the time to let them practice. Give them a pair of safety scissors and let them cut to pieces. Help them do cut and paste crafts and activities. If you want to give them some more practice you can check out my preschool cutting practice workbooks on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Each activity book has 30 cutting practice pages to help your preschooler increase his fine motor control.
Find my Preschool Cutting Practice Workbook Here!
Find my Preschool Cutting Practice Workbook 2 Here.
Play-dough
Play-dough is an easy, fun, go to activity for your preschoolers. It is wonderful for strengthening fine motor skills. Your kids won’t know it but as they squish, roll, and cut the play-dough they will be strengthening those finger and hand muscles. It’s also very budget friendly! You can even make your own if you’d like!
Lacing Beads
Lacing beads is one of my favorite activities to give my kids! You can change it up however you want to. Have them make necklaces on string, slide beads on to pipe cleaners, or even small wooden dowels. You can teach them make to patterns, match colors or just let have fun making their own creations.
Stickers
Stickers are a great fine motor activity that any preschooler will love. This can be as simple as giving them a sheet of stickers and a piece of their favorite colored construction paper and then let them go to town. The smaller the sticker the more they have to work on their grasp and dexterity. Also you can write their name big or just on large letter or number on the paper and have them place stickers covering the line for more practice and letter awareness. There are also some great sticker books your kids will probably love!
Painting
I have not met a preschooler yet who didn’t jump at the chance to paint! Whether it’s finger paints (just be ready for the mess!) or watercolors they will love it!! One tip: just make sure it’s washable! Paint with water books are my favorite! They don’t make a mess, and your kids will be having fun will learning to grasp and control a brush.
Dot Markers
I don’t know where I would be without my Dot Markers! I bought a set when my middle child was preschool age and I couldn’t believe how much I had missed out on! They are the perfect tool for preschoolers! They are large and easy to hold, and the kids love to use them! (even my 8 and 10 year old kids ask for activities that allow them to use dot markers occasionally!) There are countless free or very budget friends dot marker activities out their that help your kids practice fine motor control!
That’s not all!!!
I could probably go on for days! There are so many fun activities that you can give your preschooler to do that will be great for his fine motor skills but won’t feel like “work” for him! I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my favorites! Always make sure when starting out with a preschooler to make sure learning is fun! Kids will always learn the most when engaged and excited about what they are doing!!
Do you have some favorite fine motor activities for your preschoolers at home? Share them below with us in the comments!!
