Fine motor activities suggestions

[Hexemaus]

Witz, I had to giggle at the videogames. In his Occupational Therapist (OT) report, it suggested hand held video games to improve hand/eye. I told the Occupational Therapist (OT) we just wouldn't mention that part to difficult child. He doesn't need ANY encouragement in that department.

I did find something at Wal-Mart today that really got him interested. Those foam project things. Some are peel & stick, some have to be glued. They have a million different sizes, shapes, and plain sheets where he can cut his own design. I must have spent $30 on foam junk. (Enough so we'd have projects for a few weeks for all three kids, the stuff isn't really that expensive. I just have to buy 'in bulk' )

So far, he's made a visor, a door hanger, and a couple of the 'kits' that I bought that make little animals. They're good for problem solving too. The animal kits didn't have instructions, so he had to figure out how to put all the pieces together and what would need to be trimmed and glued to what.

You guys really do have a bunch of great ideas. I didn't find the hama beads though. Will look again at Michael's tomorrow. (He's going through his new 'projects' faster than I can keep up. I may have to get some things without him and put them up for later. He doesn't know how to wait. He wants to do it all as soon as we bring it home.)

 

[Hexemaus]

OH! I almost forgot. I also taught him to play 'spoons.' Anyone else here play it? I didn't realize it until we started playing just how much dexterity you need in your fingers to be able to play well.

For those of you who don't know what 'spoons' is. It's like musical chairs with a deck of cards and spoons. You use one less spoon for the number of people playing. The object is to get 4 of a kind and grab a spoon. Once someone has grabbed a spoon, the rest are fair game for whoever gets to them first. I've seen my 60+ year old Dad go diving over the kitchen table in pursuit of a spoon which got knocked off the table. Only to have it come down to a tug-o-war between he and my 16yr old niece. /importthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

It's actually a fun game. My family used to play it for hours when we were younger. Now I taught the kids how to play. We've had more than one tug-o-war over spoons in the last 24hrs. But it's been a blast. difficult child struggled at first with being able to pick up just one card at a time at a really fast pace, but I think he's getting the hang of it.

 

[SRL]

My difficult child is having a good time with leftover scraps of balsa wood from easy child's fair project. The thin stuff cuts easy enough. He also likes to make swords and daggers by gluing large craft sticks together. This is a desperate move on his part because his mean mother won't buy him any toy ones.

One more idea: difficult child's Occupational Therapist (OT) gave had me look through her Occupational Therapist (OT) supply catalogues to get ideas and it was a big help. It's good to do it in the office during a therapy session because she'll have more but the two main suppliers in the US do send out free catlogues and it's worth looking through.

 

[Peanut]

Seeing the legos mentioned made me think of when we bought our difficult child K'nex. He would play with them for hours on end, still does occasionally in fact.

I really don't have any other suggestions as there's been so many given already.

 

[Ephchap]

There is a lot of really great info on here. I'm moving this to the general archives, as requested - titled, "Fine Motor Activities Suggestions".

Deb