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Play Dough And Scissors

by 5 Comments

strengthening-scissor-skills-with-play-dough-mama-papa_-bubba_

Recently I spent sometime with 4-6 year old’s and I was very surprised to see that they could not use scissors correctly. I am assuming that because my children have grown up with scissors on the table most of the time (due to craft) they picked it up quickly.  One little boy struggled not only to hold the scissors but to hold the thin paper. This idea from mamapapabubba.com is a great idea. It utilizes a material  (play dough) that the kids are familiar in handling.

So this starts a question :

When did you introduce Scissors to you child? Have the actually ever cut themselves?

 

 

 

Comments

  1. My kids are grown but they started using real scissors at 4-5. A girl & a boy and they never cut themselves. Started with big shapes.

  3. My daughter seemed to be proficent before i officially gave them to her. I just “loved” that first haircut. I then officially gave her access to scissors and paper its been a few years but she had to be 2 or a little younger. She never injured herself and hair regrows.

  4. From my teaching experience, I have seen many 5-6 year olds who have no idea how to hold scissors, or the paper. I just wonder if some parents don’t provide “craft time” as much as “video game time”. My son was using scissors at daycare (with supervision)from 3 yrs on.

  5. My daughter was desperate to get ahold of my scissors from a very early age, but I made her wait until she was about two, I think… I found some safety scissors that were supposedly for very small children- completely made of plastic with no sharp points or edges anywhere. She loved them and used them constantly, but she got frustrated easily because they didn’t work very well. But, at least she never cut anything that wasn’t meant to be cut! Which was my goal. For Easter this year, I got her a new pair of “safety” scissors. They’re labeled as 4+. As far as I can tell, she has never touched them. But she has been (supervised only!) using my extremely sharp and pointy embroidery scissors. She does okay, and knows to be super careful of where her fingers are.

Have you read?

Easy Lacing Cards to Make for Kids

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here). 

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name.  Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces. 

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10. 

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand. 

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock. 

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