Prewriting - Getting ready to Write!

Adeline's motor skills are weak, so we are working hard to improve that.  I would like to start teaching her how to write letters soon but I feel that we need to strengthen the muscles in her hands a bit more.

What we are doing:

1.   Crawling every day.  Crawling strengthens the hands as weight is put on them.

2    Hanging from a monkey bar.

3.   Playing with play dough

4.   Lacing beads

5.   Peg board
 
6.   Scooping with a small scoop is very good because it forces you to use your pincher grasp.

7.  Drawing lines - we have been doing lots of matching pages.  I laminate them and use them over and over.
   
8.  Prewriting  pages-  I love these pages from:  3 Dinosaurs  

The number matching page is also from  3Dinosaurs 

We love these dry erase makers they are thin like a pencil and Adeline can erase when she is finished.

Tongs and Ladles, Fine Motor Skills

Tongs and ladles are great household items to work on fine motor skills.  I gathered up a few items we find outside in the fall and winter and made a sensory box.  Adeline scooped and picked up pine cones, nuts and grain.

 sorry my feet go in there

 Later we lined up the pine cones.

Milk Caps And A Box

Today I had a box similar to a pizza box, so I cut slots in it going different directions.  Adeline likes to put things in, but I thought mixing it up a little would be a bit of a challenge for her.    

This activitiy could be done on the floor or at a table.  I wanted to work on reaching, balance, and vision so I added some magnetic strips to the back of the box and hung it on our oil drip pan.  You could stick it to your refrigerator also.

We used our Trumpette Cow to bounce on while we put the milk caps in.

 
This activity focused on fine motor skills and using the words "in" and "turn".

Thanksgiving Fun

Today we had some fun learning about some of the things we see in the fall and during the Thanksgiving season.  I have been doing some reading about some of the Montessori  methods and I feel like they work so well with what we are trying to do with Adeline.  I will be incorporating more of these things into our day.

One important aspect is teaching our children how to use everyday tools.  Today we put together a sensory box of fall items and Adeline practiced using a tong, and ladle.  The tong was a little more difficult but she really enjoyed using the ladle.  This exercise requires a lot of turning the wrist and arm, all important skills.   Her favorite were the pumpkins that I found on clearance at Wal mart.

One on one correspondence with pumpkins.