Drill, Digital Capture/Color Photography, © Dennis DeHart, 2012
There are countless ways to encourage fine motor skills in childhood play. Fine motor skills are also known as dexterity. One approach includes providing children with small, hand powered tools that can be used for drilling, pounding, pouring, digging, sorting, and sawing. This weekend our children used small hammers to pulverize red bricks (clay) that they found in the yard. After crushing the bricks, they used the clay powder and sifted the harmless matter through a strainer. The kids also used inexpensive hand drills to drive holes into the soft red brick. All these projects developed on their own accord, beyond my helping them find the tools. Given the time, space, and place, our children naturally gravitate towards this form of play. I can attribute much of this to their multiple exposures to wood working with their nana, in addition several years of early childhood Waldorf education.
No comments:
Post a Comment