Motor Skills

Your soon-to-be-Kindergartener was built for summer! There’s so much to do, see, and explore, both inside and outdoors. If you’re looking for some fresh, fun ideas to help keep your rising Kindergartner engaged and learning for the rest of the summer, have we got the activities for you! Read on for three days’ worth of developmental, educational, and social-emotional activities – plus some bonus activities, just for fun. And don’t miss our summer minicamp activity ideas for three- and four-year-olds

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Download this free, printable worksheet, grab some counters, and practice numbers and counting with your kiddo! Count the letters in their name (writing it out on a sheet of paper might help), their age, the number of siblings they have, and more!

You may have seen the pretty, painted rocks people are leaving around neighborhoods across the country as a symbol of kindness. You can do the same! Take a walk and find some medium-sized rocks with nice flat or rounded surfaces. Clean them off and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes – you can use the time to talk about things that make your kids happy as inspiration for what they might draw. Let the rocks cool just a bit, then use crayons to draw their ideas! When the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write caring messages like “Kindness”, “Love”, or “Joy”. Then place them in your neighbors’ gardens to brighten up their days! Find other kindness activities here.

End your first day of minicamp with another cool-down activity – making a snowstorm in a bottle! Gather a glass or see-through plastic jar, vegetable oil, white paint, glitter, and an Alka-Seltzer tab, and follow these instructions to make it snow inside!

Using the proper pencil grip is the key to legible writing. Help your kiddo practice this summer by providing a sheet of properly formed capital letters to trace using a variety of differently sized crayons, markers, and pencils. Around age five, kids should be able to manipulate a writing utensil with three fingers rather than move their wrists or arms. Learn more about proper pencil grasps here.

Brush up on those math skills with a scavenger hunt around the house! Print this list of things to look for and set off to find everyday math items, including number words, items of certain sizes and shapes, pairs of things, and more!

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Stretchy, sticky, and squishy, you probably know that slime is awesome. But did you know that slime also helps builds fine motor skills? Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, and twisting are all great ways to strengthen hand muscles and build fine motor skills! Start your last day of minicamp off with some slime, using our favorite recipe.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

The forces of physics are all around us, and summer is a great time to see them in action. Floating in the pool, rolling a ball, and dropping an ice cream cone (oh NO!) are perfect examples of buoyancy, motion, and gravity. These simple activities will demonstrate some of the most fundamental properties of physics in a fun way – and you can follow up your lesson by making a simple machine (instructions included).

Print this free career worksheet, cut out the word cards and images, and match them up! Talk about each job, the responsibilities of each job, the qualities each requires, and which one interests your child the most (and the least).

Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.

If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!

Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.

This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:

Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here. 

Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.

A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.

Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.

Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.

Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.

Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.

Get That Baby MOVING!

How Much and What Kind of Physical Activity Do Babies Need?

Just like kids and adults need daily physical activity, your baby was born to move! In addition to building muscular strength and balance, physical activity has been shown to improve your infant’s motor development, bone health, social skills, and more. But how much is enough? And what kind of exercise can your baby really do?

According to the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics, infants should have several rounds of interactive, physical activity each day, in addition to at least a half hour of tummy time. WHO also discourages any screen time and too much “contained” time in car seats, strollers, and high chairs, both of which can detract from time babies could be spending moving their bodies and engaging their brains. Once you’ve created a soft, safe (no plugs, cords, or small items) area with enough room (a roughly 5x7 clearance) for your infant to play, here are a few ways to encourage physical movement:

-          Bounce your baby on your lap

-          Play patty cake

-          Play peekaboo

-          Clap along to music

-          Show baby how to shake a rattle

-          Dangle soft toys above baby

-          Bicycle baby’s legs

-          Gently pull baby’s arms (support their head if they can’t do it on their own) to lift them from a lying to a sitting position

-          Make a mountain of pillows for baby to crawl over

-          Place toys just out of baby’s reach

-          Roll a soft ball past baby

-          Show baby how to bang a wooden spoon on a plastic container

-          Create a crawling tunnel out of a smooth cardboard box

-          Support baby as you lean them over and let them right themselves

-          Introduce push and pull toys

The more baby moves, the stronger they’ll be, so be sure to make exercise a part of your little one’s daily schedule!

Montessori’s 5 Cs

Raising a Curious, Confident Learner

If you’re familiar with the Montessori method, you know that schools following these teaching principles focus on child-guided, hands-on learning. There are no lectures or timelines – students explore concepts at their own pace, in their own way, working until their personal curiosity is satisfied. In fact, curiosity is the first of Montessori’s powerful “Cs”. Learn more about these concepts so that you can support your child as they follow their own learning path at home:

Curiosity – Present your child with an activity, demonstrate it for them, then step back and let them explore on their own. Watch as they discover various elements on their own, using each piece or the whole as they wish. Let them play as long as they are interested, without intervening, but redirect if you sense they are becoming frustrated.

Communicating – Speak to your child calmly and lovingly. Praise their exploration, curiosity, patience, and perseverance rather than their efforts or outcome. Encourage them to continue exploring and ask them questions about what they’re doing. Demonstrating positivity and support not only builds self-confidence in your child, it also teaches your child how to speak kindly to others.

Correcting – The ability to recognize a mistake and try again – without becoming frustrated or defensive – will serve your child well throughout their life. Teach them that mistakes are part of the learning process by gently redirecting problems and suggesting a possible solution to try next. Sticking with a problem is more important than getting it right the first time.

Conceptually – You may have heard about Growth Mindset – the idea that everyone is capable of learning a concept and just because a student doesn’t understand it – YET – doesn’t mean they never will. Montessori believes that learning is a journey and there is much to be learned by the process itself. Encourage your child as they embark on the journey and every step of the way.

You can build a curious, confident learner by following these tips from Montessori. Set out a new activity for your little one today and see how they respond!

Tripping and stumbling are not uncommon as little ones develop the gross motor skills they need to walk, run, jump, climb, swing, throw, and catch with confidence. Building the large muscle groups – the arms, legs, feet, and core – provides the strength, balance, and coordination kids need to move their bodies with ease. And the good news is that gross motor development is fun! Give these five activities a go to help your little one feel steadier on their feet:

1.       Hopscotch! Grab the sidewalk chalk and create a simple hopscotch course. Challenge your child to hop through first on one leg, then the other, then on both feet. Add more boxes and trickier moves as your little one builds their skills.

2.       Catch! Start seated, rolling a soft, bouncy ball back and forth to each other. Then stand a few feet apart and practice tossing and catching. Back up a foot or two to increase the difficulty as your child’s aim and coordination increase. Shake things up by attempting to toss the ball into a laundry basket or large bucket or aiming for a chalk circle target on your garage door.

3.       Walk the Plank! Create a floor-level balance beam with masking tape on your carpet and take turns walking across it without falling off. Try walking flat footed, on tippytoe, taking large steps and small ones, and walking forward, backward, and sideways. Turn your plank into a zig zag or circle. Tip: raising your arms out to the side helps with balance!

4.       Stork! Set the timer on your phone and practice standing on one foot for a few seconds, then try the other foot. Increase the time as your little one’s balance improves, then see who can stand the longest on one foot without falling down. Don’t forget to switch feet!

5.       Jump! Place a series of washcloths on the carpet in a room with lots of space (don’t try this with hard wood or other slippery floor surfaces). Demonstrate jumping from cloth to cloth using regular steps and jumping with two feet. Change up the course to make things more challenging – try spreading the cloths out and leaping from cloth to cloth.

6.       Freeze! In a safe, open space, let your child loose to run as fast as they can. Yell STOP and see if they can stand still in place for a second or two before you yell BACK and have them run back to you. Continue with STOP, GO, and BACK until you need a hydration break!

7.       Skip! Skipping requires both gross motor skills and coordination, so don’t worry if your child comes up with their own version of the move. Start by stepping forward with one foot and hopping up in place. Practice this a few times, then practice with the other foot. Put it all together – step forward, hop up, switch – and you’re skipping!

8.       Go Wild! Watch some nature videos on YouTube, noting the way that different animals move. Then see if your little monkey can copy those moves. Call out gorilla, frog, penguin, bear, flamingo, and kangaroo and see if your kiddo can make the moves.

9.       Follow the Leader! This is a great way to help your child practice specific skills they need, from reaching for the sky (without falling over) and balancing on one foot to jumping over a small obstacle or walking on all fours.

10.   Fill the Bucket! Start with two similarly sized buckets, laundry baskets, or clean indoor trash cans. Add small balls, rolled socks, or crumpled paper to one of them, then time your child as they remove the items and transfer them to the other bucket, one by one. Move the buckets father apart as your child’s time improves.

Building gross motor skills is fun, and before you know it your little one will be climbing trees and riding bikes. Enjoy this time together, working on the skills they need to put their best foot forward, literally!

My four-year-old and eight-year-old both love playing with the Gears! Gears! Gears!® Set we have at home. They play with the set in different ways but can engineer and build some impressive creations both in collaboration and independently. My eight-year-old loves trying to make more challenging creations, so I was excited to see that Learning Resources® has released a new TreadMobiles Set.

A great way to look at this particular product is as an expansion pack for when your child starts to want to build beyond the original Gears! Pieces. This is a 101-piece set, which includes regular gears and unique pieces such as chain links and rubber treads to go on wheels. It enables your gear creations to become more mobile, with the possibility also to twist and turn.

My eight-year-old always loves to be let loose with any building material before he attempts to follow directions for a specific build. He carefully tested out the newer style pieces, especially getting excited when he saw the wheels and treads. He liked the challenge of figuring out what each part did and how it could fit together with other pieces to cause motion. It is essential to give your child ample time to freely explore STEM toys as this is the prime opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills. It encourages trial and error, as well as creating a sense of perseverance. These are essential skills for little engineers!

After testing out the pieces, my son decided to try and build one of the suggested vehicles included in the guide provided. We worked together to find the pieces and put them together correctly, testing out that the gears were in motion along the way. The set is recommended for 5-10-year-olds, and I would say that those towards the lower end of the age recommendation may well need some help. My little engineer is way better at building these things than I am, so he was directing me on how to make the vehicle most of the time!

Once we had the basic frame of the vehicle put together, it was time to add the wheels and treads. This gave a whole new lease of life to the Gears product. There’s something so rewarding for children to be able to make builds that move. Even more, motion was added when the large chain wrapped around the entire vehicle. This took some problem-solving and patience until we got the chain on correctly, but it was great to see my son trying to work it out independently. Once the chain was fixed, we had a pretty cool TreadMobile!

Cue 4-year-old little sis joining in with the play. She enjoyed testing out all of the different parts of the vehicle which moved and even wanted to add a few more pieces. Adding the different pieces is a great way to develop fine motor skills, with the small hands and muscles having to work hard to manipulate and connect the pieces. It was fun to see little sis enjoying the set just as big bro.

I’m looking forward to seeing how my children explore this new set, with there being a real potential for lots of collaborative building. I like that there are new styles of pieces included and that these are all also compatible with the original Gears! Gears! Gears! sets, which will allow many opportunities to expand on builds in the future.

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.

Learning Resources do an excellent job at making STEM learning accessible to children of all ages. One of the reasons we love their products so much is because they have a natural ability to allow my two children to create and play together at a challenging level but not frustrating. The new STEM Explorers™ Marble Runners is an excellent example of this, and we’d love to share more about it with you in this blog.

What’s Included

This may seem like a very simple set on first inspection, and I’ll admit that I was hesitant about how long the play would last. I was so wrong! The set includes 13 track pieces, two balls, and a double-sided booklet with instructions and fun track suggestions. The track pieces are made from dense foam and have reusable self-adhesive backings, which means they can be stuck to windows, removed, and used again. If the pieces start to lose their stick, simply wet them with a damp cloth, and the stick factor is reactivated.

First Impressions

Initial impressions are always key when it comes to STEM toys. My four-year-old and eight-year-old showed genuine excitement when I got the box out. They’d never made a vertical marble run before, let alone one on our big glass door! The reason I say that first impressions are essential is because if the initial play is one of frustration or it lacks engagement, then it’s often the case that the toy will have a short life span with my kids. If, however, they are intrigued and can use the product with success, they are most definitely going to get lots of play from it. I loved how they could easily stick the pieces to the window, and they were so excited to build a track together.

Trial and Error All the Way

STEM products have a great ability to encourage children to work collaboratively and also to evoke a sense of trial and error. Sometimes the ‘error’ part can be challenging for children to overcome. They build the track, and it doesn’t work, but how do they respond? Do they give up? Or can they problem-solve to adjust the track accordingly. My four-year-old wanted it to work the first time, but my eight-year-old was so patient and did a great job gradually moving pieces to fix any problems. This is where getting them to work as a team paid off. My eight-year-old would adjust the pieces and say to his sister, ‘let’s test it now.’ She would drop the ball, and they would analyze where it went wrong. Then my eight-year-old would make the adjustments, and they would test it again. I loved watching them in action together.

The fact that the pieces are easy to remove and put back on the glass was a huge bonus. The design also means that there are so many fantastic combinations of tracks that you can build. My son always wants to create his own, which I love about him. We also had fun testing out some of the suggested tracks on the instruction booklet. I like how they gradually increase in difficulty, and the images are clear and easy to follow.

Teamwork for the Win

This is an awesome product for siblings or friends to use together, as well as it is perfect for classroom play. We had little sis inside moving the pieces and big bro outside looking at the set-up from the other side of the glass. They thought this was pretty cool and loved following the ball together through the glass. Collaborative learning has so much to offer in terms of developing communication skills and helping children improve skills such as patience and empathy. It would be a blast to have two sets of Marble Runners and work side by side doing marble races!

Learning resources have done it again with another quality STEM product ideal for collaborative play and learning! Be sure to share your Marble Runners track ideas on social media for us to test out.

Writer’s Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.