Fine Motor Activity - Threading with Cereal Loops

Before children are able to hold a pencil properly to write, they need to develop the necessary fine motor skills. I try to incorporate some fine motor activities in our homeschool to work those little muscles in David's hands to prepare him for writing. Fine motor skills are important not only for writing, they are essential for so many activities in our daily lives! We need fine motor skills to use a pair of scissors, to cut fruits and vegetables, to button and unbutton our shirts, to brush our teeth, tie our shoelaces etc.. Some vocations, like surgeons, chemists, craftsmen and artists require very well-developed fine motor skills. As I let David engage in fine motor play, I would like to think of it as preparing him for life and usefulness in his future calling.

A simple fine motor activity that can be done with young children is threading with cereal loops.

I used some freshly-made homemade play dough as the base and inserted a strip of spaghetti into it. I poured some fruit loops (you can use any circular cereals with holes, like Cheerios) into a bowl and showed David how to thread one piece through the spaghetti. He caught on very quickly and was soon busy threading the spaghetti with fruit loops. It was fun watching him. He really enjoyed the activity and was fully engaged in it.

His well-deserved snack (what else but fruit loops?) was waiting for him right after he was done threading (Yummy!). If you are concerned about feeding your child the piece of cereal that touched the play dough, just leave that one out. I ate that up as my batch of play dough was freshly made and the ingredients were all food-grade :)