Four year old children need you to help develop their fine motor skills as early as can be. This will later help them to be able to grip their pencils well, have more control with their coloring and also be able to write well.
There are many ways to develop their fine motor skills:
This is the very important tools to help them. You can show them how to make a ball first then a snake. With more practice you will be able to help them to mold more shapes.
You can get yourself two pails. Ask your child to scoop with a cup from one pail, walk to another pail at the opposite side then pour the water into that pail. At first they will spill off the water around the side of the pail, but with more practice, they will get it in the pail at last. That means they can control the flow of the water in a better way.
Get a pencil and teach them the correct way to draw circles on the paper. Let them draw circles round and round the paper. They will start off with big circles and as they improve, they will be able to draw smaller circles soon. You can fix the pencil's gripper to the pencil to help them grip it in the correct way.
Get them to tear color paper into scraps. You will find out they love tearing so much. It is definitely fun for them. Then introduce glue to them for sticking on a fish picture on plain paper. They will start to stick everywhere in the beginning. But after a few times making collage, they shall be able to arrange their scraps on picture neatly.
You must mix the beads/ or seeds of different colors together in a bowl. Then get them to pick up beads/ seeds of the same colors and put them in another bowl. Separate beads of two colors first. They can also learn the names of the colors with this activity.
You must get them to buttons the big buttons into the holes. They must also learn how to undo the buttons. This will practice their patients too. They will be able to recognize if they button to the wrong holes. This will improve their observation skills too.
They can squeeze on sponge with water or it's fine with the dry ones. They can squeeze on plasticine or some soft toys.
Sand box is good for kids. But many parents just consider the hygienic aspect and kids are hinder from the sand box. Kids can naturally have fun in the sand box. With their fingers molding on the sands, this will provoke their imaginations a lot. They will get close to our environment too.
If you start to practice these fine motor skills with your kids, you will see great improvement in the ways they handle things, writings and drawing. They will be more stable compare to the others.
