Do you have as many empty boxes and Styrofoam take-out boxes around the house or in the garage as I do after Christmas? Well here is a fun idea to use and reuse your Styrofoam packaging and build your child's eye hand coordination and fine motor strength all at the same time.
1.) Look in your husband's golf bag or take a trip to the sporting goods store and buy some golf tees (multicolored tees add a little fun)
Give your child a small hammer or wooden play dough hammer and let them hammer the golf tees into the Styrofoam. (The play dough tools are on sale now at Land of Nod!)
He will hammer the tees in and remove them again and again.
2.) Do you happen to have any of those fancy cocktail toothpicks or drink umbrellas in your pantry?
Maybe you have some extras left after the holiday parties. Well gather them up and let your child create a toothpick sculpture. Just encourage them to poke them into the Styrofoam and push them in as far as they would like.
3.) You can do this same activity with pipe cleaners. Let your child snip them, curl them, bend them
and then poke them into the Styrofoam to create a pipe cleaner sculpture.
These activities not only use up the left over recyclable packaging but also:
- build eye/hand coordination
- fine motor strength needed for writing
- imagination and creativity
Get involved! Work with your child to build their vocabulary and language by giving them descriptive words for the material they are using and the process.
Just look at all the skills your child is developing!!! You can't do that while sitting in front of the TV.
HAVE FUN!!!! Remember you have a short time in your child's life to enjoy the freedom of activities like this. ENJOY IT!!!!
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