Lacing Cards
This is a great fine motor activity to help concept recognition. You can make your lacing cards any shape or color to review whatever it is you want! I chose shapes since that is our newest concept and one we are still working hard on. If you don't want to make your own cards they have lots of nice cards on amazon.
MATERIALS:
card stock paper
hole punch
string (yard, shoe lace, ribbon) that can easily fit through the hole
Cut out whatever shape you want and hole punch around the border. Tie a string to one hole and lace a few holes up. I also recommend laminating these if you want to use them again. Finn was pretty rough on them and only one could really be used again. The good news is they are so easy to make so you can quickly make more!
We started by discussing the shapes and naming them. I helped him run his fingers around the sides to help him understand what a shape is (they make say the color when you ask what shape it is because they understand things are colors but not what makes up a shape)
I demonstrated how to put the string through the hole and pull it through. He quickly picked up on the idea.
He did not lace the pattern of the shape, which is fine and what I expected. Lacing is an advanced fine motor skill so we are just introducing the idea. Let them put the string through whatever hole they can get.
You can see in that picture Finn pulled too hard and broke some of the holes! He was more careful after and pulled lightly.
I wanted to take a moment to remind parents that our children do not always cooperate and that is fine. I get pictures as we begin our project while he is most engaged and I don't want any parent getting discouraged because their child wont cooperate. These pictures sometimes make it look so easy. This next picture was a tantrum in between Finn pulling the string too hard and ripping out the holes and learning he can do it more gently. Sometimes homeschooling is working with them through their meltdowns to help them process all the big emotions they have!
