Why Your Child Needs to Practice Their Preschool Scissor Skills

If you aren’t working with your child on their preschool scissor skills, start today!

Sure children get some practice if they go to a preschool, but additional scissor skills will serve them well as they get older. This post contains affiliate links.

Why Your Child Needs to Practice Their Preschool Scissor Skills

Scissor skills are super important for kids of all ages to master for a number of reasons:

Strengthen Grip

Scissor skills help child strengthen their grip with the opening and closing of the scissors.

This skill is important for when they start to write, paint and even brush their own teeth.

Hand-Eye Coordination

Practicing cutting helps kids work on their hand-eye coordination.

Even though we don’t think about it, a child has to process what they see and move their hand to match the cutting lines.

Bilateral Coordination

Cutting makes a child practice their bilateral coordination.

Bilateral what, you ask!

Basically, it’s using both sides of your body.

When your child cuts, they also have to use their other hand to hold the paper, which takes serious skill!

Tip: You may see your child with their elbow all the way out to their side or in another awkward position.

A simple fix is to have your child put a piece of paper in between their arm and side.

This will help them stabilize their arm and bring their shoulders down, allowing their hands to do the work.

Practice Scissor Skills

One of the main reasons kids have difficulty with cutting is of lack of exposure.

I know when my sons were young, I was afraid to give them kid scissors.

I mean, boys combined with scissors?

What kind of trouble would they get into?

But once my kids entered preschool, I found some great kids scissors they could use during cutting activities without me worrying.

Of course, always keep the scissors in a safe place and out of reach when they aren’t in  use.

We’ve all heard the stories of kids giving themselves hair cuts because they love using their new skill!

Try these wonderful scissor practice activities with your kids!

• Scissor Practice Packet (Pre-K through 1st Grade)
• Color, Cut, and Glue
• Hair Cutting Sticks
• Cut, Create and Play
• Kirigami for Kids
• Cutting Cards
• Tangrams for Kids

For more fine motor practice, consider the following: