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!
More Scissor Skill Practice
Try these wonderful scissor practice activities with your kids!
For more fine motor ideas and practice:
100 Fine Motor Ideas: for Parents, Teachers & TherapistsFine Motor Fun: Hundreds of Developmentally Age-Appropriate Activities Designed to Improve Fine Motor SkillsMy First Scissor Skills Workbook: Cut-and-Paste Activities to Build Hand-Eye Coordination and Fine Motor SkillsMy First Book of Patterns: Pencil Control
My daughter isn’t quite there yet, but this would be great next year for her to start practiving her scissor skills.
Thanks for sharing at #everythingkids this week!
I give my kids old catalogues to cut up from the time they’re toddlers. They love it and they get the cutting practice they need.
Thanks for sharing with us on Throwback Thursday! I hadn’t really thought of this as a skill before, but now I get it! I donate all my old mags to a center near my house so they can do collages and other cool things!
Mollie
Oh I love this. I always cut things for my daughter but I need to let her start practicing.