Cutting Straws + Build a House

Anyone else feeling the summertime crazies already?!

I will openly admit I have been going a little stir crazy around here. Keeping these guys busy is imperative to my sanity!

Thank goodness I pulled out one of my all time favorite fine motor activities yesterday and was able to keep these busy little hands at work for quite some time!

✂️Cutting Staws +  Build a House🌈🏠

.

You’ll need:

✂️Scissors

✂️Colorful straws

✂️Paper

✂️Glue

.

Cutting straws is the absolute best in my opinion.  Here’s why I think it’s the cats pajamas:

.

🎉It’s always my go to as the first step to teaching scissor skills due to the fact that it’s one small snip and way less challenging than cutting paper

🎉It gives toddlers instant gratification

🎉The straws literally shoot across the room and they (and I) think it’s hysterical

🎉It gives great feedback (auditory and propricoeptive) to a beginning cutter like my 2 year old

🎉It’s a bilateral (two handed) task that makes the 🧠left and right sides of the brain work together as a team to build good motor planning skills!

Adding a second step to build a house made it a bit more challenging (and increased the task completion time 🙌)for my 4 year old buddy who’s got cutting down pact.

This week I’m partnering with thinkbaby.org, an amazing resource for all things parenting,  and I just LOVED this list of Fun & Educational DIY Crafts for Toddlers.

If you’re having the summertime mom crazies, like me, I think you’ll find this list very useful!