The hands are essential in every day use. Children need good dexterity and strong hands to tie their shoelaces, form figures and shapes from play dough, hold a brush or pen for drawing and writing, and dress or feed themselves.
There are simple and fun ways to enhance handskills with everyday material. This week we made balls from newspaper. We showed the children how to use both hands to crumple up newspaper sheets into small balls and then push them into an empty potato net or any other netting you have at home.
Tie a tight knot with the netting and then the ball can be used to play throw and catch, aim at a target, throw from hand to hand, or balance on different body parts. You can also hang up the ball so that you can hit it with a rolled newspaper or stick.
This activity is open ended and the kids have lots of fun with it. It not only makes the hands strong when crumpling the paper but also enhances cross coordination, eye-hand and bilateral integration and invites the child to play and use his or her imagination.
