Meagan Forsgren, from ILS Learning, shared some fun activities to do with your kids before school starts. For more information, and to find the workbook, go to ILSlearningcorner.com.
Rewiring the Brain for Emotional Control and Fine Motor Development
When children are young, they mostly live on the right side of their brain, which is why they love activities that involve their creative side (painting, play dough, coloring, building with blocks, playing at the park, and getting dirty). As your child grows, they begin to make the learning transition from their right brain to their left brain for reading, writing, spelling, math, and speech and language.
If a child has a difficult time making this transition or is developmentally delayed, the brain does not become “hardwired” for higher learning. When this happens, children tend to get “stuck” on the right side of their brain, which causes emotional grounding issues, attention and focus problems, and behavior concerns. What we must do is help “rewire” the brain for better learning development.
Handwriting exercises can prep the brain for planning, reviewing, organizing, attending, expressing and speaking. Additional benefits may include the following:
- You will be able to identify fine-motor problems
- You will improve tracking, retention and pencil grip
- You will help your child establish dominance
- You will improve their visual-motor skills, crossing the midline and hand-eye coordination
- You will provide more opportunities for sensory-motor development
Many parents and teachers have asked us how they can better help their children and students rewire the brain at home and at school. For this reason, we have developed a new handwriting handbook to “rewire” the brain for higher learning.
Top to Bottom Exercises
Exercises to help prepare a child to write letters l, t, b, n, h, r, p, i, j, and k.
Tweezers Activity
You will need a pair of tweezers, a bowl and small pieces of pipe cleaner (Cheerios, pompoms, beads, beans, etc. are optional). Have the child hold the tweezers in their dominant hand. Using only the dominant hand, help the child pick up the pieces of pipe cleaner with the tweezers and add it to the bowl.
Big Hill Exercises
Exercises to help prepare a child to write letters m, n, and h.
Bead Toss
You will need larger beads and a smooth, hard surface (table preferable). With the serving hand, have your child slide and release the bead across the table. The bead should slide across the table to the dominant hand. The dominant hand must catch the bead as it slides across the table.
Hole Punch Activity
With a hole punch gadget, have your child punch holes in different objects, staying within the lines.
