Fine Motor
Math & 123sPreschoolers4 Comments
So many of the crafts and activities we do with our little ones are FULL of learning already. Take weaving for kids as an example. It’s a fun craft, and little ones love weaving, but it is also full of math.
Counting, one-to-one correspondence, and patterning are all at play as my little ones are… well… at play.
So, of course, I was excited when I found a cute weaving for kids activity that I did with my oldest daughter for Valentine’s Day a few years ago. I thought it would be fun to do with Sam! But as it turned out, Sam wasn’t able to do that weaving.
It was small, and a bit complicated, I suppose. But I still thought he was capable of weaving, and really wanted him to play with all of those math concepts!
So I thought big! And I do tend to do this with my little ones. As my littlest ones both seem to struggle a little with fine motor skills (though we are working on it in very fun ways every day!). And sitting still…
We took our weaving and put it on a very, very large loom. Our staircase spindles!
No staircase? Try weaving a baby gate!
At first we did this activity with yarn, which did work just fine. But it was difficult to see the weaving clearly. Since this was one of the first times my little ones had done weaving I really wanted them to see the result.
We found some ribbon over at Nana’s and then tried out the weaving on her staircase spindles. They were nice and white (since she no longer has little sticky fingers at home) so the ribbon showed up wonderfully.
We started with simply weaving around two spindles. I wanted Sam to get a feel for the pattern. As he weaved we said, “over, under, over, under”. He caught on right away.
If little ones are struggling with this step it might help to put a sticky on one spindle. They can focus only on that one post. First they will go over it (and naturally under and over the second) and then under it. Might seem unclear here, but I bet it will make sense when you try it!
Sam wanted to do some longer weaving, so we used a few more spindles. He had caught on right away. He was now saying the pattern in his head, but I could see the focus in his eyes. Lots of thinking and learning happening.
I wanted Sam to try a different pattern with his weaving. Maybe over two, under one. Something along those lines. But he wanted to continue on weaving the way “he always does”. I love when he says things like this! “Always does” – like for the entire 5 minutes of his weaving career. So cute.
He decided he would weave the entire staircase. All the way up and then all the way down. Just as far as he could go before the two rolls of ribbon ran out.
Come to think of it he went up and down those stairs quite a few times with this weaving project! This might just be a great way to burn off some steam too.
That is actually almost always my hidden agenda – tiring my kids out.
This weaving activity worked out great for my little guy. And great for his confidence too. I knew he was ready, and love when I find a way to modify an activity so he can succeed. And get tired.
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Emma says
what a great introduction to weaving. we have a similar bannister and could do this. Thanks for linking up with #fabulouslyfrugal
Carolin says
Such a fun idea. I had never thought of using our bannister for craft projects!
Thanks for linking up with our Parenting Pin It Party x