Fine Motor Skills: Toothpicks!

An easy way to help build fine motor skills: Give your preschooler lunch with a toothpick!! Today Emily had cheerios, peas and lunch meat for lunch. I rolled the 2 slices of meat up and used a toothpick to serve them. After finishing her meat, she proceeded to loop the cheerios onto the toothpick so she could eat them with the toothpick as well (a similar motion to stringing beads.) It was great for getting her to eat her peas, too! We were even able to count the peas as we stabbed them with the toothpick. (Disclaimer: obviously, know your child and keep an eye on them- if your child is likely to stab herself, the table, or share the toothpick with a baby brother, you need to be on top of them, or maybe wait a while to try. It works great with Emily, but it may not work well with Josiah. :) This is my favorite, easy way to spice up boring lunch food, but it also helps build her fine motor skills!