Cardboard Tee Lacing
Purpose
This activity is designed to build hand strength and precision skills necessary for tasks like drawing and writing. Pushing the golf tees through thick cardboard provides powerful proprioceptive input. This heavy work input helps to 'wake up' the small muscles of the hand. Once the holes are made, lacing the pipe cleaners works on fine motor control. The child must coordinate both hands: one hand stabilizes the stiff cardboard, and the other hand works to push or thread the materials.
Activity Steps
Steps:
- Use markers to draw several dots onto the piece of cardboard. These dots are your targets.
- Place the cardboard flat on a stable table. Challenge your child to hold the cardboard firmly with their helper hand to keep it steady.
- Pick up a golf tee. Use a strong, controlled push to insert the tee straight through the cardboard at one of the marked dots. Feel the resistance!
- Remove all the golf tees, leaving behind a set of neat, small holes across the surface.
- Challenge your child to thread the pipe cleaners through the new holes. They must weave the fuzzy sticks in and out to create a colorful lacing pattern.
Safety Tip:
Constant and direct adult supervision is required. Golf ball tees and small pieces of pipe cleaner pose choking hazards for children under five. Ensure materials are used only as intended and collected immediately after play.
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