Enhancing & developing your child’s fine motor skills through baking
Baking
Baking? What’s that got to do with enhancing your child’s fine motor skills? And what are they anyway?
Firstly, they are turning pages, holding spoons, picking up sprinkles, googly eyes to put onto a cookie, they are all fine motor skills.
In other words, the ability to make movements using the small muscles in your hands and wrists, enabling your thumb and index finger to make pincer movements.
Enhancing Fine Motor Skills
Above all it’s the finger time table at nursery, picking up, holding a pencil like a frog, putting beads on a lace.
Similarly, it’s the turning of pages on a recipe book, a leaflet, a magazine. All the little movements are designed to enhance your child’s fine motor skills through baking.
For instance, our December gluten free baking kit has all you need. Your child will have lots to do that’s fun this month. In addition to baking tasty treats, they’ll be learning skills to encourage those neurons to get fired up and connected whilst making gluten free gingerbread men or reindeers.
In addition to the Fine Motor Skills
There’s Math – weighing the butter and golden syrup, counting how many gingerbread men or reindeers you get from the dough.
Hand & eye co-ordination from mixing, wrapping up the dough, rolling and cutting it out. Lots to get those little brains and fingers connecting. Learning about time – how many minutes to for them to cook, how long to cook before the decorating. That’s where the fine motor skills come into play.
From squeezing the icing pen tube, to picking up a googly eye or a red sparkly sphere sparkle to put on as a nose. Help keep those sprinkles in one place by putting them onto a plate. Helps not stepping on them later!!
As a child you learn to do this so you don’t have to think about it as an adult.
For instance, I’m not thinking about where my fingers go as I type. My fingers learnt (having been dragged to typing school) where the keys were as I bashed upon an old typewriter, returning to the home keys .
We don’t realise how much we need our children to master these skills when little.
Playing with the dough, squeezing it into a ball, it all adds up to their neurons firing up and connecting.
Who knew baking could be so much & more!
Have you got your bake on? Ready for Christmas?
No?
Get your Christmas spirit roaring with fun and creative gluten free baking kits, delivered direct to your door. All you need to have some easy fun. Just add butter of choice & some golden syrup. No eggs required. Sorted. The smell alone is enough to get you feeling Christmassy!
See website for details www.glutenfreelittlecook.com