When did you start working on using scissors properly? I've been working with Dainie, and she keeps trying to put her thumb on the bottom. I'll get her to hold them properly, but when she goes to cut, she somehow flips her hand upside down so her thumb is on the bottom palm facing away from her body. I'm not sure how she can do that nor how to fix it. She's not quite three and a half. We started on a Kumon cutting workbook to work on this motor skill. Should I lay off the scissors thing for a while? Try something different? She's definately a leftie, and we do have leftie scissors, thought they are a bit big for her, so I dug out the smaller ones that are supposedly for either hand (I prefer the leftie ones).

Thanks.

Is she 'wanting' to use scissors, Crystal? Our girls started in the 3-4 range, and they were dying to use scissors! They're very crafty! Scotty was closer to 5 before he was adept with them, but he couldn't have cared less, either. LOL!

If your dd is really interested, I'd just make the scissors available to her, and she'll pick it up in no time. :mrgreen:

[lovesign]

Joy [welcomewave]

Trevor LOVES using scissors. we don't use them often, but when we do he loves it!

She likes them, but doesn't really care too much about them. I'm thinking of putting them back up for awhile. She never asks to use them, so I don't think it is too big a deal. She loves painting and does a good job with her watercolors, so I guess I shouldn't be worried yet. I was just guessing that I was lacking in help her fine motor skills. She does a wonderful job in stuff like connect the dots (her Wed. night teacher at church couldn't believe at how well she does on them) and is getting fairly decent at staying within the lines when she colors (at least you can see it on the paper when she is trying) so I thought maybe the scissors thing would be closer than it is.

Thanks. Guess I'll not worry quite yet :-)

3 years old for some kids. my oldest 2 have little interest, while #3 loves to cut things and do craft 'projects'.

Yeah, I gotta agree...if she's not that eager right now, just let it be. Bring 'em back out later.
My 4 yr old recently expressed interest so I got him a Kumon book which he quickly sped through. Everyday..."mom, I wanna do my school, can I do my cutting book?" and he'd do 15 pages if I let him. I had to limit it to 2 a day..to make the workbook last a bit longer LOL and to help him actually work on the skill. He, too, would want to flip his hand at times, or turn his wrist so that he's cutting in all directions. That was mostly when he got really excited though. Like he couldn't cut it out quickly enough and somehow moving his hand as he did sped things along, in his mind. hehehe

Agreeing with others that it should be interest driven. When I used to teach pre-K we would hang sheets of newspaper from tables with tape and ask the kids to cut it into strips. We also would float sponge pieces in a large pan of water and have them pick up them up with tongs and squeeze them out.

Thank you! I don't have to worry about getting my curtains shredded for a bit longer now :-)

I hadn't thought about tongs and sponges in the water. We never did that when I did preschool....great idea, may have to do it outside IF the weather ever warms up.

Skipped the scissors thing today and school went better with her today than yesterday (It was little sis that kept getting into cabinets I thought she couldn't and dragging out daddy's cables for the video camera, getting up on the table where we were doing work, and sneaking into the front bedroom and getting into everything there. That was after she did her "school." (after dropping Hubbs off at work this morning, I was giving the kids the run down on the day, and she kept saying, "want school, want do school." It was too cute, she got play dough and coloring pages) [whatcrazy]. She likes her cutting workbooks (Kumon) but if I don't even get them out, she doesn't even think about them. We did an extra same/different page today to make up for it. She loves those. Well, she loves any workbook page I give her.

Agreeing with others that it should be interest driven. When I used to teach pre-K we would hang sheets of newspaper from tables with tape and ask the kids to cut it into strips. We also would float sponge pieces in a large pan of water and have them pick up them up with tongs and squeeze them out.


Ooh I like this idea! My little ds is going to be 3 soon and may be ready for something like this.