Fine Motor Skills Activity Dashboard for Kids
We seem to go through phases of TV shows and the other day, at the peak of our Little Einstein's phase, my daughter was pretending to fly a rocket ship. That's it, I thought! We can make a dashboard of spinning, twisting, turning parts! I got started myself during baby brother's nap but as soon as I attached the steering wheel Ladybug knew what I was up to and asked to join in. It became a pretty fun thing to do together, although there were some times when she got a little impatient. But I really couldn't complain considering she was practicing threading and other fine motor skills while we made it!
We had a great box for our dashboard, it was left from baby brother's birthday party when we ordered Chipotle catering. (And yes, it WAS awesome. :-D) Other than that we used various plastic lids, containers, a paper plate and pouch caps. We used the same method to attach almost all of the pieces: We threaded fuzzy sticks (a.k.a pipe cleaners or chenille stems) through some craft buttons and fed the fuzzy stick through a small hole in the lid and the cardboard box. (The fuzzy sticks and craft buttons were provided for free from www.craftprojectideas.com) For most of these you could also use a metal brad to fasten them if you have them on hand. Some of the larger items needed another craft button on the inside, but the lighter ones didn't, I just twisted the two ends of the fuzzy sticks together just inside the box and then splayed them apart against the box.
We have gone on a lot of rocket missions in the past week and baby brother even got in on the fun. I was nervous that it would not withstand the death grip of our gentle giant, but luckily he watched big sister maneuver the pieces an learned how to move everything without yanking anything out! Bonus! Now we have a fun toy for both kids to practice those good old fine motor skills!
It turns out great minds think alike! Dyan, one of our other Fine Motor Friday Friends was constructing an awesome Upcycled Car Dashboard in her kids' playroom! Check hers our for something more permanent! It is so cool! I wish we had a space like that!
This is the third week of our Fine Motor Fridays series, where I joined with four other fabulous kid bloggers every week in October to brink you new Fine Motor Skills activities. Did you miss the previous week's activities? Here is week 1 and week 2.Below are the links directly to this week's Fine Motor Fridays posts, while the links at the top of this post will take you to their Facebook Pages…it's handy up there right next to the Like button for my own Facebook page (Hint, hint! Like, like!).
We hope to see you next Friday for more Fine Motor Fun! I'll also be sure to pin each of our posts to my Fine Motor Fun Pinterest board, so check that out for more inspiration! Thanks for coming by!
Thanks for reading my post today! If you enjoy trying simple, playful activities with your baby or toddler, I invite you to check out a lovely collaborative eBook that I contributed to. Zero to Two ~ the book of play is chock full of easy activities, step-by-step tutorials and inspiring photographs from some of the top kids bloggers from around the world! There is an index that helps you select the perfect activity based on your child's stage in life and many of the activities are perfect for multiple siblings of different ages to do together! Learn more here!
What fun! Homemade toys are the best! I have good memories of my dad making us stuff like this!
Awesome! We’ve been making a car dashboard for our basement off and on for a few weeks. I have the main things done, but still have a few finishing touches to add on. You gave me some ideas to try out for ours. Thanks!
This is SO creative! I love all the different components!
If this is not the most creative– coolest DIY, toy ever, then I don’t know what is!! So awesome!
This is pretty much THE coolest and most creative homemade toy EVER!!! You rock Laura!! I am definitely going to have to make one of these for Kingston! 🙂
What wonderful trips can be taken with this dashboard! I just love it!
A) Love Chipotle! B) happy bday to Baby Brother! C) this is so creative! I loved reading the posts and looking at the pictures, thank you for sharing! – Ashley @ MommaDOO
This is SO clever! Love it. 🙂
You did an amazing job with this! Thanks so much for sharing with the Preschool and Kindergarten Community link-up. I’ll be highlighting it this upcoming week! 🙂
Oh, wow!! What a great idea and a wonderful job you did with it! I love it! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
OK, I gotta TOTALLY try this with my littles! Your creativity abounds, Mama!
This is adorable. So creative just shared on Facebook and will Pin it for pediatric occupational therapists.
Love this! It is so cute. You really made it look like a real dashboard. I know my little ones would be practicing their fine motor skills all day if I made them one. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
This totally rocks! You’ve done such a great job. Thanks for linking this up to the Kids Co-Op. I’ll be featuring your post in my rainy day play roundup this week. xo P
What a creative idea! My son is totally into cars and would love this!
What a creative idea! My car loving son would totally have fun with this.
LOVE this! I need to make one for my son…he is going to love it!! Thanks for sharing!
Oh I love the extra touches like the key! Thanks for sharing
My little Tinker would have so much fun with this dashboard. I love all of the details you included. Thanks for sharing in the Discover & Explore linky. I”m featuring this post today.