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Fine Motor Skills Activity Dashboard for Kids

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 Fine Motor Activity DIY Dashboard for Kids from Lalymom #FineMotor #CraftsForKids
Welcome back for week three of Fine Motor Fridays. Craftulate, And Next Comes L, Stir the Wonder and School Time Snippets are with me as well to share another round of new fine motor skills activities. This week I wanted to find a fun way for my three year old to practice twisting and turning. These are motions that we all take for granted and are part of every day life so I was happy to find something that appealed to my daughter's current interests that let her work on this life skill!

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!

Fine Motor Development Activity for Kids - DIY Dashboard from Lalymom #ECE #FineMotor

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.

Fine Motor Skills Activity Dashboard for Kids- Easy Recycled Craft from Lalymom #FineMotor #DIY #CraftsforKids
For the green dials, I took raisin container lids, drew the arrows first and then carefully used a box cutter to cut around the arrow, leaving a small tip of the arrow attached, and leaving a circle in the center so we could attach it to the box. These were attached with a fuzzy stick threaded through a craft button and through a hole in the center of the lid, then through a hole in the box. I like these because you can turn them either by using your whole hand around the outside, or by using your pointer finger like a board game spinner.
How to make a recycled dashboard for fine motor skills practice from Lalymom #FineMotor #CraftsForKids
Next I created a stick shift type of lever for the side using cardboard tubes, assembled in a similar method to our recent cardboard fishing pole. This time I pinched the toilet paper tube in half and inserted it into a paper punch so that it only cut a half circle. (since it is pinched in half though, a whole circle is punched out.) I did have to make it a bit bigger using scissors this time. Just slide the toilet paper tube onto the end of a paper towel tube and you've got a lever! If you have a metal brad, you could use one to attach the tube. I didn't so I punched two small holes in the bottom of the paper towel tube and threaded a fuzzy stick through a craft button, through a hole in the box and through another craft button on the inside.We used pouch caps for Stop and Go buttons and Ladybug wanted a purple knob for the radio (above the steering wheel). The red, orange and yellow pouch caps on top are supposed to be for the heater. I added an oval shaped take out container on the top just for variety, I have no idea what it does, but it gets used a lot!
Tutorial for Fine Motor Skills Activity Dashboard from Lalymom
I think my favorite part was the key. I took an empty Mio bottle, removed the wrap and lid and cut a hole to fit the neck of the bottle. Now we had a key that we could remove, insert, twist and turn, just like Mommy's car keys!
Details of our homemade dashboard for Fine Motor Skills Development from Lalymom

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!

Fine Motor Fridays Collaborative Weekly Series from Lalymom

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!

Fine Motor Fridays Pinterest Board

 

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!

Zero to Two Book of Play Sidebar

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34 Comments

  1. 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!

  2. 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

  3. 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! 🙂

  4. 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!

  5. Pingback: Airport - JW Sandbox

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