Pom Poms and Butter Bowls

Quite a while ago, I remember seeing something about helping to develop the fine motor skills in youngsters by cutting a hole in the top of a container and giving them little colorful pom poms to put in the container. For the life of me, I have no idea where I saw this idea now...I can't find it on my Pinterest page and I'm fairly positive I was not creative enough to come up with this one on my own. ha! However, since I can't find it on my Pinterest page, I will - for the moment - claim it as my own brilliance...though we all know differently.

This was cheap, quick and I'm fairly certain it couldn't have been easier. The pom poms are from the dollar store and, as you can see, it was not a tiny bag. There are plenty of them for my son and my nephew and any other child who may be interested in playing with this as well - all at the same time.

I started by, obviously, washing out the container and letting it dry. Then I cut a small hole in the lid. I did my best to make sure the hole was just a bit smaller than the pom poms, so as to make this a little more challenging for my son. I think for a very little child, a bigger hole would be a better idea, but since my son already has developed some fine motor skills, I thought this may just help hone them a bit.

After it was cut, Cade was intrigued and had a great time playing with the pom poms and getting them into the hole - which did prove to be a bit of a challenge, but he managed with a smile on his face. 

After a few minutes, he enjoyed taking the lid off and throwing the pom poms all over the room...that wasn't as much fun for me. However, we then worked together to put them all back in the container. In the process of adding them all back in, we worked on colors and counting - counting how many pom poms we were putting in and talking about the colors of each pom pom. It was a great lesson and he has been enjoying emptying and putting them back in for a few days now. For such an inexpensive project, I'd say this was a definite hit! I'm glad I thought of it... he he he. 

P.S. Someday my son may resent me for all of these "diapered baby" pictures on my blog, but I will just remind him that getting him dressed was just not worth it as he preferred to be a little nudist. hehe!