While fine motor skills are developing at a rapid pace during those young years, children of all ages can benefit from continued practice. Fine motor skills are necessary for a variety of tasks including, snaps, fasteners, opening the door, tying shoes, buttoning a shirt, cutting with scissors, and holding a pencil to name a few. The designs were created on watercolor paper and embellished with watercolor paint for effect. The picture was painted first, then poked from behind with needles of different sizes to produce the desired effects. Knowing how much pressure to apply when writing, or how tightly to hold the pencil and be difficult to “teach”. Read more about USING THE 7 LEARNING STYLES TO HELP BALANCE SCREEN TIME IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL in this post. PENCIL GRIP Push Pin Poke art is a great alternative to the video game argument. The dots force your child to look, then poke one at a time.

These activities also take concentration and focus on the part of your child. EYE-HAND COORDINATIONEach set of poke art designed by Happy Hive Homeschooling can be poked, painted or sewn – all three of these activities will strengthen a child’s fine motor skills as well as their creative minds. If you notice your child gets tired working on some of the more complex pictures, they may be gripping the pin or poking tool too tightly. They also may have weak hand muscles. It is important to determine the root cause of the issue. In time the muscles will strengthen, that is the goal of the poke art! If their grip is indeed too tight, I like to say: “You can loosen your grip, the pin will not run away before you finish the picture.”

If you have an older student struggling with their pencil grip – poke art can help “retrain” them by using a push pin for the poke art, they must use their PINCER GRASP. This is when they pinch the tool between their thumb and the index finger. This is a wonderful activity to take to the park (make sure you secure your layers with plenty of clips or a staple) Regardless of age, using push pin poke art can help young and middle-grade children with these skills, without making them feel behind or “in therapy”. Push Pin Poke Art is now used with preschool and elementary-aged children as a tool for developing fine motor skills. It is so much more than that. Suggested Tools for use with Poke ArtWhen we have the correct pencil grip, we use the TRIPOD GRASP. This is the use of the thumb, index finger, and third finger together to support the pencil. Using some of the other recommended tools (see below) help in this area. Hand strength can be related to pencil grip, and it can be its own unique issue. As mentioned in the Pencil Grip section, if your child gets tired when poking and you believe it may be a strength issue there are some things you can do to help. For years, video games have been *promoted* as being beneficial because they help with eye-hand coordination. I’m all about helping kids use their hands and eyes at the same time in constructive ways. Our brain takes the information our eyes perceive and tell our hands to execute a movement. We use eye-hand coordination for writing, typing, driving and many other skills necessary to life in general.