Making Valentines = Fine Motor Skills Developing!

I LOVE arts & crafts. However, my son does NOT. Every time I would try to get him to color, cut, paste, etc., he would scribble a little something on his paper and was ready for the next thing. While I was pregnant & dreaming of what motherhood would be like, I envisioned Ethan & I spending hours making crafts, coloring, painting & creating. Until recently, that was still a dream for this mama.

Here are a few pictures of our first crafting time making valentines this year. Ethan simply wanted to put stickers on paper. I slowly was able to get him to write a name or draw a shape & color it in....I was so excited.

Here is Ethan ready to create some valentines!

He is adding stickers to his paper....great for toning up his fine motor skills.

After he ran out of room on our refrigerator, he began laying them on our floor.

Later in the week, I decided to attempt creating more valentines. This time I added scissors & markers to the equation. Ethan has only cut in front of me ONE time....and it literally was one snip & he cried the whole time because he didn't want to do it. His teachers & therapists have told me that he is able to cut paper, but I have never witnessed it......until this February!

Here is Ethan with his valentine stamps, markers & construction paper. It's difficult to see, but in this picture he is cutting out a brown heart.

At first, he would snip a bit, and then pull the extra paper off of it.

He amazed me by continuing in that manner until he cut out the entire heart! It is a bit jagged like the one in this picture, but considering that I had never watched him cut out anything, I was ecstatic!

Then, he wrote his name on it without any prompting from me! I love this picture for a couple of reasons....His tongue is slightly out to help him focus, he is using his opposite hand to steady the paper, and his pencil grip has TREMENDOUSLY developed over the course of this year! The OT at his school told me that they are working with him on writing smaller....which was evident in this craft project.

And then it happened folks!!!! He began cutting his hearts without stopping the scissors & they were wonderfully rounded!!!!!! I was so excited!!!!!!!!!!

I briefly got a video of Ethan while he was cutting out his first heart. Eventually, I remembered to FOLD the paper over & cut one side of a heart. It was easier for him to cut, but this was all a new thing for Ethan & me. Ethan cut out a heart, stamped it with valentine stamps, glued it to a larger piece of paper, and wrote his name as well as the teacher/therapist's name for which he was making it. He made one for Daddy, one for himself, and one for each of his 5 teachers/therapists at his school....all his idea.

Cutting. Who knew I would be so excited over such a thing! I feel a pun coming on.......This kid really knows how to CUT straight to my HEART! :0)