As parents, we all want the best for our children, from them being able to socialise with their peer group to excelling in their school environment. We don’t want anything to hinder them and we’ll do everything we can to help them stretch the limit of their own natural abilities. Over the next few months, we are going to chat about some of our bags, and share with you our story behind them, how they have helped our children and how they can help yours. So stay tuned if would like to learn more!
When my eldest started to avoid drawing or holding crayons or pencils at the age of 3 it set alarm bells off in my head. He would say things like, “Mummy, I am not good at colouring” or “I don’t know how to draw!” I really didn’t want him to struggle when he started school just because he had avoided drawing a simple stick figure or scribbling over a drawing of Thomas the Tank engine at a young age.
As a teacher I’ve worked with children who struggle to write or hold a pencil in a comfortable way. I have seen first-hand how a lack of good fine motor skills has affected children as they progress through school and the hardships that it can cause.
I knew there was a way to change this, a way to help him work those little fine motor muscles in his hands so that he could hold a crayon comfortably and move it around with ease. It would just take a little bit on initiative on my part: getting him to do busy bag activities that he wouldn’t even know had anything to do with drawing or colouring, hey presto! This is the same with all our bags; we have created super fun activities for them, and cleverly hidden loads of ways for them to develop essential skills. Think of it like chocolate flavoured broccoli!
So I started by creating our My Busy Bots bag, “Gone fishing!” It’s a great sensory activity which broadens a variety of key areas like colour sorting, pre-writing skills and hand eye coordination as well as working on fine motor skills which is what I was looking for.
Holding and manipulating the fishing rod to catch fish helped him develop his muscles (a sneaky pre-writing activity!). He even got to practice his sorting and colour matching skills as he then had to take all the fish home to their matching colour bowl. It captured his imagination and he loves it.