How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 20 Months – Fine Motor

At 20 months, your child has a lot of energy and potential than you ever thought of. Channelizing this energy in a productive manner is really important for a parent. Here are some fine motor activity ideas that my son enjoyed at this age.

Make sure you follow this entire series where I list month-wise Montessori inspired and play based activity ideas for developing motor, cognitive, social & emotional skills.

Sticker Peeling – Here in this pic, my son is peeling & sticking butterfly stickers onto a table mat that has flowers printed on it. This was because that day my son had spotted a butterfly and was super excited about it, so I took this opportunity to tell him that butterflies love flowers. You should observe your child closely and give relevant themed activity so that the interest remains. Had I given my son vegetable stickers, he would have been least interested in it.

Pulling Out Flower Petals – I try to take out opportunities from day to day life to convert chores into activities so that I can involve my son as far as possible. This was during Dussehra last year when I wanted to make a flower rangoli. So I gave him the task of pulling out petals from the flowers. I also gave a sensorial angle to this activity by giving him a bowl filled with water for his explorationto explore and make his version of water and flower rangoli!

Good Old Slate Play – This is a super cheap way to let kids practice scribbling to their heart’s content. To add some flavour to regular slate work, I drew some shapes and gave my son water and a paint brush to rub the chalk marks using a wet brush. It is so much fun for them to see the chalk marks disappear magically when they use a wet brush. This also improves grip and it is a prewriting exercise.

DIY Games – The kitchen is a great source of free DIY activities. In this pic, you can see the popsicle mould being used in play. The activity is to remove and put back the lids. It helps in one to one correspondence which leads to counting ability later. You can use pretty much anything here like a muffin tray, idli mould, ice cube tray etc.

Always follow your child’s lead. These activity ideas are mere pointers. Key is to observe and follow your child’s interests and skill sets.

Look out for my next article in this series where I will share what all practical life activities you can do with your 20 month old child!

All Images in this article are original and belong to the author. Reproducing them in any form without the permission of the author will not be allowed.

Also read: How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 19 Months – Fine Motor Skills

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