Paper Snowflakes: A FUNdamental Skill

What was I thinking???  

Am I out of my mind???

Yesterday I taught The Tod how to cut paper snowflakes.  Can we say, messy???  He's not very good at it {yet}, but that's ok, at least I am.  He has a hard time actually cutting out shapes and triangles in the paper, instead we get a lot of straight line cuts.

But we're a team, he and I.  He gets them started, then I finish off the cuts.  {Trust me, it makes a much more exciting snowflake this way!}

He has been home sick all week and he was missing all his friends.  It's not like you can go to the library, or the park when you're hacking up a lung you know.  It was fun being all cozy and snuggling in my bed watching Blues Clues all day long, but after a while, you really need something else to do.  {We were starting to sport some pretty cool bed head though!}

Enter the activity with a {sneaky} purpose!

Little hands cutting with scissors can be tricky business ~ and a little messy too!  But knowing how to hold and cut with scissors is a pretty important motor skill to have.  I know this because Big Sis had fine motor problems and had to see an Occupational Therapist for a while.  I don't know or remember all the why's of its importance, but it is something your child should know how to do before they get to kindergarten at least.  

And what better time to teach a skill like this than at Christmastime!  Though you could do them all winter long if you really wanted to.   I can't think of any other crafty fun ways to teach basic scissor cutting.  I mean you're not going to have them start off by cutting lines around a paper doll or anything ~ that's slightly more advanced.  But paper snowflakes in the summer just doesn't have quite the same appeal.  :D

So relax, and let the paper, scissors and snowflakes fly!