My son turns three next year and he is at the age where he knows Christmas is a time for fun and festivities, he feels the vibes! I realized this when one day, he tagged along to do groceries and as he spotted a life-size Sanat he brazenly shouted out "HO HO HO". Before then I had no idea he knew a little bit about Santa, I am sure his playgroup had something to do with his newfound enthusiasm in our bearded friend.

Anyway, as soon as he got excited, I got excited too! For me, Christmas is about the kids, the way their eyes light up when they see a decorated tree and their impatience in waiting for Santa to pop down the chimney is what makes the festive season joyful for.  That, and the amazing feeling you get when you bestow a thoughtful gift on someone. Let us not forget, 'tis the season to give!

With this in mind, my kiddo and I have started on our Christmas cards! Yup, we handmade them with love, and sticky fingers! Last year we made handprint Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeers, this year little dude is old enough to do some fine motor work and we got to sticking "baubles" on mini Christmas trees.

Want to make your own? Here's what you will need:

 

• Card (white or brown)
• Green paint
• White or clear glue
• Colourful buttons
• Scissors
• A marker

Instructions:

I let my toddler go crazy with green paint on white cardboard the day before we started the card-making, this gave the paint time to dry. He paint his sheets of card and then I simply cut out tree-shaped figures. Once the paint was dry, we sat down with our glue and buttons and got down to some sticky business! I dolloped blobs of glue all over the trees and he popped a button on to each blob. I waited another day for the glue to completely dry and then pasted the decorated trees on to brown folded card and wrote "Merry Christmas" on each one.

Our cards are now ready for gifting!

This was not only a fun creative activity, but we learnt colours and shapes too, all while working on our fine motor coordination skills! 

Why is fine motor development important?

Fine motor skills is the coordination of small muscle movements – usually involving small, precise thumb, finger, hand, and wrist movements. Fine motor activity in the early year’s help children refine their pincer grasp (grasping an object with their thumb and pointer finger using their preferred hand) and are a precursor to handwriting. By practicing picking up, manipulating, and exercising the small muscles in the palm of the hand you are actually enabling children to gain control and strength while coloring, drawing, cutting, and forming letters or writing when age appropriate. - http://www.earlyeducationmatters.org/blog/post/the-importance-of-fine-motor-activities-in-the-early-childhood-years

Much love - @sweetpea

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