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Apr 2, 2012

Paint a Garden. In the lines!

The majority of the art and drawing projects we do here are very free form and non-restrictive and it's not very often that we use things like colouring-in pages. When we do (because I believe children benefit from exposure to all different styles), my daughter will generally just scribble or free-form all over the page anyway, regardless of the lines.

To help practice those fine motor skills, this activity was designed so that the only real intention, or outcome, that I was looking for was for her to practice working within tight confines. Staying in the lines!

As children work toward developing those early literacy skills and start to move towards writing letters and words, working with some order and within some confines can be very helpful in developing the fine motor skills that they will require in order to be able to write.



fine motor skill practice, activities for kids, painting for little kids
 On a long piece of paper I drew a very simple flower garden with thick, black permanent marker



 I provided a fine paintbrush and some glitter glue/paint along with the instructions that we were only working inside the lines today



 I chose the glitter glue/paint as it is see-through so that you could always see the lines even when the paint was on them



She enjoyed this activity and it kept her concentrating and focused for quite some time



Handy tips:

- I used a garden so that it could have lots of tight lines and small spaces to work within but obviously you could draw anything that would take your child's fancy

- Extend this activity by letting your child draw the design first and then paint within it's confines

- Simplify this activity by drawing larger spaces for your child to work within

- Repeat this activity with different designs etc and using different sizes of brushes and different paints etc

- Stay near your child while they do this so you can give them gentle reminders about their purpose


Happy playing,
Debs :)

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