Small Muscle Movement - Cutting Paper

Lil C loves paper cutting activity... not any kind of paper.. I restricted him to only cut the 'special' paper for him to practise his hand/wrist muscle muscle movement. His concentration is so amazing that he will cut the papers and discard the little pieces in to the tray given.

I have to admit that the first few presentation I made was a boo-boo... I used diffrent kind of papers... which indirectly gave lil C the impression that he can simply cut any papers he sees, i.e. PaPa's Photo Magazine, kungkung's newspaper, his shirt (oops!!) and the worst thing was lil Isaac's earlob (okay... I admit it was my mistakes for taking his eyes off a minute.. didnt realise Isaac participation annoyed lil C a little and swash!!... a drop of blood from Isaac's left earlob... just a scratch.. but u know la...)

So, I told him, to do this work, first - he can only CUT using the green scissors and the special papers, the scissor is for nothing else but the special papers and he has to remain seated (table or floor) while doing the work... else the work has to be postponed until he understands the ground rules...

So far so good!!! He is able to concentrate a good 10-20 minutes.. I normally will put 4-5pieces of papers in the tray.. He will stop once he finishes all the papers.. Once he is done, he will pick up the lil loose papers on the floor/table and place them in the tray.. Talk about a neat freak..

You can read up more on the paper cutting activity here.

Why Practical Life is soooo important in a child's daily life:

Practical life activities give the child an understanding of his environment and how it works. The child enjoys all types of work. He also enjoys keeping the environment beautiful for all to use. This work builds the child's self-esteem, making him feel of value. In addition, practical life activities also develop manual dexterity.

In the school and home, adults must never complain about their work in front of the child. At a young age he learns by imitating the adult. If adults dislike work, the child will learn that all types of work are to be avoided. He will apply this to school learning as well as manual skills. He must have a respect for all types of work well done. [More...]