This was a spontaneous activity that Alex created himself. He had just finish cutting strips of papers for something else that we were doing. He then decided to take out some tissue from the tissue box, and started cutting it. “Mum! He’s having a haircut!” said Alex.

Recommended for children 2 years and over with close supervision.

Many people don’t realise that cutting with scissors is considered and activity that build their pre-writing skills. It is important to teach the child to use a scissor correctly with the correct grip. By holding the scissor correctly, they practice tripod fingers using the thumb, forefinger and middle finger. Cutting with scissors will strengthen your child’s hand muscle, fine motor skills & develop correct pencil grip for good handwriting.

When Alex was younger, I would roll out play dough into reasonable lengths and encourage him to snip it into small pieces. Once he mastered that, encourage him to cut narrow width (1.5 cm) strips of paper. It is a good way for him to learn to grasp and release motion of scissor cutting. Once he is able to cut in one single snip, there was a lot of pride and a sense of achievement.

You could take this activity further by decorating the box to resemble a person or cartoon character. You could also replace tissue with strips of coloured paper or strands of wool.

Materials

• Tissue box
• Scissor