Learning to write is an important part of every school curriculum. Not everyone writes in the same way; some children will use paper and a pencil, others will use a keyboard or other equipment to aid in writing. But all children benefit from developing their fine motor skills first to get ready for more challenging activities like writing. Squeezing out wet sponges and washcloths, playing with squirt guns and toys that must be squeezed strengthens the muscles of the hand, which helps to strengthen the fine motor skills.

In this activity, squeezing the gun targets hand strength, while trying to get the water to hit the ball works on visual motor skills. This is a fun way to work on strengthening fine motor skills!

Steps:

1. Fill a plastic cup up most of the way with water

2. Put a ping pong ball in the cup (they are light enough to fall out of the cup)

3. Have your child use the squirt gun to fill the cup up the rest of the way until the ping pong ball falls out of the cup!

4. The more kids that play this, the more fun as this activity gets very competitive about whose will come out of the cup first!