Inspired by Activities for Fine Motor Skills Development (highly recommended for easy and fun activities and given to me by my mother, a Pioneer), we washed pennies.
1. Drop pennies in a bowl of vinegar.
2. Drop a wet-with-vinegar penny into the bowl of salt.
3. Pick up the salty penny and scrub it with your fingers.
4. Drop the scrubbed penny into a cup of water.
5. Dry the clean penny.
It really does make the pennies shinier!
The down side: Now my hands stink like pennies and vinegar.
The up side: The pads of my pointers and thumbs are nice and soft.
I am sure there is a very important fine motor skill Thing2 practiced today...maybe pinching and using the writing fingers? I'd love for someone who knows to leave a comment and educate me!
3 comments:
Oh my! That is a simple yet profound educational experience! I am smiling from ear to ear inside. He learned so much more than fine motor. For example: cause and effect (cognitive) sequencing (cognitive) sensory from the smells, textures, and sights. He learned from this comparisons...clean penny vs. Dirty. You could teach him old penny and new penny! Now when he tells Dad or Marmee about the experience it becomes a lesson in language! Good job!
Love this! A wonderful sensory and cognitive activity that also targeted fine pincer grasp (picking up the penny between the fingertips of the thumb and pointer finger)and in-hand manipulation skills! Then-- when he teaches me how to clean the pennies-- it will work on his memory and generalization of the learned skill to a new environment! Ha- not to mention his visual perceptual skills to put the 1/2 pennies back together again :-)
All I can tell you is that i just recently read about the cleaning qualities of vinegar and salt in Proverbs with Granny the other day. I thought it was interesting that cleaning with vinegar was in the Bible. I bet thing 2 never dreamed he was learning so much and proving a biblical principle all at the same time when he dipped those pennies!
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