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“How many of you have scissors at home?” I always ask this on the first day of class, and I am always amazed at how few students raise their hands.

Scissors—and cutting—have become a lost activity in the home. Do parents not understand that cutting experiences enable the development of fine motor skills in the hands and fingers of young children?

Cutting enhances fine motor coordination as well as eye-hand coordination. All of these skills are valuable because they promote the strength and dexterity that will be required in school; by teaching our children how to use scissors, we’re giving them the proper tools to be successful in school!

In order to be successful cutters, however, one must know how to properly hold the scissors—as you can see in the picture posted to the right, children can get very creative. Having not been taught the proper scissor hold, this particular student would use the table to leverage the scissors into a opening and closing positioning to make the snips needed to complete this activity. Creative? Yes! Easy? No! This did the trick but not in a timely manner, and it made the task much more laborious!

The correct way to hold scissors

To demonstrate proper scissor handling for your child, put your thumb into the scissors’ smaller hole and your index and middle finger (together) into the larger hole (it’s okay to also put your ring finger into the larger hole, if it fits). Make sure you’re holding the scissors so that your thumb is on top and that the scissors are straight.

Having the proper scissor hold you will quickly learn how much children like to cut paper! Over time, you will also see all the ways in which it improves your child’s fine motor coordination.

With so many children not having scissors at home you can imagine the feeling of empowerment, motivation and excitement they feel when I give them their own Pre K Scholars Home Activity Binder with a supplies pouch—complete with their own pair of scissors! Happy Cutting!

Did you know?

The cost of a high quality pre-kindergarten program is $12,000 per year…putting quality pre-kindergarten out of reach for most middle class families with young children