How to teach your child to cut

Teaching a child to cut out is not a very complex task. However, it must be done correctly and in an adapted way and, of course, it must be encouraged, as it is very important for the development of the little ones.

Discover how to teach trimming to your child

Before we start with the children's cutouts, we should know what points we have to consider to know if they are ready. Let's see: 

1. The child has developed good hand-eye coordination.
2. The little one knows how to maintain his sitting posture. 
3. The child performs activities with both hands and shows some fluency. 
4. The children are already capable of good bilateral integration. 
5. It is convenient that the children have previously worked on the reinforcement of the hand with other types of activities that strengthen the digital tweezers. For example, using pipettes, droppers and other types of instruments, drilling, etc. 

Once we have these advances in the infant's development, we will proceed to check which dominant hand the child possesses. If he is left-handed, there are options to acquire scissors for left-handed children, with rounded tips, of course, to avoid injuries. 

Previous activities

As we have already mentioned, there are previous activities that the child should do before using scissors. Let's see some interesting ones: 

1. Tearing paper. Let's start with large pieces and progressively move on to smaller ones.
2. Making paper balls. First big, then small.
3. Kneading and shaping. Use different doughs, such as plasticine, magic sands, etc.
4. Playing with puppets. They are interesting for children to introduce their fingers and play with the character.
5. Simple cuts. They are made in plasticine or sticks.
6. Simple paper cuts. We can now move on to simple paper cutting, without a specific purpose. You can also use vegetable leaves or other elements.

Tips to make the activity fun

If you want this activity to be a lot of fun for your child and not become routine and bland, take note of these tips: 

1. Start with thicker materials, and from there we go down to thinner ones. For example, eva rubber, if we have at hand, cardboard, cardboard ... Reaching the thinnest sheets. 
2. The cutting lines, when we are looking for a specific purpose, should be thick, so that the child can better adjust to the requirements. 
3. Give verbal support. That is to say, not physical support, that is to say, that the adult ends up cutting it out so that it works out well. We have to help the child, but not do it for him. 
4. Use materials with different surfaces. If we have at our disposal materials with different surfaces, the small will notice as you go cutting very different sensations. For example, using a cardboard on which we add parts with glitter, with glue, with plasticine, etc. 
5. Use different patterns. After starting with simple and free cut-outs, and then following with wide patterns, we should continue with different options that are not repetitive, and that add curves, straight lines, diagonals, geometric shapes, etc. 
6. Remember that, since opening the scissors is easier than closing them, we should look for those with springs, as they are easier and more attractive for children. 
7. Use molds and even the children's own hands to make fun shapes as we see the kids improve their skills and become more and more proficient with scissors. 

Remember, at Logos Nursery Schoolwe have the knowledge and the prepared and motivated staff to teach your child how to cut, as well as to do many other fun activities that allow a correct development and learning always adapted to their personal needs.