Tear and fill

2–3 years · Motor · 10 minutes

What you need

How to do it

Give your child paper you are happy to lose and a bowl to fill.

Show one tear: two hands, thumbs close together, pulling in opposite directions. Then let them go at their own pace.

When the bowl is full, tip it over their lap or a cushion for the crunch. Scrunching each piece into a ball afterwards is a second, harder exercise using the same paper.

Why it works

Tearing requires the two hands to work against each other with different forces — bilateral coordination in its clearest form. Scrunching then loads the whole hand arch, which supports the grip strength handwriting depends on.