The Importance of Fine and Gross Motor Skills in a Child’s Growth

Kid at a Christian Preschool in Lake Worth

Have you ever wondered why your kid was extra clumsy? Although often overlooked, learning fine and gross motor skills is an integral part of early childhood development. Finding a Christian preschool in Lake Worth that offers activities and challenges to accompany growth is key to fostering this process.

From activities within regular classes to enrichment activities, we do several things with your child to help them fine-tune their new abilities—and you can do them, too! We created this guide to help you understand this crucial moment of growth and find ways to foster it.

Girl Learning Gross Motor Skills in a Christian Preschool in Lake Worth

What Are Fine and Gross Motor Skills?

Early childhood is a crucial moment in your child’s growth. Their abilities grow as they interact with the world around them and learn to understand it. You may notice they’re getting better at asking questions (about everything!) and much more interested in analyzing their toys without sticking them into their mouths.

A significant milestone is acquiring fine and gross motor skills. Have you ever noticed that your baby was extra clumsy? That’s because they’re still learning how to use their body in their environment. Think of when you started driving; you probably were extra slow as you were still figuring out the dimensions.

Developing motor skills allows children to become more independent and freer to interact with their environment. Although both abilities involve movement, they have some distinctions:

  • Gross Motor Skills: Movement of the bigger muscle groups like arms and legs. These bigger muscular groups teach babies to sit up, roll over, crawl, and walk.
  • Fine Motor Skills: Movement of the smaller muscle groups in your child’s hands, fingers, and wrists. These fine motor abilities allow them to write, get dressed, or brush their teeth.

What Are the Most Important Fine Motor Skills Kids Develop?

While gross and fine skills are both important, the latter is particularly essential because they enable children to care for themselves without help by using the smaller hand muscles. The most important skills children need to develop are:

  • Palmar Arches: Kids learn how to curve their palm arches inward. Strengthening this area teaches finger coordination, which opens the door to activities like gripping, writing, and unbuttoning clothing.
  • Wrist Stability: This develops during early school years, allowing kids to gain control of their fingers.
  • Skilled Side of the Hand: Learning to use the thumb, index finger, and other fingers in coordination for precision grasping.
  • Intrinsic Hand Muscle Development: The ability to make little hand movements where the tip of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger touch.
  • Bilateral Hand Skills: The ability to coordinate both hands simultaneously.
  • Scissor Skills: Developed by the age of four, scissor skills teach kids hand strength and hand-eye coordination.

Importance of Motor Skills Development in a Christian Preschool in Lake Worth

When Do Kids Start Developing Fine and Gross Motor Skills?

It is natural for children to develop their fine and gross motor skills at their own rate; some will do so sooner than others. These abilities typically develop in babies as early as one or two months of age and continue to grow throughout preschool and the first few years of elementary school.

Here’s a short chronology of fine motor milestones for babies and toddlers:

  • Between 0 and 3 months, kids start placing their hands in their mouths and learning to relax them.
  • Between 3 and 6 months, children start to learn how to hold hands together, move toys from one to another, and hold and shake toys.
  • Between 6 and 9 months, kids begin to grasp things by “raking” with their hands, learn to squeeze objects with both hands, use their index fingers to touch things, and even clap their hands.
  • Between 9 and 12 months, kids start feeding themselves food with their fingers, grabbing small objects, banging things together, and holding a toy with one hand.
  • Between 12 months and 2 years old, children start scribbling on paper, eating with a spoon without spilling, building block towers, holding crayons, and turning the pages of a book one at a time to read.
  • Between ages 2 and 3, kids learn to turn a doorknob, wash their hands, use a fork correctly, zip and unzip clothes, and even remove lids from canisters! It’s time to start hiding the peanut butter.
  • Between ages 3 and 4, kids can button and unbutton their clothes, use scissors to cut paper, and trace shapes on paper.

If your child’s development is slower than other children their age, do not panic. Keep in mind that their bodies are still growing. They might develop sufficient hand muscle strength in just a few weeks to learn new fine motor abilities.

5 Fine and Gross Motor Skills Activities to Do with Your Children

As they grow, your kids will slowly gain more and more control of their bodies, getting independence to conduct daily activities on their own. While there’s no rush, you can incorporate some fun activities into your child’s daily routine to help foster this process.

  1. Playdough: Molding and shaping playdough is a funny and harmless way to enhance fine motor skills because it fosters finger strength and coordination.
  2. Threading Beads: Threading colorful beads through a string promotes hand-eye coordination and precision, refining your kid’s pincer grip.
  3. Finger Painting: Finger painting is another enjoyable hobby that helps kids develop their finger dexterity and control while allowing them to experiment with colors and textures.
  4. Scissor Skills Practice: Children can improve their hand strength, bilateral coordination, and the development of cutting abilities needed for later tasks by using child-safe scissors to cut paper into shapes or long lines.
  5. Buttoning & Zipping Practice: Introduce items with buttons and zippers into your child’s wardrobe to encourage them to dress and undress independently. Finger strength and fine motor coordination will improve as a result.

Christian Preschool in Lake Worth Includes Fine Motor Skills Development

Take Your Kids to Our Christian Preschool in Lake Worth

Fine and gross motor skills are essential to living and learning, as they enable your child to feel comfortable interacting with their environment. While there are some milestones, the process will look different for every kid, as each one is unique.

If you have the time, there are certain activities you can do with them to foster their growth. If you don’t, the educators at Neighborhood Kids will always develop new ways to help your children become the best versions of themselves. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out!

What Role Does Preschool Play in Your Kid’s Future Relationships?

Top Rated Preschool in Lake Worth Group Activities

The process of connecting and forming relationships with others involves a variety of abilities and tactics, known as relationship building. This begins to develop in early childhood, so it goes without saying that the best preschool in Lake Worth is the one that emphasizes relationships enough throughout your kids’ education.  

Learning empathy, verbal and nonverbal communication, and interpersonal skills—all of which support healthy relationships—can help children’s social-emotional development. To help you understand how important it is to include this in your kid’s curriculum, we created this article. 

Top Rated Preschool in Lake Worth Foster Social Relationships

Why Is Building Relationships Important in Early Childhood?

Early childhood is a significant time. During this time, children start gaining more control over their motor skills, and their heads start growing, giving them the tools they need to begin interacting with their environment and learning more about it. 

One key area where they start learning is relationships. By interacting with others, young children learn how to communicate, form meaningful relationships with others, face challenges, and regulate their emotions—a process known as social development in early childhood. 

As they develop their speaking abilities, they start learning how to ask for help and express their emotions—they learn how to say things to avoid hurting others, express themselves with respect, and convey their emotions through words.  

This methodical approach lays the groundwork for children’s future social, emotional, and cognitive development by assisting them in comprehending their feelings and those of others, developing deep connections, and navigating the social environment. 

Why Is Relationship Building So Crucial?

Relationships help children develop and thrive. In early childhood settings, children can feel safe and cared for and be supported in positive communication, cooperation, and motivation by providing love, security, and responsive interactions. 

And to do so, the best-proven method is teaching by example. You’ve probably heard several times that young kids are like sponges. From looking at and acting with their environment, they acquire tons of knowledge. This is called model behavior, and social relationships are no exception. 

Children are highly perceptive and form expectations about how others should treat them based on what they see in their interactions with them and their peers. The interactions that your children experience during this time can greatly influence the social skills they develop and how they interact with others in the future. 

Because of that, preschools emphasize teaching children important values, like respectful, positive, and nurturing relationships. This will help them learn about the world and find their place inside it. 

Top Rated Preschool in Lake Worth Explains Model Behaviour

Benefits Of Social Development in Early Childhood

Giving your child the best start in life possible is probably a top priority for you as a parent, so developing their social skills in early life is key. Social development support provides kids with valuable lifelong skills, such as: 

Developing Language Skills

Language development is closely linked to social growth in the preschool years. Early social interaction teaches young children how to communicate, understand, and express themselves more effectively, all of which contributes to developing better language skills.  

They gain improved communication skills and stronger interpersonal ties—two things necessary for success in life. 

Improving Learning Abilities

A child’s preschool learning abilities are further enhanced by social development. Strong social skills in children lead to higher levels of engagement in the learning process and improved academic performance. 

They also have greater self-assurance and interpersonal skills, which aid in their more efficient goal-achieving. 

Boosting Self-Esteem

Social development is also essential for building a child’s self-esteem. 

When children feel at ease interacting with others and building positive relationships, their confidence and self-esteem increase, which has several benefits to their mental and general well-being. 

Resolving Conflicts

Preschool social development programs also help kids learn how to handle conflict resolution, which is another significant advantage. 

Children who possess strong social skills are more adept at comprehending the viewpoints of others and communicating clearly, which is fundamental to conflict-solving. This will benefit their interpersonal skills throughout their life. 

Developing a Positive Attitude 

Lastly, early social development contributes to developing a positive outlook in young children. Positive social interactions increase a child’s likelihood of having an optimistic and upbeat view of life, which can substantially impact their general well-being and mental health. 

How to Teach Children About Healthy Relationships

As we have previously discussed, early childhood is the ideal period for children to develop social-emotional skills and build positive relationships with peers and adults. Here are some effective strategies for teaching healthy relationships: 

Model Respect

The concept of respect can be hard to explain to young children, but it’s a fundamental element in relationship building. To convey it, you can help them model respect through real examples in the classroom, like not yelling or talking over others. 

It may also be helpful to discuss how respected children feel—safe among their peers and teachers, free to express their wants, and fearless in owning up to their mistakes. 

Define Boundaries

Boundaries are an important element in building healthy relationships. 

To set and understand limits, kids need to learn to understand their own feelings first. Start by guiding them through talking about their likes and dislikes.  

For instance, ask them to point out what feels bad or uncomfortable when dealing with specific situations. This will serve as the starting point for teaching them how to set boundaries with people and say “no” in a firm and concise manner. 

Disprove Stereotypes

Stereotypes are a common strategy for understanding others. However, they can seriously hinder your kid’s ability to relate to others in the future—especially with those who are different from them. Because of that, it’s important to teach children the concept of stereotypes. Help them to understand that, as with any representation you may see in the media, they often fail to showcase other important parts of a person, too. 

Explain What Unhealthy Relationships Are

Children learn by watching, so simply pretending unhealthy relationships don’t exist won’t do.  

Kids are going to experience unhealthy relationships at some point in their lives. Giving them the information they need to compare them can help them identify the differences between a nurturing bond and a hurtful one, which will help them avoid them in the future. 

Top Rated Preschool in Lake Worth Teaches Social Skills

Entrust Your Children’s Education to the Top-Rated Preschool in Lake Worth

Early relationship building has a cascading effect on children. It serves as the foundation for kids to develop the social-emotional abilities required for interacting and communicating with family, friends, and teachers and supports cooperation and motivation. 

At Neighborhood Kids, teaching kids how to model healthy relationships through respect and promoting positive interactions will give them the skills and tools they need to create positive relationships now and in the future. So, reach out and learn more about our preschool curriculum! 

What Are the ABEKA and WEE Learn Curriculum?

Christian Preschool in Boynton Beach FL with WEE Learn Curriculum

In the past few years, more and more pre-K programs have emerged across the country. By taking your kid to a Christian preschool in Boynton Beach, FL, you can introduce them to social relationships, let them develop their creativity through unique experiences, and start preparing them for their academic future. 

While there’s a growing consensus that pre-K is fundamental, there are still doubts about the best curriculum. No one can say exactly what content children should be taught to adequately prepare them for the following grades. Still, parents are forced to choose one or another option when deciding where to take their children’s education. 

We came up with this guide to help you understand Neighborhood’s preschool curriculum better. 

Curriculum Taught at Christian Preschool in Boynton Beach FL

Why Is it Important to Judge a Preschool by Its Curriculum?

Preschool is one of the most important things for your kid. 

According to the 1993 High/Scope Perry Preschool Study, a high-quality preschool program can significantly improve participants’ educational and subsequent economic success and cut their lifetime arrest rate in half. 

While impressive, these statistics show that quality preschool education can be a key determining factor in your kid’s future and their relationship with academic institutions throughout their life. 

Although everyone in the country agrees that preschool is important, opinions differ on the objectives and subject matter of these programs. 

What Must a High-Quality Curriculum Possess? 

Experts concur that a pre-K curriculum must cover all aspects of the child’s early learning and development, including language and literacy, cognitive, social and emotional, physical and motor, and learning approaches. 

Early childhood education is more than preparing kids for their academic future; it’s about helping them make decisions, solve problems, and get along with others. After all, preschool is a crucial time for kids to learn personal and social skills that will accompany them for a long time. 

Adopting a curriculum that encourages child-initiated learning activities and helps children develop their interpersonal skills and sense of social responsibility can help them become more socially and personally competent.  Of course, this has to be supplemented with curriculum models that have been shown to work in studies. This combination has the best potential for supporting successful child development.  

With that in mind, here at Neighborhood Kids, we’ve incorporated the WEE Learn and ABEKA curricula together. 

What’s the WEE Learn Curriculum?

WEE stands for Weekday Early Education, a division of Child Development Education Alliance (CDEA) dedicated to educating and protecting children.   

The WEE Learn Curriculum was developed to provide a weekday curriculum for Christian settings designed for young children ages birth through pre-K. WEE Learn seeks to support children and families based on evidence-based practices. 

What Does the WEE Learn Curriculum Cover?

Every human is unique; in kids, their uniqueness often shines through without barriers. Some kids like colorful markers, others love sports, and others prefer staying close to their teachers, waiting for chances to chat all day. 

Preschool curriculums must also consider individual differences and different learning styles to protect these unique traits. WEE Learn emphasizes this and focuses on teaching through play and interactions to maximize each child’s learning potential.  

Because of that, the curriculum has been cross-referenced with multiple State Performance Standards. Another pillar of WEE Learn is providing evidence-based knowledge. 

The early years are an important period of development for children, and they learn best through active, engaged, meaningful, and enriching experiences that help them construct their own knowledge. Because of that, the WEE Learn curriculum emphasizes helping children interact with their environments and others.  

Prekindergarten through third grade is when children learn to read and write, gain a foundational understanding of the subject matter, and form critical learning dispositions. During this critical period, high-quality early care and education lay the groundwork for later success in the classroom and at work.  

WEE Learn provides young children with the stimulation and nurturing they require to support appropriate physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development—whether from parents, relatives, or teachers.  

Why We're the Best Christian Preschool in Boynton Beach FL

What’s the ABEKA Curriculum?

ABEKA stands for “A Beka,” a Book publishing company that produces educational material. They develop material in several formats, from regular paper textbooks to complementary workbooks, guides, and multi-media formats through DVDs and online platforms.  

In fact, this open digital access makes the ABEKA curriculum a frequent choice for parents who homeschool their children. The ABEKA curriculum can be easily adapted, and it comes with several helpful guides that educate teachers on how to better tackle and convey certain topics. 

What Does the ABEKA Curriculum Cover?

This educational material was developed based on researching traditional educational applications and the developers’ experience. It starts at the preschool level and goes all the way through the twelfth grade, each level featuring daily activities for an entire school year. 

Workbook methods are used to teach the following subjects: 

  • Language arts 
  • Math 
  • Science (including laboratory) 
  • Phonics 
  • Reading 
  • Writing 
  • Foreign languages 

ABEKA’s textbooks are vibrant, colorful, and creative. They use engaging activities to immediately capture kids’ attention and make learning hard concepts feel like playtime. As you progress to higher grades, the curriculum shifts to encourage kids to think critically and develop their independent study. 

Overall, Abeka’s resources are comprehensive and require minimal preparation time for parents or teachers, making it a viable option for those seeking a traditional, faith-based educational approach. 

Christian Preschool in Boynton Beach FL with ABEKA Curriculum

Learn More About our Christian Preschool in Boynton Beach, FL

As a parent, the smaller details of your children’s education may seem beyond your control.  

After all, professionals like program directors and teachers all contribute their knowledge and efforts to developing a successful curriculum that helps your child grow while aligning with their community’s values, strengths, and needs. 

While you may not be able to replace that knowledge, you can put your efforts into finding the right institution for them to foster. If you want to learn more about our curriculum at Neighborhood Kids, reach out! We’re always eager to talk about our teaching methods, as we’re passionate about education. 

What Do Kids Learn at Preschool and Why Is it Key to Their Growth?

What Kids Learn in Our Christian Preschool in Royal Palm Beach FL

Many milestones will occur in your child’s life – all unique opportunities for them to learn and grow as people. One of their firsts will be starting to attend our Christian preschool in Royal Palm Beach, FL.

Your children’s development starts at a very early age, and offering fulfilling stimuli can be crucial in helping them foster their abilities to their maximum. In this article, we’ll explain what kids learn in preschool and how important this is for their future development. We will also give you some tips on how to find the right institution for your family.

Teacher of a Christian Preschool in Royal Palm Beach FL

What Do Kids Learn in Preschool?

Ages three to five are crucial for learning and have long-term effects on your kid’s growth.

Between their 3rd and 6th birthdays, your child changes much more than in height or weight: the bones of the skull and face grow, and your child’s face loses some of its roundness, which marks a key growth of their mental development.

As your kid’s ability to concentrate increases and they start exploring their motor skills and small muscle control, they’ll start exploring the world around them. To accompany this development, preschool is all about discovery.

The goal of preschool is to provide children with a solid foundation for elementary school by helping them learn about everything around them. This covers academic literacy and math concepts like coloring, counting, and letter recognition, as well as the development of gross and fine motor skills.

Making friends, sharing, and taking turns are just a few of the social and academic readiness skills it covers.

Valuable Motor Skills

Preschool children are developing both their fine motor skills (such as hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity) and gross motor skills (which involve large physical movements).

As a result, a lot of preschools dedicate time to practicing these developmental skills by doing tasks like:

  • Drawing, cutting, coloring, and gluing are examples of fine motor exercises that are crucial for writing, grasping, and coordinating small movements.
  • Running, skipping, jumping, and kicking or tossing a ball to a partner are some of the gross motor skills they practice, typically during recess.

Social and School-Readiness Skills

Another goal of preschool is teaching children social-emotional and school-readiness skills.

Children are taught how to operate in a group environment in these classes, with a focus on social skills like sharing, taking turns, cooperative play, moving from one activity to the next, and adhering to rules in the classroom.

Additionally, preschool teaches children self-care skills that they will need in kindergarten, like dressing themselves, feeding themselves, and using the restroom on their own.

Communication and Listening

Preschool can help improve general speech and listening comprehension, as well as the ability to follow instructions. This improves children’s communication and gives them a better understanding of what their parents expect of them.

In most cases, this helps parents at home by either preventing tantrums from happening or enabling them to resolve them more quickly when they do.

Problem-Solving

Preschool is a great opportunity for children to start learning problem-solving skills, which will benefit them for years to come.

By playing with certain toys, interacting with other kids, and engaging in activities guided by teachers, children can explore the limits of their cognitive abilities and learn new ways to face any issue that may arise.

Some activities teachers foster include story time questions or organizing a treasure hunt. These skills are important later on in their education, career, and personal life.

Play-Time and Forming Friendships

While it may look like a preschooler spends all their time playing, it’s much more than that. Play is much more than having fun for children, as it’s a valuable opportunity to interact with other children and learn how to:

  • Form friendships
  • Cooperate
  • Take turns
  • Think creatively
  • Use their imagination

Through a variety of enrichment activities, including structured and unstructured play, children can learn more about themselves, develop greater self-esteem, and become more prepared for the outside world.

Not only that, but it helps kids learn how to be self-reliant and make decisions.

Kids Learn Fine Motor Skills in our Christian Preschool in Royal Palm Beach FL

Importance of Teamwork

Preschoolers are taught the value of collaboration and how to get along with others. This is their first exposure to the concept of teamwork.

In preschools, children learn to share and take turns using toys or facilities, acquiring fundamental social abilities for their future.

In addition to participating in team-building exercises that teachers design, students pick up this knowledge by watching others around them and how they interact. This teaches them the importance of collaboration and patience, too.

First Screening and Independence

For many children, preschool is their first opportunity to experience the world without their parents. They will have to ask their teachers for help to identify and meet their every need without relying on their parents, gaining more confidence in themselves.

This will also be the first time that their teachers observe how they act without parents and how they respond to tasks like writing and reading, which can be important information about mental acuity.

Adults may also find it useful in identifying early indicators of learning or processing issues and start providing them support right from the start.

Why Is It Important to Pick the Right Preschool?

Because preschools are not subject to the same regulations as K–12 schools, the curriculum offered at one institution may differ significantly from that of other schools. Of course, all schools offer the same basic knowledge, but they may highlight different aspects.

The majority of preschools have a curriculum, philosophy, and a set of objectives that all teachers must follow. For instance, we follow the ABEKA and WEE Learn curriculum. The ABEKA Curriculum is a Christian faith-based curriculum that has been used internationally for more than 50 years and is nationally recognized.

However, preschools’ flexible regulations also allow our teachers to adjust their educational approaches to adapt to the needs of each specific child.

At Neighborhood Kids, we firmly think that each child has a distinct life purpose and that it is our responsibility as educators to enable them to lead fulfilling lives that positively influence the world.

Find a Christian Preschool in Royal Palm Beach FL

Find a Reliable Christian Preschool in Royal Palm Beach, FL

Preschool marks a turning point in a child’s learning and development, one where the lessons they acquire can be applied to their future academic endeavors and beyond. Preschoolers will be able to use a pair of scissors, follow directions, kick a ball, speak in longer words and sentences, and engage with others with success.

Still, it’s important to choose the right preschool for these critical years of your child’s life. Reach out to Neighborhood Kids and learn more about our curriculum, our teachers, and what we do during our classes.