Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Saint Louis, MO

Handwriting requires fine motor skills, coordination and finger strength which all take time and repetition to develop. Working with children as soon as possible in these areas will prepare your child for writing and remove some frustration when learning these new skills.

Activities like bead stringing are excellent for building strength in children's fingers to get them prepared for writing. Stringing beads is an easy activity which only requires beads and thick string. I use long shoe laces with plastic tipped ends because they are easier for small hands to navigate. Tie the end of the string so the beads stay in place.

Start with larger beads with a 2 cm diameter hole. Demonstrate poking the plastic tip through the center of the beads and then how to pull the string through until the bead is on top of the knot. Once kids get the hang of stringing beads and have mastered the larger beads, move on to 1.5 cm beads, then 1 cm and finally small .5 cm beads. Changing the size of the beads makes the activity challenging as kids get older and better at stringing them.

To increase your child's interest in this activity, you can take them with you to a craft store to pick out "their" beads. Look at different shapes and colors of beads because you can also use them for pattern making activties or even jewelery as your child becomes more adept at stringing.

Simple finger activities like stringing give kids an advantage in pre-writing activities and help you increase their attention span while they work on their fine motor skills and coordination. It will make a difference when they begin writing before kindergarten!