When our son was at school nursery, his teacher suggested that we should let him have access to scissors. I'd done so much to help him to be ready for school but had not given him the opportunity to cut off his curls! We did as we had been asked to do and provided the scissors. All went well, except for a few times when there were snippets of paper left all over the bedroom floor.
When our daughter came along, we began to learn new lessons! The time came to get out the scissors and she began to enjoy cutting up magazines and newspapers, exploring the shapes within them and creating collections of scraps of paper that fluttered to the floor with ease. I dutifully tidied up each time, asking her to pick up five pieces and put her pictures in a pile. When we left Lidl on Sunday, we collected the offers leaflet and she asked, "Is that for me to cut out, Mummy?" Tesco on Monday - repeat - another magazine to add to her collection. This is great, I thought: a free activity that develops fine motor skills and keeps my little poppet engaged for a long time. She was learning about shape and space, exploring print and images, and was getting quite accurate at turning corners.
This evening, the same little poppet decided to try out something different with the scissors. She quietly, quietly raised the scissors (we've been listening to the stories of My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards and 'quietly, quietly' is something we've copied from there!), snipped her fringe, snipped again, and again, and again. The silence should have been a warning. When I looked round, she was creating a neat little pile of the hair she had collected. Noooooooo! She now has a layered fringe like something from a fashion magazine.
Scissors are a great learning tool and through experimenting and practising, your child can learn to do amazing things with them...just watch out for the fringe!
