I noticed earlier this year that our 5 year old isn't terrific at cutting. He isn't interested in art and craftiness like his older sister, so he typically doesn't choose projects that encourage him to practice his cutting. He is also a lefty, so that makes things a little tougher. When I realized he was a pretty terrible cutter, I made sure we had plenty of left-handed scissors and started looking for ways to invite him to cut...in a way he'd find interesting and useful for his world!
He currently loves any type of string or rope, so I got out some red cord, his scissors and an art tray and he spent some time hacking the cord up. Then he wanted to try the wire cutters from his tool box, so he headed out to the garage to get them. They didn't work super well, so then he wanted to use MY wire cutters, which are much sharper and worked pretty well!
All this to say, he spent about 20 minutes engaged in cutting and was highly motivated to participate in it...and he practiced his scissoring skills! I was working on my own project at the table, so I chatted with him, helped him hold his scissors correctly, and gave a few suggestions, but mostly he worked independently on this task.
I have more "cutting for boys" ideas I will hopefully post in the upcoming weeks!
