Montessori Inspired Lacing and Threading For Small Hands

Are you looking for an activity to strengthen your child's fine motor skills?

Maybe get them started on a fun and engaging art and craft journey?

Would you like to encourage better concentration through repetition?

These are just some of the reasons threading is perfect for young children! 

Maria Montessori believed in hands-on learning and called "the hands as the instruments of man’s intelligence".  And rightly so! One of the things that distinguish Montessori from more traditional classroom educational approaches is the way children are encouraged to use their hands and learn by exploring, touching, feeling and doing.  When children operate and explore objects with their hands, they gain a very good understanding of the materials, how to use objects and more fully integrate learning experiences that last a lifetime. Hence, lacing, threading, sewing, stringing and other handwork activities are highly encouraged in a Montessori classroom. Threading and lacing provide real-life practice for children to master the daily skills that will serve them in many other aspects of their life. These simple yet effective activities and play resources help children develop manual dexterity while honing fine motor skills and concentration. This also sets a good base for building self-confidence through successful experiences.

What is a Threading activity? 

Threading basically means to put beads, chunks of food, or other small objects together on a thread, chain, or skewer that runs through the center of each one.  This means that the kids would be putting numerous small objects onto a longer object or string as a part of their threading activity. For example, bead stringing is a classic Montessori material, much loved by students and teachers alike. Similarly, lacing means to draw or pass something, such as a lace or thread through something such as eyelets. These activities are fantastic for kids as they help in developing strength, coordination and control needed for drawing, writing, tying shoe-laces, opening up pencil and lunch boxes, and many other self-help tasks.

Simple Threading Activities to Try With Your Child

We love playful ways of learning and if you would like to help your child refine his/her manual dexterity and fine motor control at home while having tons of fun then read on.

Here is a list of Montessori ideas that incorporate threading, stringing, lacing, and weaving.  ALL LACING & SEWING ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE CLOSELY SUPERVISED AT ALL TIMES BY A RESPONSIBLE ADULT.

1. Thread Pasta on to skewers: a simple and easy to set up activity that I think your toddler will really enjoy. It involves them threading pasta onto straws that are supported with some play-dough. Because as we know, toddlers rarely sit still, it's also really great for developing concentration to a particular task.
2. Craft sticks into spices container: a tried and tested poking activity that my daughter has been practicing since she was a baby. All you need is a clear container/spice jar with a hole poked in the lid on top and coloured craft sticks. Simply pass the sticks trough the lid and collect in the container. A fun way to get little hands busy and hone hand-eye-coordination.
3. Scarves into expanding ball: all you need is an expanding ball and some colourful scarves. This is a brilliant 'pull-out' fine motor activity that will encourage small hands to practice pincer grasp. I have spent many afternoons with my mini putting the scarves back in the ball and pulling them out many times.
4. Beads into twine: a portable, engaging and fun way to introduce your little one to threading. It's a super simple activity and very fulfilling when a toddler successfully completes it. The beads may differ in size and colour, ranging from large to small and one by one, a child threads the beads onto the string.  This activity helps a child develop concentration, fine motor control, and confidence. Great activity to try with you little one soon!

5. Shapes beads + threading stick: young children need help holding the string, we have designed and developed an alternative to string/lace/twine for beginners. Our set comes in 9 different shapes in assorted colours. Each piece has a hole in the centre for easy threading activities. It can be also used for sorting activities identifying different shapes and colours. Great for sorting and other attribute work. 

6. Lacing cards: This collection of 5 bioplastic shapes with laces is sure to engage children to work with their hands, indirectly developing small motor control. Children will learn lacing stitch as they thread the laces through the punched holes. This set is also useful for teaching tracing shapes including a circle, square, triangle, rectangle and heart. This activity also teaches the child a basic running stitch pattern and prepares for sewing. They thread the lace through the punched holes again and again. Great for fine motor skill development.

Hope you will find these ideas interesting and will try them out with your little learner. For some more convenient and fun threading + lacing activities, check out our website to browse through our exciting new range of educational resources. I love a good threading activity for my daughter and I am certain you too will find it beneficial and fun.

Check out our current range for creative and mess-free kid's activities here. We ship worldwide!  

What do you think? Isn’t this an engaging and fun way to keep you mini busy while learning important life skills?  I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on how you make learning exciting and fun. Let us know on our Facebook page.