I have a confession. My son loves 2p slot machines at the arcades. He is pretty good too. He loves slotting the money into the machine and waiting for it to drop. Although my parents think we are instilling a gambling addition – I see it that he is improving his fine motor skills!
On a Tesco visit I spotted some pirate treasure toy money and remembered we had a metallic money box at home. I think a metallic money box makes a better sound when the coin drops. Although I could have used real money I couldn’t be sure that Adam wouldn’t put them in his mouth and the toy coins were slightly bigger than a 2p.
I had originally planned to do a messy activity outside today. However, I soon realised that Adam was not going to play ball – especially as it was the afternoon by the time we had a chance and by then the weather was miserable. Luckily I had the coin activity as a plan B. Adam concentrated on the activity for a long time.
At first he just wanted to put them into the box without its lid on – but that’s too easy! With the lid on he got frustrated not being able to post them in quickly and it was interesting watching him persevere until at last he could post them individually – not an easy skill.
I hid coins around the living room and he managed to find them all. The activity continued into the kitchen where he transferred the coins into a muffin tin before posting them into the money box. Such a simple activity which kept Adam amused for half an hour.
UPDATE: This continues to be Adam’s favourite Busy Box activity. He usually asks for this box and it fits wonderfully onto his highchair table. His fine motor skills have improved significantly since he first played with it and is able to fit the coins into the slot quickly now.
Equipment:
* Money box
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