To help us hone our fine motor skills, we strung pipe cleaners through an ant-themed lacing card. Parents may think that activities like these have very little developmental significance, but the truth is just the opposite.

Activities like these are crucial because they allow a break in the sometimes monotonous tasks of tracing or even coloring, and provides a wide range of motion that young writers can use.

Lacing activities also enable young children to become aware of the roles of their dominant and non-dominant hands. Stabilizing the cards while working the pipe cleaner through the holes strengthens those little fingers and muscles.