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Last week I shared about a simple DIY Fine Motor Toolkit idea. The original idea I saw was a handwriting toolkit that had been put together as a raffle at my state's Occupational Therapy Association conference. So today I am sharing my spin on the DIY handwriting toolkit.
I really wish I had thought of these ideas when I was working in the school system. It would have been so easy to keep everything in one spot and have it when I needed it.
You will probably need a larger container than the one I used for the fine motor toolkit. I found a two-tiered snap container that my dad had given me so I used that. I also used a divider for the pencil grips in the top section. It is by Snapware – Snap and Stack Portable Organizer and just like this one below:
DIY Handwriting Toolkit Items
This is certainly not an exhaustive list, you could add different items you have on hand.
- Crayola Write Start Colored Pencils
- Play dough
- TheraPutty
- Wikki Stix
- Pencil grips (the ones I included: ARK Butter Grip, The Pencil Grip, Crossover Grip, and The Pinch Grip, and Mini Pencil Grips).
- Weighted pencils
- Small hexagon pencils
- Regular H2 Pencils
- Dry erase marker
- Dry erase practice board (I like the one from Fundanoodle)
- Mini Chalk board
- Chalk
- Sponge
- Washcloth
- Shaving Cream
- Index cards
- Small craft sticks (to use as letter/word spacers)
- Large craft sticks with velcro dots (used to make letters or shapes)
- Yellow, red, green, and/or blue highlighter
- Squeeze ball
- Pencil top chewy (I included the ARK Krypto-Bite)
- Kwik Stix
- Adaptive paper (the kinds I included: Mead See and Feel Learn to Write Raised Ruling, Mead 4-in-1 Learn to Write Letter with Guidelines, RediSpace Transitional Notebook Paper, Abilitations HiWrite Notebook Paper)
Optional:
- Muscle Mover cards from Fundanoodle (Uppercase cards and Lowercase cards)
- I Can Build Letters Magnet sets (Uppercase magnets and Lowercase magnets – works with the dry erase magnet board perfectly!)
- Letter Fun Kits from Fundanoodle (Uppercase kits and Lowercase kits)
- Pre-Writing Practice Line Printables
As you can see, there are so many options out there that you could add to this. There are many more types of pencil grips or adaptive papers you could include (depending on the age of your child).
I'm also excited to share that I am part of a brand new resource coming January 23rd called The Handwriting Book. It was written by 8 other pediatric therapists including myself and has everything you need to know about handwriting skills. If you want to get details on it, just subscribe to get the printable download below and I'll make sure you get details on The Handwriting Book when it is available.
