First time visit to ARTB online?
Welcome!
If you’re new to us, Hi!
ARTB is an extensive set of exercises and activity books designed to develop fine motor skills, creative confidence and self-efficacy. Due to the design principles of our book series, these activity books can be appropriate for children as young as 2 years old.
(If you’re already familiar with our activities, feel free to skip this introductory page and proceed to the SHOP tab in the menu where books can be searched by instruction set, series, age, and title.)
TUTORIAL FOR NEW PARENTS:
We realize that many parents haven’t any history in coaching or teaching young children. If you are such a parent, here is a prepared introductory .PDF with sample exercises and scripts to guide your process into ARTB and help you manage your expectations:
DOWNLOAD THE START-HERE .PDF FOR NEW PARENTS HERE
Activities in this tutorial focus on the first skills: Tearing and Crumpling.
Why tear and crumple, you ask?
Tearing paper can be fun and satisfying to older babies and toddlers. The act of tearing encourages useful finger and coordination skills. In order to tear paper, one must learn to hold the paper between the thumb and pointing finger of each hand. Then one must move each hand in a different direction to tear the paper apart successfully. IT’S QUITE A CHALLENGE! As a child improves their control over this action through practice, they will be better prepared for more refined activities.
Another reason to teach tearing as a skill:
At ARTB we know that children must learn to treat books and paper items with care and respect. By having special activities set aside with visible instructions for them that signal when and where to have the freedom to tear and crumple, the child can channel their energy in this developmental activity and learn when they can and can’t practice this useful skill. They also get to see exactly what happens to the page as it gets torn and crumpled up, rendering it used and no longer what it once was.
Tearing and Crumpling is therefore a great basic set of skills that lead to more capable scissor use and handwriting at later developmental stages.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL CURVE
GLOSSARY of Terms:
CRUMPLING:
Altering flat material by condensing and crushing the material into a more three-dimensional form
“James crumpled up the piece of paper and thew it in the wastebasket”
TEARING:
Ripping a material to some extent
“Suzy always tears the gift wrapping away with such excitement!”
DIRECTIONAL TEARING:
Ripping a material with intent on the direction and final result of such action
GLUING:
Sticking one item to another with the use of an adhesive substance
“She dabbed the tissue paper into some glue and stuck it onto the canvas.”
CUTTING:
Using scissors or another sharp tool to carefully severe a material at intentional points
“He cut a perfect circle from that paper with his scissors.”
FOLDING:
Intentionally creasing material to allow for different spatial configurations
“It is said that one cannot fold a piece of paper more than 7 times; but is that true?”
MATCHING:
Identifying like items according to various features.
“Those two solid black hexagons match.”
TAPING:
Stick two materials together using a third material with at least one adhesive side.
“We will tape the two pieces together with a strip of duct tape.”