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One of the skills we’re working on for A-Man this year is increasing his focused table time. The mix of his autism and dyspraxia makes fine motor activity harder for him than typical kids, and he gets frustrated easily. Being a very active boy, he needs a fine motor activity that also uses gross motor skills to keep him on task. Baby M also struggles with fine motor skills because of his developmental delay. Trying to find an activity that both of them can do together and actually focus on for more than five minutes is tough.

Thankfully, we seem to have found a solution for all of the boys in the I Can Pound! Kit from Fundanoodle! It uses a great mix of gross and fine motor skills and is fun enough to keep even the most active boys on task. When I got my products from Fundanoodle, this was one of the first things the boys wanted to try, and it was a huge hit with all three boys. Here’s just a few of the ways that we used the I Can Pound! Kit from Fundanoodle with each of our boys.

Fun Pounding Fine Motor Activity for Kids

Placing the Pegs

The I Can Pound! Kit comes with over 100 sheets with patterns for you to place your pegs. Of course, you can pound the pegs wherever you’d like, but having the clear marker helped the boys practice their hand eye coordination matching the pegs to the circles. Fitting the pegs within the circles really helps to develop their fine motor skills. It also helps A-Man with his motor planning. He tends to have a hard time planning his muscle movements to achieve a task, and this gave him plenty of practice! We found it was easiest if each peg got pushed in a tiny bit. Then it would stay in place so that the boys could start pounding!

Pounding Away

This is the best part, right? The I Can Pound! Kit comes with a weighted hammer which helps kids pound the pegs into the dense foam board. It helps to develop the strength in their hands and fingers. In this day and age, many kids are reaching kindergarten with extremely strong index fingers from all of our touch screen technology, but the rest of their hands and fingers are severely under developed. Kids need plenty of strength in their hands and fingers in order to practice handwriting later on.

Pulling Out Pegs

This is likely my favorite part of this fine motor activity! Once all of the pegs have been pounded into the foam board, the kiddos get to really strengthen their tiny fingers by pulling all of the pegs out one by one. This activity works the exact same muscles in the fingers that kids will use for handwriting. All three of the boys had fun pulling the pegs out. They were racing to see who could get them out the quickest! My favorite part about this is that it can naturally improve children’s handwriting without spending so much time on actual handwriting practice.

Why the I Can Pound! Kit?

The I Can Pound! Kit from Fundanoodle was developed with the help of teachers and pediatric occupational therapists to be able to help children develop the strength necessary in their hands to make learning and practicing handwriting easier. This is the perfect fine motor activity for little learners who struggle with motor planning, hand and finger strength, or even focusing on a specific activity or task. My boys absolutely love it. Because it combines a bit of heavy work with the fine motor practice, A-Man is more able to stay calm and focused. Plus, all of the boys love that it’s very task oriented. Handwriting and copywork is great, but it can be hard to convey the point to three active little boys! Trust me, mama’s, it doesn’t take much convincing to get little boys to pound on something!

How Can I Get It?

You can order the I Can Pound! Kit from Fundanoodle here. The kit includes the dense foam pounding board that provides resistance and can be used over and over again, the weighted hammer that helps to develop hand strength, 50 colored pegs to pound into the foam pounding board, over 100 fun pages designed to help kids stay engaged with the pounding kit over and over again, and it’s packaged in a sturdy canvas tote, so you can take this fun fine motor activity wherever you go! When you get your Fundanoodle I Can Pound! Kit, make sure you take a picture of your little learner using it and use #fundanoodle on Instagram! I’d love to see it in action. (You may even win a prize if you do!) Buy the I Can Pound! Kit here!

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About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.