Developing independence is an important part of children's development. They like to learn to do things on their own. For example, they want to (i) eat and drink on their own, (ii) fill a glass with water, (iii) dress themselves, etc.
In short, to help them gain independence, you have to let them do it.
Here are two activities to develop fine motor skills and help children become more independent, in particular when it comes to getting dressed on their own by buttoning and closing zippers. These two activities are similar, using felt and buttons to enable children to practice how to button.
The flower button tree. An activity suggested by Alexandra Fontanel (@mavietrepidantede maman). She describes this activity in detail in her book "Coschooling au fil des saisons" (éditions la plage).
More details here
The butterfly with symmetrical buttons. Four different colors of felt and buttons to play with colors. Buttons used had different size to provide different levels of difficulty. The shapes representing the wing motifs allow to play with the symmetry concept. Finally, the zipper is another useful tool that children use quite everyday (jacket, pants, etc.), and the child can practice by opening and closing the butterfly's antennae.
More details (materials and step-by-step): here
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