An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: an ultra light modelling clay set with twenty-four colour pots, a 3D paper model kit, a gemstone excavation kit, scratch rainbow notes, origami paper and the Fine Motor Advanced guide.
A boy presses a blue clay cutter into a lump of red modelling clay at a light wood table.
A boy and an adult hold a part-built white 3D paper model of a rabbit together, with the model kit booklet and a bottle of glue on the table.
Overhead, a child holds a small black card steady with one hand while scratching a rainbow pattern into it with a wooden stylus, the Scratch Rainbow Notes box beside them.
A boy chips at a plaster block in a white tray with a wooden tool, with the stones they have already dug out in the tray beside the block.
Overhead, an adult and a child press small black eye pieces into a flattened sheet of pink modelling clay, with a pot of clay and blue clay tools nearby.
A boy smiles at the camera holding up a finished folded paper model in blue, pink and white.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: an ultra light modelling clay set with twenty-four colour pots, a 3D paper model kit, a gemstone excavation kit, scratch rainbow notes, origami paper and the Fine Motor Advanced guide.
A boy presses a blue clay cutter into a lump of red modelling clay at a light wood table.
A boy and an adult hold a part-built white 3D paper model of a rabbit together, with the model kit booklet and a bottle of glue on the table.
Overhead, a child holds a small black card steady with one hand while scratching a rainbow pattern into it with a wooden stylus, the Scratch Rainbow Notes box beside them.
A boy chips at a plaster block in a white tray with a wooden tool, with the stones they have already dug out in the tray beside the block.
Overhead, an adult and a child press small black eye pieces into a flattened sheet of pink modelling clay, with a pot of clay and blue clay tools nearby.
A boy smiles at the camera holding up a finished folded paper model in blue, pink and white.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: an ultra light modelling clay set with twenty-four colour pots, a 3D paper model kit, a gemstone excavation kit, scratch rainbow notes, origami paper and the Fine Motor Advanced guide.
A boy presses a blue clay cutter into a lump of red modelling clay at a light wood table.
A boy and an adult hold a part-built white 3D paper model of a rabbit together, with the model kit booklet and a bottle of glue on the table.
Overhead, a child holds a small black card steady with one hand while scratching a rainbow pattern into it with a wooden stylus, the Scratch Rainbow Notes box beside them.
A boy chips at a plaster block in a white tray with a wooden tool, with the stones they have already dug out in the tray beside the block.
Overhead, an adult and a child press small black eye pieces into a flattened sheet of pink modelling clay, with a pot of clay and blue clay tools nearby.
A boy smiles at the camera holding up a finished folded paper model in blue, pink and white.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: an ultra light modelling clay set with twenty-four colour pots, a 3D paper model kit, a gemstone excavation kit, scratch rainbow notes, origami paper and the Fine Motor Advanced guide.
A boy presses a blue clay cutter into a lump of red modelling clay at a light wood table.
A boy and an adult hold a part-built white 3D paper model of a rabbit together, with the model kit booklet and a bottle of glue on the table.
Overhead, a child holds a small black card steady with one hand while scratching a rainbow pattern into it with a wooden stylus, the Scratch Rainbow Notes box beside them.
A boy chips at a plaster block in a white tray with a wooden tool, with the stones they have already dug out in the tray beside the block.
Overhead, an adult and a child press small black eye pieces into a flattened sheet of pink modelling clay, with a pot of clay and blue clay tools nearby.
A boy smiles at the camera holding up a finished folded paper model in blue, pink and white.

Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit

The Play Way
Regular price $59.00
Sale price $59.00 Regular price $0.00
Unit price
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Support the hand strength that can endure a longer task, and the planning that gets your child through it, with five projects where working out how to make the thing is as much of the job as the making of it.

This play kit was curated by our therapy team for the stage almost nothing is made for. Once a child can hold a pencil, hand skills get treated as finished, but two things are still being built: the strength to keep careful work going without the hand tiring, and the planning that lets the hands carry out a sequence. Modelling clay, 3D paper models, origami, scratch art and a plaster block with gemstones buried inside it each take a while on purpose. It is the last of our three fine motor play kits. Choose between the three by where your child's hands are up to rather than by how old they are, and start here if they can already manage buttons, zips and cutting, and it is finishing the bigger projects that now challenges them.
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An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: an ultra light modelling clay set with twenty-four colour pots, a 3D paper model kit, a gemstone excavation kit, scratch rainbow notes, origami paper and the Fine Motor Advanced guide.

Fine Motor Thinking Hands Play Kit

Regular price $59.00
Sale price $59.00 Regular price $0.00
Unit price

WHAT'S INSIDE

What's in this play kit

A full kit of play-tools, curated to work together.
Ultra light modelling clay

Ultra light modelling clay

Twenty-four colours, a set of tools, and small accessories to push in: eyes, feet and hats. Rolling a ball is a pinch, rolling a snake takes both hands, poking a hole takes one finger on its own, and pushing two pieces together works against real resistance.
3D paper model kit

3D paper model kit

Flat printed sheets that end up standing on a shelf. Punching the pieces out, folding along the line and getting a tab into its slot takes both hands doing different jobs at once, and it takes reading the next step before you have finished the one you are on. This is the project where your child has to look ahead.
Origami

Origami

Paper and instructions, and a fold that is either accurate or the whole thing comes out crooked. It is the most demanding project in the box and the most satisfying, because a flat square turns into something that stands up on its own and there is no mess to clean up afterwards.
Gemstone excavation

Gemstone excavation

A plaster block with gems buried in it, plus chisels and a brush. Where do I dig first, and which tool will get one out without breaking it. Your child will hit something that does not work and have to find another way, which is problem solving done with their hands rather than on paper. It gets messy, so it is best done outside.
Scratch rainbow notes

Scratch rainbow notes

Black cards that show colour underneath wherever a wooden stylus is dragged across them. One hand holds the card still while the other draws, which is the same two-hands-together job as holding the page down while you write on it.
Parent Guide

Parent Guide

A short guide for you (the adult), covering what each project is working on, where a child usually gets stuck, and how to help without taking over.

Why we built it this way

Built for hands that tire

Built for hands that tire

Nothing in this box is finished in five minutes, and that is the point of it. Holding a careful grip all the way through a long project is how hand strength and stamina get built, and that is what a full page of writing asks for. Most fine motor activities stop well before a hand has had to work that hard.
Hands that carry out a plan

Hands that carry out a plan

Which fold comes first, which tool will lift the gem without cracking it, what to try when the last attempt failed. Their hands have to carry out a sequence they worked out in advance, then change it when it does not go. That is motor planning, and it is the last part of hand skills to develop.
Something they will say yes to

Something they will say yes to

By this age most hand strengthening looks like schoolwork or like something for little children, and it gets refused. Chipping a gemstone out of plaster does not, so the work actually happens. Getting an older child to do this at all is half the job, and it is why these five activities were chosen.

INCLUDED WITH YOUR PLAY KIT

The videos that come with it

Everything in the kit is ready to use from the day it arrives, so your child can get stuck into the first project without waiting for anything. When you want the learning behind it, there is about half an hour of video covering which hand skill each project is working on and how to support that development in their normal everyday. Our OTs walk you through each of the five projects in the videos, showing ways to make it easier or harder and ideas for what else to do with the materials once the project is finished. We'll send your invitation to access it all when your kit ships.

WHO THIS PLAY KIT IS FOR

If school is asking more of their hands

  • They can write, but their hand gives out well before the page is finished.
  • Anything with steps in it loses them halfway through.
  • I want them to keep going when something is hard, and to ask for help instead of stopping.
If any of that sounds like your family, this is who we built the play kit for.

Who made this

Kait is an OT. She has been working with children and families for nearly 20 years, and she has four kids of her own. She built this play kit because hand skills get treated as finished the moment a child can hold a pencil. The last stretch, keeping precision going through a long task and getting the hands to follow a plan, is where hand endurance and motor planning get built. We built this one to keep older kids engaged in building these skills through something that doesn’t feel too ‘childish’ but also isn’t a worksheet. The five projects were curated by our therapy team so the hand keeps having to change what it is doing. A chisel, a stylus, a folding edge and a clay tool each ask for a different grip, and a different grip loads different muscles through the fingers, hand and forearm. The planning and the precision happen inside a fun project that has an outcome they can be proud of.
  • 5,000+
    Australian children have used our play kits
  • 20 years
    of Kait working with children and families

Frequently asked questions

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What if there is a medical reason behind what we are seeing?