An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: beeswax crayons, a colouring book, chunky dot markers, a finger painting kit with paint pots and stamps, giant fingerpaint paper, modelling dough and the Fine Motor Foundations guide.
A girl presses one finger into a rainbow ink pad, smiling at the camera, while a boy beside them works from an open finger painting activity book at a light wood table.
A child's hand lifts a purple beeswax crayon stone out of a wooden tray of coloured crayons, above a page of loops and scribbles they have already drawn.
An adult sits at a low table with three young children finger painting, coloured play silks hanging on the wall behind them.
An adult and two children at a table rolling and squashing coloured modelling dough, with small pots and a rolling pin between them.
A toddler in a red apron holds up a hand covered in blue paint, grinning, with a blue handprint on the paper in front of them.
A girl stands at a table pressing a dot marker onto a page already covered in pink and green dots, smiling at the camera.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: beeswax crayons, a colouring book, chunky dot markers, a finger painting kit with paint pots and stamps, giant fingerpaint paper, modelling dough and the Fine Motor Foundations guide.
A girl presses one finger into a rainbow ink pad, smiling at the camera, while a boy beside them works from an open finger painting activity book at a light wood table.
A child's hand lifts a purple beeswax crayon stone out of a wooden tray of coloured crayons, above a page of loops and scribbles they have already drawn.
An adult sits at a low table with three young children finger painting, coloured play silks hanging on the wall behind them.
An adult and two children at a table rolling and squashing coloured modelling dough, with small pots and a rolling pin between them.
A toddler in a red apron holds up a hand covered in blue paint, grinning, with a blue handprint on the paper in front of them.
A girl stands at a table pressing a dot marker onto a page already covered in pink and green dots, smiling at the camera.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: beeswax crayons, a colouring book, chunky dot markers, a finger painting kit with paint pots and stamps, giant fingerpaint paper, modelling dough and the Fine Motor Foundations guide.
A girl presses one finger into a rainbow ink pad, smiling at the camera, while a boy beside them works from an open finger painting activity book at a light wood table.
A child's hand lifts a purple beeswax crayon stone out of a wooden tray of coloured crayons, above a page of loops and scribbles they have already drawn.
An adult sits at a low table with three young children finger painting, coloured play silks hanging on the wall behind them.
An adult and two children at a table rolling and squashing coloured modelling dough, with small pots and a rolling pin between them.
A toddler in a red apron holds up a hand covered in blue paint, grinning, with a blue handprint on the paper in front of them.
A girl stands at a table pressing a dot marker onto a page already covered in pink and green dots, smiling at the camera.
An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: beeswax crayons, a colouring book, chunky dot markers, a finger painting kit with paint pots and stamps, giant fingerpaint paper, modelling dough and the Fine Motor Foundations guide.
A girl presses one finger into a rainbow ink pad, smiling at the camera, while a boy beside them works from an open finger painting activity book at a light wood table.
A child's hand lifts a purple beeswax crayon stone out of a wooden tray of coloured crayons, above a page of loops and scribbles they have already drawn.
An adult sits at a low table with three young children finger painting, coloured play silks hanging on the wall behind them.
An adult and two children at a table rolling and squashing coloured modelling dough, with small pots and a rolling pin between them.
A toddler in a red apron holds up a hand covered in blue paint, grinning, with a blue handprint on the paper in front of them.
A girl stands at a table pressing a dot marker onto a page already covered in pink and green dots, smiling at the camera.

Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit

The Play Way
Regular price $59.00
Sale price $59.00 Regular price $0.00
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Support hand strength and the small hand movements that come before writing, cutting and doing up buttons, with five creative projects that give your child's hands a fun reason to work and something to show for it at the end.

This play kit was curated by our therapy team for the child who will not sit down with a crayon. Everything for all five projects is in the box, so there is nothing to source first, and the crayons and the dot markers are chunky enough for a whole hand that is still working out how to hold things. It is the first of our three fine motor play kits. Choose between them by where your child's hands are up to rather than by how old they are, and start here if they still grab a crayon in a whole fist.
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An open teal The Play Way box with the Fine Motor Whole Hands Play Kit contents arranged above it: beeswax crayons, a colouring book, chunky dot markers, a finger painting kit with paint pots and stamps, giant fingerpaint paper, modelling dough and the Fine Motor Foundations guide.

Fine Motor Whole 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.
Beeswax crayons and colouring book

Beeswax crayons and colouring book

Crayon stones rather than sticks, so a child who cannot hold a pencil yet can still make a mark with a whole fist if that is what works. We love them because there is no right way to hold one of these, which takes the pressure off before they have even started.
Modelling dough

Modelling dough

Rolling, squashing, pinching and pulling all build the small muscles inside the hand, and this is one of the few things where a child can push as hard as they like. Rolling a long snake takes both hands doing different jobs at once, which is the same skill as holding the paper still while the other hand draws on it.
Dot painting kit

Dot painting kit

Chunky dot markers, thick enough for hands still working out a grasp. Pressing hard makes a big dark dot and pressing softly makes a small pale one, so your child works out for themselves how much pressure to use, which is what later decides whether a pencil mark shows up on the page. Almost no clean-up either, so it is the one for a day when mess isn’t an option.
Finger painting kit

Finger painting kit

Stamps, paint and a palette, for the child who would rather use their hands than hold anything at all. Fingers into paint and paint onto paper is the first version of aiming, and the stamps ask them to put something exactly where they meant it to go.
Ink stamp and finger painting book

Ink stamp and finger painting book

An ink pad and stamps to press into the book, so the marks land in a spot on purpose rather than anywhere on the page. Putting something small exactly where they mean to takes one finger working on its own, which is the same movement they use to point at what they want, and later to steer a pencil.
Giant fingerpaint paper

Giant fingerpaint paper

A big roll, so the first thing your child meets is space instead of a small page to stay inside. Big paper means big movements from the shoulder and the elbow, which is where hand control starts, and it means two children can work on the same sheet.
Parent Guide

Parent Guide

A short guide for you (the adult), covering what each project is working on, what to look for while they are in it, and how to make any of the five easier or harder depending on the day.

Why we built it this way

Made for a whole hand

Made for a whole hand

The crayons are stones you hold in a fist and the dot markers are fat enough to grab. Nothing in this box needs a grip your child has not developed yet, so they can start on their own instead of waiting to be shown how to hold it.
They finish with something they made

They finish with something they made

Five projects, all ending in an object they can keep. A child who has made something wants to make another one, and coming back is what builds the strength.
No strict order, no set timetable

No strict order, no set timetable

There is no set order to the five and no schedule to keep. If one project is the one they are excited about, start there. Following what they are drawn to is what keeps it fun, and fun is what gets them back to it without any nagging.

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 drawing looks like this

  • They will not pick up a pencil, and I do not want to push it.
  • Tabletop tasks last about two minutes before they are done with them.
  • I want their hands strong enough to hold a pencil when it’s time to write.
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 strength is one of the first things to get in the way at school and one of the last things anyone thinks to work on. It usually gets noticed when writing starts, which is a few years after the hands needed the practice. The five projects were curated by our therapy team so the practice is invisible. Your child is making something, and the strength, the grip and the two-hands-together work happen inside the making rather than as an exercise perceived as ‘work’.
  • 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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