We recently bought a cool rubber bath mat with ducks on it. It looks funky in the bath, and the kids love it. The bottom of it is covered in little suction cups, and thanks to Creative Playhouse, we were able to use it for an activity that didn’t involve the bath this morning.

A bag of marbles and a bath mat, add some tongs, chopsticks and large pegs, and we got a great fine motor skill activity.

A using her fingers, L using the red tongs

I placed the bath mat upside down on the deck, with a bowl of marbles. First off, A placed the marbles on the suction cups using her fingers, but that was pretty easy. The red silicone tipped tongs were great for picking up the marbles, but the stainless steel tongs were somewhat difficult to use. L used some chopsticks and the marbles shot out of them across the deck. With some persistence, L mastered the chopsticks and the stainless steel tongs. A preferred the red tongs. We had some large pegs big enough to pick up the marbles, but A didn’t find them particularly interesting.

Using chopsticks and tongs.

I had trouble finding marbles, I thought the cheap shops would have them, but I couldn’t find any. I ended up with a bag from kmart that had all the marbles the same size. I am on the lookout for a bag of assorted sized marbles to try the activity again to see if different sized marbles make it easier or harder. They might be good for an ordering and sorting activity too.

Using the red tongs.