Doing mazes to practice patience ! My favorite….
It’s been a year since I became interested in providing activities for my child and clients or to adapt ordinary activities to help children to develop patience. Last night when I was drawing a simple maze for my 30-months-old daughter I put two gas station on the maze path for her to stop her small moving toy car and count to ten to fuel it symbolically in her pretend play . This activity is designed to develop patience because she needs to stop and count rather than rush through the maze. Although you may know that doing mazes without stopping to count develops fine motor control (as she avoids hitting her car on the lines) adding the gas stations and counting teaches her to work even more carefully and with patience.
I also love how mazes can be positioned vertically in order to develop upper-extremity stability strength and the fine motor control required for future hand-writing skills. While sequencing steps to the maze, the child should think, plan & then move her finger, in-hand object or crayon. This is a great way to develop problem solving, an aspect of executive functioning.
What is more it’s fun & entertaining.