Stretch & Smash Sloth

Space and time are at the heart of children's daily activities: drawing, writing, moving a piece on a game board, putting together a puzzle or building a building, as well as identifying landmarks to get from one point to another. All of these call for spatial organization and orientation. Furthermore, telling a story, correctly ordering a sequence of events, learning the time, and carrying out an activity in a set amount of time all call for temporal organization and orientation. All of these concepts are gradually developed through various motor and cognitive skills. This is easily observed in the development of children's language when they use the words inside, outside, next to, behind, before, after, yesterday and tomorrow. In short, skills related to spatial and temporal organization impact several areas of children's development.

By manipulating pieces and fitting them together, children improve their dexterity, which prepares them to perform actions requiring more precise movements. A variety of activities help develop dexterity. Threading, drawing, cutting and manipulating various modelling clays gradually helps acquire the skills needed to master everyday gestures such as buttoning, lacing and zipping up and prepares children for writing. Preschoolers who do these types of activities will find it easier to trace letters.