How your weekly shop can be a fantastic fine motor workout

What to try 

• On a trip to the supermarket, ask your toddler to gather individual fruit and vegetables into bags rather than buy pre-packed – they are usually better value, too.  
• Chat about what you are buying and maybe even count the items into the bag.  

Good to know 

Picking up objects of different sizes involves some planning for your toddler as they have to think about how to position their hand, and which grip is best for each item. As adults, we make these decisions without consciously thinking about them – but we’ve had lots of practice.  

Your toddler might sometimes squeeze something a bit too hard or find it difficult to position the items to get them in the bag first time, so you might want to think about asking them to get the less fragile items from your shopping list!