Favorite Products #33

A current favorite product in our house is the Doodle Pro.

Recently my daughter has become nothing less than obsessed with the Doodle Pro. She excitedly points at it and says "draw, draw." I have always loved Doodle Pro type products because it provides endless amounts of possibilities - don't like your drawing? Erase and start over. Do you want to practice drawing circles or other shapes? Go for it. This is a great product for kids because you can take it anywhere, it doesn't make a mess and kids of pretty much any age can have fun with it.

Here are some ways to encourage your preemie's development:

1) Fine motor - This is obviously a great product to help your preemie work on fine motor skills. Holding the pen and then drawing with it takes hand strength and coordination. If your preemie has trouble at first, help him/her hold the pen and draw. Some of the Doodle Pro products now come with magnetic shapes that can be "stamped" across the board. This is another great activity for fine motor work. You can have your preemie work on lines (horizontal first) and then circle drawings. My daughter loves to trace her (or my) hand too.

2) Cause and Effect - a great way to demonstrate this is by drawing a picture and then sliding the eraser bar so that it disappears. Tip: make sure you demonstrate the erasing part with your OWN drawing first. Some kiddos don't want to erase a masterpiece right away.

3) Shapes, counting, etc. - as your preemie gets older you can use the Doodle Pro to practice naming shapes or count how many of something you have drawn.