Play with Tongs: 4 Creative Games to Play at Home

Kitchen tongs are a fun and effective toy for children to practice gripping, grabbing, pinching and holding. These actions help to strengthen the small muscles in your child’s hands and fingers, and develop the dexterity they need to independently draw/write with a pencil, tie their shoelaces, feed themselves, fasten a zipper, and much more! Here are four creative games to play with tongs.

Laundry Basket Fishing

You will need:

• A laundry basket
• Tongs
• Miscellaneous toys and objects

Surround a laundry basket with a variety of small toys. Have your child sit or kneel inside basket. While in the basket, your child can reach over the sides and try using the tongs to grab the objects on the floor. How many objects can you grab?

Tong Tidy-Up

You will need:

• Tongs
• Toys to tidy up!

Turn tidy-up time into a game with tongs. Use the tongs to pick up the toys and walk them to where they belong.

Building with Tongs

You will need:

• Tongs
• Stacking objects (such as blocks, small boxes or rolls of tape)

Instead of using your hands, try building with tongs. Use the tongs to grab the objects and carefully stack and balance them as high as you can.

Foil Grab

You will need:

• Tongs or tweezers
• One cup or bowl
• Aluminum foil (you could also use paper, cotton balls or pom poms)

Scrunch the foil (or paper) into little balls for your child to pick up with the tweezers or tongs. Bring the foil over to the cup and practice releasing the tongs/tweezers to drop the objects inside. Try releasing the tongs high above the cup to make it more challenging, practicing aim and hand-eye coordination.