Kumon First Steps Workbooks - Let's Cut Paper! Scissor Skills Activity Book for Toddlers & Preschoolers | Early Learning, Fine Motor Development | Classroom & Homeschool Use

I have been reviewing all of the books currently available in the Kumon First Steps Workbooks series, and LET'S CUT PAPER is the 4th and final one. It is just wonderful, like the other 3 books: LET'S STICKER AND PASTE, LET'S COLOR, and LET'S FOLD. This book gives young children (recommended age 2 and up) a fun first experience handling scissors.My son is 8 yrs. old and is a normal boy in every way, except like many children, was slower to develop some of his fine motor skills. He has loved using all of these first steps workbooks, along with the regular Kumon workbooks. He has gained much in his ability to cut carefully using the simple exercises in this book. Please be sure to give your child a GOOD pair of scissors with this book! Cheap and junky scissors will lead to the projects looking chewed, not cut. Do your child a favor and let his projects look beautiful by giving him a good pair of scissors. Fiskars for children, with blunt or pointed tips are very good. We use the Crayola child's scissors, with all metal blades (not plastic) and these cut extremely well too.Now armed with a good pair of scissors, what will your child be cutting? Well, there are 39 small pages for him to cut, beginning with simple things like cut the whiskers on the cat, the dog, and the tiger. Project #4 is cutting the square paper in half on the thick grey line, and arranging the 2 pieces to make a picture of a car. #6 has you do this, but cutting the square on a diagonal, and arranging the 2 pieces to make a boat.#7 has the child make 3 cuts across the square, and tape the 3 cut pieces in order to make a rocket. Project #8 is the same, with 3 cuts making 4 pieces to tape together...it is a tug of war rope with animals! My son loved playing this game, we each took an end and pulled to see whose animals won the tug of war (the tape will snap apart). The next few are cutting the aquare into 4 small squares and arranging the picture correctly, like a 4 pc. puzzle. Several projects involve cutting from the outside in, to free up the arms and legs of a teddy bear or cat, the wings and tail of a bird, etc. Some pages have the child cut and then fold the edges to make animals in a fenced pasture, etc.Then there is a section where the child cuts across the mouth of people and various animals. The mouths are wavy, curved, etc, and when cut, you can make the mouth closed, or open to see what they are eating. Several more pages are having the child cut along the grey line either in a spiral, or diminishing square, triangle, etc. to cut apart a spider web, or a fish line, or roses on a vine, or watermelons in a patch, or make a curly snake. All these teach the child to cut and turn the paper when the direction of the cutting line changes. Other pages have the child cut a square, circle, oval,triangle out of the center of the page to flip corrctly to be the lions face, the rhino's nose, etc. And at the end are objects to just cut out: #33 is a beach ball, #34 is a half a sandwich, #36 a hippo head, #38 a rabbit's head. Very simple, yet again teaching the children to carefully cut and reposition the paper while doing so. This is a very fun book, the artwork is fun and not babyish, is colorful, and printed on heavy paper. Many children LOVE scissors and love to cut things! So give them this book, and maybe it will save baby sister's hair from being cut off! After your child completes this book, I recommend Kumon's MY FIRST BOOK OF CUTTING, which has 40 more project pages for the scissor happy child to cut! In conclusion: a wonderful, wonderful little book!