DIY scissor cutting station to help children learn to cut with scissors

Here is a simple little DIY scissor cutting station to help children learn to cut with scissors. It’s easy to set up and will encourage your child to take time, concentrate and develop skills needed to carefully cut with scissors.

Boo (aged 2 years) just wants to cut with scissors like her big sister Possum (aged 5 years). We have the wonderful plastic training scissors, but sometimes they don’t cut things as well as what the metal scissors do. In my experience, this has causes Boo lots of frustration and done nothing to help her learn about carefully cutting with scissors.

With strict supervision, I recommend setting up this simple DIY scissor cutting station to help your child learn and develop the necessary skills required to cut with scissors.

Recommended age: 2 years +
(Strict and active supervision is required with this activity)

To create your own scissor cutting station, you will need –

Pot with a handle
String
Scissors (suitable size for child)
Strips of paper

I cut some long lengths of paper first because I knew that it would be easier for Boo to hold with her hand, keep in control and manage when attempting to use the scissors to snip away at the ends. The variety of colours was to keep the task interesting.

Quite simply, I tied a length of string from the pot handle to the scissors. There is a few reasons for this. When children are learning it can be tempting for children to move around a lot and that can be dangerous. With the string holding the scissors and pot close in range, children are less likely to want to swing their arms around, which can also be a very dangerous thing to do when working with scissors.

How to help children cut with scissors

When children cut with scissors they are coordinating their bilateral muscles in their hand as well as strengthening their fine motor skills, which we know is important for writing, drawing etc.

To help your child cut with scissors it’s a great idea to begin by encouraging them to become familiar and confident with holding scissors in their hand and learning how to open and close them. Once they have established this skill then they can be ready to begin cutting paper, straws or something that will not be too challenging. I just love this hot tip by Jackie, who blogs over at Happy Hooligans.

Encouraging your child to keep their thumb facing up is important and making cutting tasks achievable. Over time and with practice your child will be confidently cutting with scissors.

If you’re wanting your child to become more confident at learning to cut with scissors then you might be interested to give this DIY scissor cutting station a go. It’s a simple little activity station you can set up in your classroom or at home. Boo absolutely loved using it and has requested to do it many times since this first experience.