Egg shakers are amazing, simple instruments. Once in your hand both adults and children alike intuitively know what to do with them. They are simple to make at home or cheap to buy a whole set of them! Once you have a set to use at home there are so many fun ways to help your child's cognitive, motor and musical skills! Here are 6 of them.
#1 Shake to music
There are great songs to shake eggs to, here are a few of my favorites:
"I Know A Chicken" by The Laurie Berkner Band
"Shake! (Your Shaker Eggs)" by We Kids Rock
"I Can Shake My Shaker Egg" by Mr. Eric & Mr. Michael
#2 Play Hide and Seek with an Egg Shaker Twist
Help build your child's listening skills by playing hide and seek - with shaker eggs! Grownups or siblings take an egg and go hide somewhere in the house. While you're hiding make sure you are shaking your egg. Can your child find you by the sound of your shaking egg? Take turns being the seeker and have fun!
#3 Count and Sort the Eggs
If you have a colorful set of eggs from Amazon sit with your child and sort them by color, counting how many you have of each color. Line them up and count how many you have all together. Sort them in groups of two, sort them into a 10 frame.
#4 Fine Motor Skill - Transfer From Left to Right
Place the eggs into a basket or bowl on the left side of the child. Place a muffin tin on the right side of the child. Encourage the child to pick up one egg at a time and place them in one muffin cup. Teaching skills to transfer from left to right is an important pre-reading skill and placing one egg in one spot teaches 1-1 correspondence which is a pre-requisite skill for success in math.
#5 Egg Roll
If you're trying to encourage your baby to crawl try rolling the egg and encourage them to "chase" after it! For older kids turn this into a gross motor activity by giving them a spoon and see if they can roll the egg across the room with their spoon. If you REALLY want to challenge them of course you can advance to the "egg in spoon" race too!
#6 Shake Your Egg and Follow Me
This is a fun way to bond with your child but also promote cooperation, listening skills, and visual perception skills. Sit facing each other making eye contact, both of you holding egg shakers. Grownup can be the leader and child tries to follow as the grownup shakes their eggs different ways (above the head, to the side, behind the back) without saying anything. Can your child watch and follow along? Take turns and let THEM be the leader too!
**BONUS #7 **
Bring them to Zumbini Class and shake your eggs with Miss Jody!
Book your class for ages 0-4 at www.Moxie.xyz/MissJody
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