12 Easy Hand-Eye Coordination Activities for Kids

Incorporating hand-eye coordination activities into your child’s daily routine is an excellent way to enhance their development.

This post will help you better understand what hand-eye coordination is, why it is important, and 12 activities to help your child improve this important skill.

What is hand-eye coordination?

Hand-eye coordination is a very complex cognitive ability that requires practice and patience. It is essentially a connection between your visual and motor systems.

When a child successfully catch a ball, they are using the visual information received from their eyes to move their hands and arms to the correct places.

Luckily, children are very adaptable and they can easily improve their hand-eye coordination with simple at-home activities.

Importance of Hand-Eye Coordination

There are many reasons why hand-eye coordination is important for children.

Here are a few of them:

• Improved Mathematical Skills
  • Research shows that children who have better hand-eye coordination are more likely to have higher scores on standardized math exams.
• Proper Hand-Writing
  • Strong hand-eye coordination can greatly impact a child’s writing skills. This is because our eyes send signals to our brain about where and how to move our hands and fingers as we write letters and words across the page.
• Enhanced Sports Performance
  • Hand-eye coordination is an integral part of any physical activity. The better children become at this skill the more likely they are to excel in sports. Even though sports are not for everyone, encouraging children to engage in physical activities helps contribute to a healthier lifestyle.
• Reading Skills
  • Visual tracking skills are a major part of learning to read and they are developed through hand-eye coordination activities.

12 Hand-Eye Coordination Activities

Try including some of these hand-eye coordination activities in your daily routine.

The more children practice, the more proficient they will become with their motor movements. This will help to enhance your child’s writing, reading, and mathematical skills.

1. Bubble Catching

This is my two-year-old son’s favorite game to play. He loves it so much that we play nearly every day!

I simply blow the bubbles and hand him the wand. He uses the wand to try and catch the floating bubbles.

I love this activity for hand-eye coordination because the child has to be gentle and precise as they try to catch the small bubbles back onto the wand.

2. Ring Toss

This is a great activity to really boost your child’s coordination.

Whether you want to buy a ring toss kit or make one at home, this game is a must, especially in the warmer months!

Start by standing close to the sticks. As your child progresses, have them move further and further away!

3. Sensory Bins

There are so many amazing benefits of sensory play for kids.

As children scoop, pour, and maneuver the different materials in the sensory bins, they are learning to synchronize their hand and eye movements.

Provide them with different props like cups, shovels, and funnels to further improve their fine motor skills.

4. Arts and Crafts

The importance of arts and crafts in child development should not be underestimated.

Cutting, gluing, and pasting materials together is one of the best ways to improve hand-eye coordination and develop pre-writing skills.

Arts and crafts are also a great way to improve midline crossing which plays a role in coordinated movements and hand-writing.

5. Balloon Darts

Balloon activities are super fun and engaging for children.

One of our favorite activities is balloon darts. All you need is a cardboard box, balloons, tape, and darts (even rocks work).

Tape some blown-up balloons to the cardboard and have your child throw the darts (or rocks) to try and pop the balloons.

6. Construction Play

Whether it is building blocks, Magna-tiles, or even Legos, construction play is very beneficial for child development.

As children maneuver, stack, and build things with construction toys they are learning how to refine their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

The Lewo Wooden Block Set is by far my favorite set of blocks for children.

7. Ball Catch and Throw

Oh, the classic game of catch! This is the ultimate activity to help your child improve their hand-eye coordination.

This activity requires a lot of attention, coordination, and quick movements in order to successfully catch the ball.

For younger children, it may be easier to start with a balloon so they have more time to process where the balloon is and react.

For older children, you can use any ball or even a bean bag. Start by standing close with your child and as they get the hang of it you can slowly start stepping backwards to increase the distance.

8. Musical Instrument

Playing the piano or banging on the drums provides so many amazing benefits for kids.

One study from the Journal of Neuroscience found that children who learn an instrument before 7 years of age have better coordination because of the strong connections made between the motor and sensory regions of the brain.

This is a major reason why music is so important for child development.

9. Stationary Baseball

This is an activity that my father used to do with me all of the time when I was a child.

Simply grab a large cone, a ball, and a baseball bat.

Place the ball on the cone and have your child swing the bat to try and hit the ball. This is an easy and fun activity to help with hand-eye coordination.

10. Threading Activities

There is no better way to practice precise and controlled movements than with threading and lacing activities.

The best part is you don’t need any fancy supplies. Get creative and find materials that are already in your home. Even just threading circular pasta onto long dry pasta provides so many benefits!

For younger children, it is better to use bigger objects until they build up their dexterity and coordination.

11. Cooking Together

There are so many benefits of cooking with your child.

As kids measure, pour, and mix the ingredients they are developing hand-eye coordination and early math skills.

The earlier you can start cooking with your child the better! My oldest son has loved cooking with me since he was 18 months old!

12. Spoon and Egg Race

This is the ultimate balance and hand-eye coordination game for kids!

Hard-boil a few eggs and provide each child with a spoon. On the count of three have children race from the starting line to the finish line while balancing their egg on the spoon!

Whoever crosses the finish line first without dropping the egg is the winner.

I hope you have enjoyed these 12 hand-eye coordination activities for kids! Let me know which one you liked the best!

Happy playing!