Sadly, there comes a time when most Jedi must flirt with the Dark Side. They have mastered the power to use Fiskars. Now they must prove they have the mature judgment to use that power.
Often, a young warrior or warriorette will exercise the power without the judgment. These are the sad days when I must send ponytails and bangs home to mommy in a ziplock bag. Then I want to zoom off in my landspeeder to the cantina.
My current group of Jedi-wannabes includes a four year old warriorette who has used the force for evil. She has snipped sections of her hair down to the scalp in rows. Try to visualize the wookie after a John Deere convention.
Make a Crocodile Your Cutting Buddy
Mastering scissors is an exciting moment in every preschooler's life. It takes a small investment of an adult's time and attention to reach that mastery safely, but it doesn't have to be torture for either child or adult. The two best friends of the child learning to cut are a pair of Fiskars round-tip scissors, and an imaginary crocodile.
Why Fiskars? I find the extra expense over other round-tip scissors to be worth every penny in reduced frustration. Also, lefties usually experience success with Fiskars as well as right-handed children. This is important when hand preference has not yet been determined.
Why the crocodile? Ah, that's a good question. Preschoolers sense that mastering scissors will make them more powerful little people. A crocodile is a powerful animal that can bite the way the child wants the scissors to bite the paper. Grown-ups forget the thrill of personal power that comes with being able to cut snowflakes, paper lanterns, valentines, and "play money". The crocodile imagery helps the child remember the correct way to hold and manipulate scissors.
Help your youngster place his thumb in the small round hole of the scissors, and then two or three fingers in the larger hole. Say that the thumb is the crocodile's eyes. The crocodile can only bite if it stays awake, so the thumb needs to stay on top when the child is cutting. Children usually try to roll their hand inward, and their thumb down when beginning to cut. Tell the child that rolling the thumb under makes the crocodile fall asleep and then it can't bite anything.
Before trying to cut, have the child make the biting motion of opening and closing the scissors. If your child doesn't have the hand strength to open and close the scissors, delay learning to cut, and instead spend some fun time together squeezing and shaping with Play-doh or clay to increase strength. When the child is ready to make the crocodile bite, you can help hold the paper and say, "Bite, bite, bite" along with the child.
Crocodiles are very hungry, so stock up on construction paper. It is easier to cut than copier paper or newspaper (or sibling's hair). Soon your young crocodile will be ready to expand its diet.
We often jokingly compare risky behavior to "running with scissors". What's the best way to carry scissors? Have your child put their fist around the crocodile's closed mouth, with the scissor blades pointing down, as if you were going to peek through the handles or use them for a microphone.
Share these wonderful books with your young snipper: Imagine You Are a Crocodile, by Karen Wallace; Bernard Waber's Lyle the Crocodile stories; and The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling.
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