Everything You Need to Know About Teaching Your Child to Cut

Cutting is a required skill in preschool. It is also a very useful life skill. Cutting is a developmental skill, meaning it is learned in stages. If you're a homeschooling parent wondering how to teach your child how to cut, read on.

Fine Motor Strength

The first thing a child needs to develop in order to start cutting is his fine motor grip strength. This same strength is used for learning how to write. (There are plenty of fine motor exercises that you can find in my blog.) 

Here's one activity to start with. My son used dabbers to trace the numbers. I had him trace numbers 0-10. This is good for pre-writing practice too! 

(I saved some of my son's cutting practice cards and those are what I used here in the following stages.)

Ripping 

The first stage of cutting is not actually cutting but ripping. Give your child some vellum or cardstock or any paper that is thicker than bond paper and ask her to rip it. Yes, it's as simple as that. I cut some cardstock into 4 long strips then gave my son 1-2 strips per day to rip. We did this for a week. 

(I put all the ripped pieces in a plastic baggy to use for a future art activity. Waste not, want not!)

Snipping

On Week 2, we did some snipping. This involved cutting small strips of cardstock. In my example, I put stickers in between the spaces. This makes the activity fun and helps my child focus on the lines and not cut the stickers. I told him to set the "car/boat/train" free by cutting the lines. 

We did this everyday for a week.

This is the bigger version. Do a smaller version for this activity. One that only requires one cut. 

Fringing

The next thing we did was fringing. Again, I used stickers for this activity. Just ask your child to cut on the lines. One to two weeks for this activity. 

Cutting Long Straight Lines 

When my son was ready, I gave him longer lines to cut. I used the same method in Snipping but made the lines longer. We did this for a week. 

Cutting Zigzag Lines

Now that my son is confident to cut long lines, it's time to move on to zigzag lines. I got a strip of cardstock, put one sticker on one end then drew zigzag lines all the way to the other end. My son had to cut all the way up to the sticker. (Sorry, I couldn't find the zigzag cutting cards)

Curved Lines

When my son mastered zigzag lines, I asked one of our teachers what's next. She said curved lines. So we did that. 

More complex combinations

I couldn't find the cutting cards that my husband made that featured more complex combinations but he basically took a strip of cardstock and first drew a straight line that branched out into a zigzag then a curve. 

The right kind of scissors are important! 

There are different kinds of scissors in the market so it's important to choose not the best one according to what other people say, but the best one for your little one. Only your child can decide what the best pair of scissors is for him. Here are the scissors that we use:

Melissa & Doug Scissors

These M&D scissors are great. They're super safe. The plastic doesn't cut skin but it can easily cut paper. I know, it's amazing right? This is my son's current favorite even though he already knows how to use "real" scissors. 

Maped Scissors

If you can't find the M&D Scissors, try this pair from Maped. The plastic is also safe but it's harder to use than the scissors above. 

Training Scissors

Some kids like these training scissors but my son hated them. The handles are connected to each other and they retract easily. This is great for snipping practice. 

Kid Scissors

When you are sure that your child can responsibly handle scissors, you can introduce these. 

These scissors still have that part that makes them retract easily but I chose these two because my son can easily fold them to the side to use them normally. Sometimes he still likes using them. I like using them too when I do some crafting.

When teaching your child how to handle scissors, teach them that their thumb needs to be on top. A good example to use is a shark. The fin (your thumb) helps the shark to swim. Then make your hand swim. Now the shark needs to eat so give your child a pair of scissors and tell him to start cutting to feed the shark. 

Cutting takes time and practice. Don't force your child to learn how to cut if he is not yet ready. My son started at 2 years old. Some kids start earlier or later but that's normal. Each child has his or her own timeline. I hope you learned a lot from this post!

This is my son's current cutting level. 

I also made some Paw Patrol Cutting Practice Sheets for Levels 2-3 Cutters. If you want a FREE copy, just send me an email at lifebyladye@gmail.com