Nuts and Bolts Screwing
Your child holds a bolt still in one hand and winds a nut all the way down it with the other, and then winds it off again.
- Age
- 3 to 5, best at 3
- Setup
- None
- Play
- 5 to 10 min
- Materials
- Five pairs, or the jar shelf
- Mess
- None
- You
- Set it up, then leave
Activity KG-A018
What you need
Five pairs cost about as much as a coffee and last for years. The jar shelf does the same thing tonight if the hardware shop is shut.
- Hex bolts, 10 to 16 mm thick and 6 to 8 cm longx5 Or: coach bolts, which have a fatter head and stand up better on the table. Ten to sixteen millimetres is the band a three year old's fingers can actually grip and turn. Under 8 mm is too fine to feel and small enough to go in a mouth; over 20 mm needs a whole fist. The long shank matters too, because it gives a dozen turns instead of three.
- Nuts to matchx5 Or: wing nuts in the same thread sizes, which are the easiest of all to turn. Take the bolts to the shop and try every nut on before buying. A nut half a size out looks right on the shelf and jams a quarter turn in, and that reads to a three year old as the thing being broken.
- A tin or a small box with a lidx1 Or: a pencil case. Or a jam jar with a screw lid, which is another turn in itself. Counted out at the start and counted back at the end. At this size the count is what keeps the parts off the floor, and putting them away turns out to be half the pleasure.
- Jars with screw lids, in three sizesx3 to 5 Or: drink bottles and their caps. Or a toothpaste tube and its cap. The household version, and the right one for a child who still puts things in her mouth. A jam jar, a coffee jar and a bottle cap give three diameters of exactly the same turn, and nothing on the table is small.
- A candle stuboptional Or: a drop of cooking oil on a cloth. A new thread is stiff. Rubbing the bolt with a candle and running the nut up and down a few times is often the difference between a nut a three year old can turn and one he cannot.
How to set it up
- Wind every nut all the way down its bolt and off again, and put aside any pair that catches.2 min
- Leave each nut sitting two turns onto its bolt so the thread is already found.30 sec
- Lay the five bolts in a line with the biggest nearest him and the tin at the end of the row.20 sec
- Wind one nut down with your elbow tucked in, so the forearm turn is visible, then sit back.30 sec
What to say and what to do
Say
Hold the bolt still. Turn the nut.
Round and round, the same way.
- If it stops dead after one turn it has gone on crooked. Take it right off and start it again rather than pushing harder.
Do
- Start each nut two turns yourself until he can find a thread on his own. Finding the thread is much harder than turning it, and it can wait a few months.
- Sit with a bolt of your own and turn it. Three year olds pick the elbow position up from watching, and not from being told about it.
- Keep the tin within reach and let him put them away. Counting out and counting back is what makes this a whole activity rather than a fidget.
Let be
- One nut wound down and straight back off, ten times over, with no interest at all in the other four bolts.
- Both hands turning, one against the other. The still hand steadies itself over a few weeks of this.
- Bolts flown around as aeroplanes. The turning comes back when the hands want it.
What it looks like when it is working
- One hand stops moving and simply holds, while the other does the turning.
- He re-grips at the end of each turn instead of running out of wrist and starting the turn over.
- She takes a jammed nut off and seats it again without being told to.
- The turning speeds up across a run, and the last bolt is quicker than the first.
What to expect at each age
At three
Winds a wing nut or a fat nut two or three turns down, loses the grip, finds it again. Wants the nut started for him, and turns with both hands as often as one.
Finding the thread from a standing start comes nearer four, and it is the hardest part of this for everybody, adults included.
Lasts 5 to 10 minutes
At four
Starts her own nuts, runs them the whole length of the bolt and off the end, and matches nut to bolt by eye across five pairs.
A spanner and a screwdriver are what follow, and they arrive as soon as something in the house needs tightening.
Lasts 10 to 15 minutes
At five
Sorts the whole tin into pairs, works out which nut fits which bolt by trying the likeliest one first, and wants a real job to do with it.
This is the point to hand over a small spanner and a loose chair leg. The turn is learnt, and what it needs now is a use.
Lasts 15 minutes or more
When it goes sideways
Most of what goes wrong here is the thread rather than the hand, and each one has a quick answer.
The nut stops dead after one turn
It has gone on crooked and jammed. This happens to everybody, and it is the main reason a three year old walks away from this.
Take it right off, sit it flat on the end of the bolt, and turn it backwards until it drops down level before turning it on. Showing that backwards half turn once is the most useful thing there is to teach here.
She cannot turn it at all
A new nut on a new bolt is stiff, and the grip strength it wants is more than a three year old has.
Run every pair up and down a few times yourself and rub the thread with a candle stub. A worn, waxed thread turns with two fingers.
He runs out of wrist half way down
The forearm has turned as far as it goes, and the re-grip has not been worked out yet.
Show the pause: stop, let go, turn the hand back, take hold again. Wing nuts help here too, because they can be flicked round rather than gripped.
It is over in three minutes
Five bolts is five jobs, and five is a short pile.
Add the jars and their lids, in three sizes, and a bottle with a cap. The same turn spread across eight objects runs about three times as long as five bolts on their own.
Making it harder
Four rungs on one turn, starting with things that are already in the kitchen.
Jar lids on jars
- Ready when
- This is where everybody starts.
- What changes
- Three jars with their lids off, on a tray, and nothing else on it.
- What is new
- The turn itself, and the discovery that it only works one way round.
Nuts started on bolts
- Ready when
- He matches a lid to a jar and screws it down.
- What changes
- Five fat bolts with their nuts left two turns on.
- What is new
- One hand holding still while the other turns, which is harder than it looks from outside.
Finding the thread
- Ready when
- She runs a started nut the whole length of a bolt and off the end.
- What changes
- The same five pairs, with the nuts loose in the tin.
- What is new
- Seating a nut square before turning it, including the backwards half turn that finds the thread.
A spanner, and a real job
- Ready when
- He starts his own nuts and sorts the tin into pairs.
- What changes
- A small adjustable spanner, and something in the house that genuinely needs tightening.
- What is new
- The turn goes into a tool, and the work has a point outside itself.
Stop by counting the pieces back into the tin together, whatever state the bolts are in. A tin that goes away complete is the reason it comes out again next week.
How to keep it safe
Metal parts this size are the thing to think about, and the tin answers most of it.
- Nuts of 10 mm and up, and bolts of 6 cm and longer. Below that the parts are small enough to swallow, and this is the one detail worth being strict about.
- Count them out and count them back into the tin every sitting, and keep the tin on a high shelf. A loose nut on the floor matters to a crawling baby rather than to the child doing this.
- Sit at the table for this one while there is a toddler in the house, and give the jars and lids version to anyone still putting things in her mouth.
- Run a finger over the bolt ends when you buy them and file off anything sharp. A cut thread out of a hardware shop bin sometimes has a lip on it.
Why this helps
From the guide The claims here follow our guide on hands, pencils and the grip question.
Winding a nut down a bolt is a forearm turn rather than a finger movement. The hand rotates from palm down to palm up and back, over and over, while the other hand holds completely still. That split, one hand steady and one hand working, sits underneath cutting with scissors, using a knife and fork, and holding the paper down while writing on it, and not many things a three year old does ask for it as plainly as this.
The thread also gives an answer nobody has to speak. Turn it one way and it goes down. Turn it the other and it comes off. Push it on crooked and it stops a quarter turn in, and no amount of force helps, only taking it off and seating it again. A three year old works all of that out in a couple of sittings, and working it out is worth considerably more than being told.
Skill practised: forearm rotation with a still opposite hand
It is a turn worth having, not tool training. A three year old does this because the nut goes round and the bolt disappears underneath it.
One a week, at your child's age
We publish one new activity a week at each age, in exactly this format. The backwards half turn that seats a nut is three seconds of video and a whole paragraph of writing.
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Questions parents ask
What size bolts should I buy?
Ten to sixteen millimetres across the shank, in lengths of 6 to 8 cm. That band is thick enough for a three year old to grip and long enough to give a dozen turns before the nut runs off the end. Take one nut of each size with you and try them on in the shop, because a nut half a size out jams a quarter turn in and looks exactly like the activity being broken.
Is it safe at three?
At those sizes, yes, as a table activity with the tin put away afterwards. Size is what makes it safe: small nuts and short bolts belong on a high shelf until five or six. If there is a baby crawling, count the pieces back into the tin each time, which is a good habit in its own right and turns out to be a part of the activity children like.
What can I use without buying anything?
Jars and their lids. A jam jar, a coffee jar, a passata bottle and a water bottle give four diameters of the same turn, and nothing on the table is small enough to think about. Bottle caps are the easiest place to start, because the thread is coarse and short and the cap is on in two turns.
He keeps cross-threading. How do I stop it?
Show the backwards half turn. Sit the nut flat on the end of the bolt, turn it the wrong way until you feel it drop a fraction, then turn it on. That drop is the thread lining up, and it is the trick every adult uses without noticing they do. It takes most three year olds a few weeks to make it a habit, and starting the nuts for him in the meantime keeps the activity running.