Stringing beads for toddlers

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Samuel's abilities, likes and dislikes change.  I discovered the other day that stringing things together is actually something he's interested in doing now, and that particular skill always struck me as something that older children did.  Like, much older children; maybe four.  Also, I thought this was a girl thing.  Why did I think that?  I don't know, I just have memories of plastic bead jewellery making kits from my childhood (again, when I was, like, eight or something, not under two) and how intricate the beading was or, alternatively, how cheap and plastic-y with those long rubber lanyard type strings.  Anyway, I know that there are larger beads out there specifically for little hands, but they just flew under my radar.  Finally, I have to say that any little boy whose idea of a fun activity is jumping on the cat is probably not (in my opinion) going to sit quietly and in a not-frustrated way string beads.

But, this is where I was wrong.  Because Samuel is really interested in this skill, despite my complete disbelief and feelings of "whose child is this?" every time I see him sitting patiently trying to stick a piece of thread in a hole the size of a screw head.  I had been giving him dried pasta, but, of course, he can't quite manage that, and so I thought the other day that perhaps I could buy him some beads that would be very easy to string.



Melissa and Doug Toddler Beads



So first I found these ones, the Melissa and Doug bead set.  But I've purchased some Melissa and Doug stuff before, and I always find the paint comes off.  I'm trying very hard to re-adjust my thinking from "I have one child who is almost two" to "I have two children, one toddler and one newborn" and purchasing things accordingly, so the paint chipping was an issue for me.

Plan Toys Toddler Beads

Then I found the Plan Toys bead set, which is stained rather than painted, but it's also, oh, about $15!  Holy hoppin'!  $15 is too much for wooden beads.

So I turned to Etsy to see what they had and found lots of unfinished wooden beads, some that even came complete with paint, twine and a storage jar...but everything required, well, a lot of effort.  I know how lazy that sounds, but the idea of hand-painting 48 individual wooden beads exhausts me, and that's just how it is right now.

Anyway, I knew there had to be a way to make beads that would string together easily, and to that end I thought of modelling clay.  The modelling clay that's sold in stores around here seems to be pretty expensive, though, for the amount you get.  Enough to make perhaps 24 large toddler beads would be in the region of $6, which isn't ridiculously expensive, but is more than I would spend casually.  However, when I taught Sunday School I often brought in the ingredients to make home made playdough for the children and, after some Googling, discovered in this simple recipe, that the ingredients are the same for play dough and for a dough that can be dried and kept.

*1 cup of table salt
*4 cups of flour
*water to make a dough (approx. 1.5 cups)

The ingredients for this cost me perhaps $3, maybe, and will give me dozens of beads!

Now, if you are planning on painting your beads, or leaving them plain, then the list above is complete.  If you want to colour your beads without paint, as I did, you'll need to either add food colouring, or else tint the water with something coloured.

First I made up the batch of dough and split it into eight sections.  Each section made about 10 large beads.  I tried colouring some of the dough with spices (tumeric made a fantastic pale yellow and paprika a soft orangey-brown) and I also gave food colouring a go as well for a pale green/blue.  I rolled out my dough and cut thick circles with the rim of a glass, and then smaller circles inside using the lid of a container.  Then I dried them in a 200 degree F. oven for about two hours, flipping over once.

They looked like large, colourful doughnuts, sort of.

The remaining five sections I wrapped in a damp cloth and put in my fridge in a Ziploc bag.

Samuel's reaction to my homemade beads?


Broken, broken, broken.

So, clearly I need to rethink the method here.  Maybe a different shape?  Maybe varnishing?  Hmmm...if you are one of those incredibly crafty mothers who does this sort of thing with your hands behind your back, do pipe in any any point and give me suggestions!  Unless you also happen to have great hair.  'Cause if you're super crafty AND have great hair, well, we were simply not meant to travel in the same circles.