Let's string 'em up

To reward my girl for her bravery and optimism throughout the whole oops-I-slashed-my-ear incident, (she hasn't complained about the discomfort nor even attempted to tear off the awkward bandage though I was certain she would), we decided to engage in a fun and girlish activity today.

You know, girls are girls after all. Angel has started learning to accessorise herself at the age of two and she simply adores anything that is colourful and can be worn on some part of her body. We were preparing to go out for dinner one day and when I turned to her, she had on not one, not two, but five pairs of necklaces and bracelets on her. She would even wear them in the house and come night time, she would lay them on a box and say to me "Let them sleep, ok? Tomorrow play again."

So, I reckoned it would be fun to let her try making her own beaded accessories since I basically have all the materials in my junk craft box.

What you need:
1) Assorted beads
2) Elastic string for making jewellery
3) Scissors

Since beads can pose as a choking hazard, be sure to keep an eye on your kid at all time. Before we even began, I pointed to the beads and asked Angel "Can you eat these?" Only after she said "No", and also promised me not to spill the beads onto the floor, then we proceeded.

Stringing beads is a really good way to improve a child's fine motor skills and manual dexterity. So though sometimes it's stated as not suitable for kids under 3, it's really fine as long as you provide the right supervision and take extra precaution.

Firstly, I let Angel pick out the beads that she liked and placed them aside for use later on. This is much easier rather than having to rummage through the entire pile of beads every time you stringed one. Then I cut a piece of string, tied a double knot at one end and we were ready to string!

Amazingly, Angel was quite a pro at it, probably thanks to a beading toy I bought for her some time ago. She would hold the string in her left hand and bead in the right, take aim and put the bead through, then pull the string out at the other end. For a while, I felt quite redundant so I concentrated on taking pictures instead.

Voila! She just made her first ever bracelet! She was so proud of it and it warmed my heart so much to see her radiant smile.

Oh, and I helped by tying the ends together and cutting away the extras. Big job, huh?

We moved on to making a necklace and she did half of it before she decided it was more fun to grope through the beads and search as if there were some hidden gold within. Then, she started throwing the beads into the bottle one by one. Ok, I figured that was the end of her attention span. So, I had a more important role to play now and I helped her to string the remaining necklace after she chose the beads for me. Pretty soon, we were all done!

It was a simple 30-min activity but I was just happy that it made my girl happy. Now, I just need to find more space to keep her priceless strings of accessories.

Tip: For boys, you could try using string and cereal loops - those rounded ones with holes in them. Maybe it would entice them to have more breakfast! 

For more kids crafts and DIY tutorials, visit my gallery here.