Brilliant Beading with Melissa and Doug: Wooden Stringing Beads Review
If you're looking for a kit that combines creative crafting with educational learning, then this Melissa and Doug Wooden Stringing Bead Set is perfect! Over 200 wooden beads featuring a mix of alphabet squares and gorgeous colored shapes, along with bright laces for stringing them.
My 4-year-old daughter received this for Christmas as I wanted to get her something for practicing her lacing and threading motor skills, and as she loves crafts so much I felt this was ideal. I wasn't disappointed - as always with Melissa and Doug products, the beads are of beautiful quality and there are limitless possibilities for activities!
The great thing is this can be used again and again. My little girl has made necklaces and bracelets, decorations for her room, key chains and dangly charms. She's used them simply for stringing together patterns, letters and words.
We've also used them for learning purposes, both alone and as part of an activity table. I've even used some of the shaped beads in sensory trays!
My only criticism of this set is the same criticism I have of most Melissa and Doug products - the lack of lid! I really wish the company would start producing their boxed products with lids because it does make them more difficult to store, especially something like this with lots of small parts than can easily tip and fall everywhere! I've resorted to stacking their boxes and trays in a cupboard or putting them in the shallow drawers of my daughter's underbed table, to keep them intact.
However, despite this impracticality, I would still highly recommend this set! Lots of open ended creative fun, whether making something specific or just stringing for the joy of it.
Some of the Activities We Have Enjoyed with our Melissa and Doug Stringing Beads Set:
- Making necklaces and bracelets
- Making string banners for the bedroom
- Making key chains and charm strings
- Spelling out our names
- Stringing the alphabet
- Counting and sorting how many of each letter or shape there are
- Stringing shape patterns
- Stringing a shape and then spelling out its name with the alphabet beads
- Using the shaped beads in sensory trays
- Making patterns with the shaped beads and combining them with other objects
- Counting and sorting by shape, color or name
- Using the beads as pretend food or other small world play objects
And much more!
Related Products You May Like...
Do you have a beading kit you love, or have you enjoyed this Melissa and Doug kit yourself? Please leave your comments and feedback here. To leave a comment you need to be signed into Squidoo. You can sign up for a free Squidoo account or easily sign in via Facebook or Twitter when you submit your comment.
