My daughter has fairly good fine motor control for her age and I wanted to find some activity to stimulate it a bit - she is threading a toy drumstick through very tiny holes in her musical set she gpt for christmas, so I thought it might be a good idea to get her some beads to string.
However, she is still putting a lot of things in her mouth and so the normal beads are too small for her. I have looked at sites on the internet and everything is too small. Here is a picture of something that looks more suitable:
Does anyone have an idea how I could home make beads like this or similar and what type of materials I could use? Perhaps something simpler than wood as I am no good at woodwork
http://www.elc.co.uk/SearchProducts.php This product is in the 3-5 category, but might be suitable provided it isn’t a choke hazard. The string is a hazard so you will need to supervise the activity. Stacking rings, quoits are also possibilities. You could try using kitchen roll middles cut into inch lengths. Serviette rings could also be used. Zero or Os Bs etc from plastic number and letter sets .
We found some great beads for K for Christmas. They are over 2 inches long & fairly wide so are not a choking hazard. They are shaped like vehicle - cars, trucks, a bus etc. We got them at a teachers store.
As a child I remember stringing spools left over after the thread was used. If you can find some spools, this would be an inexpensive option.
My mom has some flat plastic beads that my sisters used to have when they were young. They have 2 holes to lace thread through, and they are over 2" long. They came in a bucket with various colors and shapes and threads. I’ll have to ask her the brand.
That is a great idea. What do you use for the string? Cheerios sounds like a great idea. This would work on his fine motor skills for speech. Excellent suggestion!
You have to be very careful with this idea, but a wire hanger made into a straight line with the tips curled under for saftey allowed my son to start bead work. I just bought big pasta to use for cheap beads. I also had some PVC pipe conectors left over that made great beads. Small PVC pipe sawed into the right lenth would work really well too. It gives you larger beads, for starting out.
Jennier
I use empty spools of thread with jute string and put glue from a glue stick on a few inches of the end of the string, and when it’s dry, there’s a stiff part to hold and thread through.
