Stringing beads

More hands-on activities and this time it's stringing of beads!

It's obvious that this activity is to practise fine motor skills so I don't think any elaboration is needed. :)

This activity is not suitable for tots still mouthing items.

*Activity first conducted on 31 Oct 2010*


All you need for this activity are:

• some beads
• a short piece of yarn
• a toothpick
• masking tape

1. Trim off the sharp points of the toothpick. 
2. Wrap a small piece of masking tape around one of the trimmed points. 
3. Wrap a small piece of masking tape around the yarn and the other point of the toothpick to hold them together (as shown above). 
4. If you like, you can tie a knot at the end of the string and let your toddler string the beads up. (Alicia doesn't like the knot, so she'd just string the bead then remove it from the string and ask for the next bead.)

So far this is the method that works best with the beads. Earlier I tried just using tape to stiffen the end of the yarn but it wasn't firm or long enough for the beads I had so I decided to let the toothpick take the place of the 'needle' in this activity. :) I also had to change the thickness of the string to fit the beads... hee. Lots of trial and error but at least in the end she had the joy of completing this task successfully! :P

Bought these beads at Golden Dragon at People's Park Centre

She decided that she wanted to sort the beads rather than string them together:

And she did a great job, didn't she?

Ok, here she is, stringing...