beads for all ages

I bought an awesome tub of beads at Target a few weeks ago, $3 for a huge amount of great beads. I was pretty excited about this as I have been looking for beads for ages to teach Jumeirah a way to make flowers out of beads that my Aunt taught me ( mind you I was 12 when I was taught but I figured she'd be ok ;))

I wanted to get them out in the afternoon but knew I would have three eager bees and only one lot of patience and 5 million beads that potentially were going to end up everywhere so I needed a few different plans for each child so this could be the fun activity I wanted it to be.



For Amahli, I initially gave her big beads to thread but it became apparent very quickly that she was NOT going to be left out of the smaller beads. So I gave her a piece of thick plastic style thread that would be easy to thread on. Both she and Jared began with these threads and started threading beads on.




Of course, she got jack of it after about 15 beads but it was a mighty effort for a 2 yr old considering I had trouble to start with in being able to thread, hold it still, and pull it through all at once.
Jumeirah, the eternal helper and master of distraction, then goes "HEY AMAHLI!! I know a great idea!!" And raced off with her so I could help Jared to get started properly.





Yup, shes pure gold :)

She came back 5 minutes later announcing Amahli would be happy for awhile and could I teach her now? With Jared totally taken with actually being able to thread his beads and really enjoying it, I began to teach her.



I had to use a needle and dental floss to show her but she quickly got the hang of it and completed enough flowers to make a cute head garland.




As much as I dont want them to grow up, its great to be able to start doing an activity that I can adjust for each child without having to really leave one out.

If only dinner time was this easy with just one meal for us all ..... *sigh*