You must have heard or seen bead necklace and many other decorative items made of beads. So what is a bead?
A bead is a small, decorative items that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes. It is made of various kind of materials such as stone, wood, plastic, pearls and also bones. Bead necklaces and bracelets are a very common ornamental item.
But how does it offer learning to kids? It is obviously a fun item for them. Throw it in front of them and they start playing with it. But do you know that beading or bead stringing helps kids with
- Learning hand-eye coordination
- Helps improving problem solving skills
- Help learn about various colours and patters
- Fine motor skills
Infact “bead stringing” helps in “two handed” fine motor skills. Why? To accomplish this, child needs to hold bead in one hand and string in anther, find the hole in the bead, push the string through it and then switch hands to pull the string.
This of course needs lot of concentration and coordination between eyes and hands.
Then there are bead maze toys. Have you heard of it? A very safe toy. No loose parts and very light. Do get one of these for your little one and see them play. You will be amazed to see how busy it keeps you child. And it offers all above learning potential.
Another important variation of a bead based activity or game is “Alphabet based bead activity“. One way is to use the regular bead and do beading in a way that it forms different letter. Help kids make those letter and understand what those letters mean.
Another ways is to get the beads in shape pf letter and bead them and older kids can bead letters together to form a word. It is a cool way of improving vocabulary.
So there are many such things which can be done with beads. A very simple toy with a very powerful learning possibilities. Today as a parent we, along with our kids, are attracted towards electronic (learning) toys. But toys like beads offer a simple yet amazing possibilities which we tend to miss.
Do check them out!
Cheers!
Natkhatduniya!