Beading for the very young?

Imogene absolutely loves jewelry and her manual dexterity is great for her age. I would love to bead with her, but everything I find is too small. She's pretty much past the swallowing-everything stage, so I'm not too worried about her ingesting beads. But the holes are too small in all of them.

Are there beads that are are specifically for little kids, where she can thread them without a needle (obviously), with just some twine or floss?

Hope you know what I mean.

My dd has always loved making necklaces with her grandma. They found some colored wooden beads at a garage sale with bigger holes, so I know they are out there. Another favorite bead for her when she was younger were the foam ones that you can get in a kit. We have a Winnie the Pooh set. She would stay busy for at least an hour with a bowl of beads and some plastic rope stuff.

What a great question, I have been thinking of something similar for Evelyn. I know I've seen wooden beads with large holes in the past but I haven't been able to find them in stores.

i found a bajillion when i googled "large wooden beads". we had a huge jar of them when i was a kid and we loved them.

I used those large wooden beads with my preschool class (garage sale, too). It's great for improving fine motor, and you can talk about patterns! Lakeshore has some big ones too, if I remember.

You can find wooden beads at Michael's in the Wooden section. Just call first to make sure. I am 95% sure! You can use shoe laces as your sting!

We have those great big wooden beading things from like Melissa & Doug. The boys like to wear them as necklaces but "I Pity the Fool" who ends up having to wear those big monstrous things for real. :lol (meaning, if she asks you to wear it somewhere, they are NOT comfortable because the pieces are pretty darn big!)

I have HUGE wooden beads for babies and the string for them. I got them at Target. They are the Parents brand.

There are the foam beads at Dollar Tree -- I know the one by me in Carrollton just restocked all their foam items.

Also, Oriental Trading has lots:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/products/C382516.jsp?bpentry&BP=8108&cm_mmc=INK-_-category-_-Foam%20Beads-_-Foam%20Beads

Seth had large wooden beads that we found at Big Lots.

What a great thread! I'm running out to get dd some wooden beads.....

Careful, beads will take over your home! ;)


They have big-holed macramé beads at Hobby Lobby and Michaels and probably Wal mart, and shoe laces work really well.

When she progresses to smaller beads, get the pony beads and pipe cleaners or vinyl laces.

I had seen the wooden beads but couldnt' find them at stores - guess I need to look again at Michaels. Thanks!

And thank you Carla for the shoelace and pipe cleaner recommendation - great idea.