Oooh . . . Pretty Beaded Garland!!

Just in case you missed it the first time . . . I posted this last winter and was reminded of this activity when perusing Target tonight. Be sure to stock up (after Christmas if you can remember! :)

Here's what you need: scissors, a bowl or container to "catch" all the cut beads, and strung beads of some sort (make sure, though, that you wee one doesn't find the strand of your grandmother's pearls!)

Here's why you should do it: This is an excellent way to practice hand-eye coordination and those tricky fine motor skills with those sweet, dirty, pudgy fingers! The cut-beads have lots of great uses, too, so don't throw them in the trash!


I think I got this tub for 75 cents after Christmas . . .
Cut a strand of 10-15 beads to make it manageable. Don't let your three year old hypnotize you either while you're at it!

Hold the strand and snip away! Warning: this can be dangerously addicting - just like popping all the bubble wrap until there isn't ONE bubble left!

Here's just one of the uses for cut beads! I wrote his name, put dots of glue along the letters, and there was even more hand-eye/fine motor skills work making sure that bead got on the dot of glue. You see, Lawton does not like to be "gooey" so he concentrated very hard so that glue wouldn't get on his hands!

We also used the cut beads to glue on Christmas trees we made in December. You could decorate Easter Eggs (on paper), make earrings when you draw and accessorize your peeps, and your two year old might want to stick them up their nose or in their ears. Oops! Just checking to see if you were actually reading! This is why you have to be careful if you have little ones crawling around underfoot! You don't have time to take your two year old to the doctor to be probed . . .

Lawton Scissorhands

I actually have never seen the movie "Edward Scissorhands", so this might be a derogatory reference to my child. If so, I plead ignorance! (which may not be a stretch for most of you to think that about me. . . hee, hee!) But hey, I needed a catchy title and "Cutting" wasn't very fun, okay? But, that's what we're doing today. Cutting.

Here's what you need: scissors (surprise, surprise!) and paper. Oh, and a marker or some type of writing utensil.

Here's why you should do it: Everyone needs to know how to cut. Your child's preschool or kindergarten teacher will love you too, if your child is proficient at cutting before they get to the classroom and all other nine children want the teacher to "hold the paper" for them. Not that my child would do that, ahem. (I really have tried, Miss Donitta, to teach my child to cut for a long, long time. However, cutting and doing any type of art isn't at the top of his list and doesn't have much attention span for it. Please forgive me.) Seriously, though, this will help build concentration and work on those all important fine motor skills.

First, you need to cut strips of paper (I used my handy dandy paper cutter that I use for scrapbooking). I also used some scraps of cardstock because the stiffness is helpful for them to hold their own paper and cut. You can use whatever paper you have on hand, though. (of course!) Here I have the total progression of patterns from easiest to hardest. If your kiddo is just starting out, you might be cutting something like the first two strips for weeks. As they get more skills, they can start turning corners and curves.

Some of these can get tricky. . . I'm sure though that there is some little girl who is a year and a half younger than Lawton that loves to do art all day long that can breeze right through all these activities.

These shapes can be fun for the more proficient cutter.

Cutting straight lines takes some major concentration! :) And yes, he did hold his own paper today! Yes!

Oops! Missed that line a few times!

There! Got it!

Moving on . . .

Here's a shot of the fun shape - that I did. He probably can do it - but he got tuckered out today. Poor guy had to stay home from school with a fever and cough.

You can trash the scraps or you could keep them and make a neat collage or something. Too bad we didn't get around to making enough scraps . . .