Melting Beads

So my kids absolutely LOVE melting beads. To the point where they want to do them every single day. I have deemed Tuesday our 'Melting Bead Day', and do not let the melting bead bins leave the cupboard any other day.

I can understand the fascination - you can make a new design every time, you can use templates or your imagination and these tiny little beads melt into a cool creation.

I honestly appreciate how occupied the kids are when the melting are out, but OMG, why is it so difficult to keep them in the buckets? I have tried (what I think is) everything to make sure that the beads don't end up on the floor - with no luck. I swear we go through twice the necessary amount of beads because for every one bead used, two end up on the floor. Do you have any tricks to keep melting a beads a tidier activity?!

D

Rainbow Mobiles

So St. Patrick's Day is in two weeks, is it too early to do St. Patrick's Day crafts? Well, I hope not because I've started! I always hate using paint, it seems that no matter how well I cover the tables they still end up covered in paint... not to mention the kids refuse to keep the paint on their brush. However I do understand how your face, other peoples faces and clothes, the walls and the tables are more exciting than a piece of paper.

To prep for the group I cut paper plates in half, cut streamers, strings and made templates of shamrocks and pots of gold.

The kids started by painting their paper plates - some kids chose not to do the rainbow, and painted pots of gold, little leprechauns or just mix every colour of paint.

Next they chose whether they wanted to dangle streamers from the bottom or cut shamrocks and pots of gold. Some kids went with a variation of the two.

For the most part, this craft worked unbelievably well - it seemed like the biggest disappointment was that I had pre-cut the paper plates so the kids couldn't make shakers by filling the folded plate with beans. That could be a neat twist on this craft!

D