Make Your Own Jewelry

I was reading about bead toys in one of the blogs I was following and it made me interested to buy some for my daughter.

I found this really nice bead toy above which you can use to make jewelry. The B.Pop-Arty has 500 beads of different sizes, forms and colors. The beads can be connected to each other and can form different jewelry - necklaces, rings, bracelets, you name it. It's funky-looking enough that it can suit both kids and mommies alike.

I couldn't find it in Singapore so I ordered it from Amazon in the US. When it arrived, I realized it might be a bit difficult to handle for my 2.5 year old daughter so I set it aside until she was ready to play with it.

When we did bring it out, she didn't immediately know what to do with it and she wouldn't let me demonstrate. So instead of a jewelry-making kit, it became a sorting toy at first. She would empty the contents and then carefully put back the beads in the canister. After some time, she figured out other uses for it - like she would lay out all the beads and would step on them, in the same way a firewalker would step on hot coals. Another time, she started throwing the beads up in the air and then would watch as they fell to the ground. Only recently did she really start to make her own jewelry. Here's Lexi with her jewelry creations. Notice she's got a tribal thing going on...