Beads & Pipe Cleaners

One evening this past week my three-year-old daughter requested to do "an activity" with me. I usually try to have something prepared but both my husband and I have been recovering from an awful cold that I've been slacking on having any little activities ready to go. I remembered that I had picked up a package of new pipe cleaners at the dollar store over the past weekend as I was stocking up on items we were running low on at home. So I grabbed those out of our craft cupboard. I then scanned around looking for something to do with them....something that would keep her entertained for a while. I noticed the container of beads in the cupboard and decided we should make bracelets. I had her get up on our bed so the beads would be out of reach of her eight month old brother. I grabbed our tray from the kitchen and placed it on the bed with the beads. We began by sorting the beads into matching colors. 

As we sorted the beads we also counted how many of each color we had.  After she made a bracelet for herself, she decided to make one for mommy. Next she made one for daddy and then for her little brother. An activity that I thought would keep her entertained for about five minutes turned into a forty-five minute activity. She enjoyed making presents for each family member. Mommy enjoyed getting to see her match the beads by color, count, and use her fine motor skills to "string" the beads. She loved it so much she asked the next day if she could make more.