Bead Heart Wands – Valentine’s Day Craft

I can’t tell you how many wands we have in our house because I have honestly lost count. We have princess wands, fairy wands, fairy-princess wands…. so despite the fact that we have a ton my daughter wanted to make one for Valentine’s day and this is what I can up with. I have been wanting to work on her fine motor skills and patience all at once and beading is a great way to do that. Now that she is 3.5 I am using smaller beads that force her to work harder threading them on. Challenging your children is tricky because there is a tiny sweet spot where they are facing that challenge but not getting overwhelmed by it. Pay close attention and try to learn their signals – are they feeling challenged or frustrated? This Valentine’s day craft is great because you can make a big heart if they are into beading or a smaller one if they are done after a few challenging minutes.

Gather your materials. You will need a wood dowel, pipe cleaner , and tri-beads in your choice of color. My daughter’s choice was pink. Not a shock if you know her. We also used red glitter glue. Also when I am doing a beading activity with little beads I like to use a cookie tray to contain everything.

Start by threading the beads on the pipe cleaner.

Look at that concentration!

 One of the things that seems to motivate a lot of young kids when they are doing something challenging is to have a support person ( adult or older sibling even) doing it along side them. I didn’t tell my daughter what to do but she could look to me as a guide without having to ask for help. So I made one too!

If you get bored of the colors you have get some new ones. I was surprised to see she threaded on a bunch of orange ones. Perhaps the pink monopoly in our house is nearing it’s end?

When all the beads are on bend it into a heart and twist the ends together snuggly.

Hand your child the glitter glue and let them decorate the dowel. Prepare them for the dribbles. They don’t know it but this careful application is working on their eye hand coordination!

Wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner around the dowel when it’s dry. I tucked one end along the dowel and wrapped the other around it then tied them and wrapped until all the pipe cleaner was wrapped tightly around it. Give it a shake test before passing it back to your little Valentine.

Play. This was the best picture I could get because that girl moves fast.