Wooden beads: sorting, threading, transferring 

Frida is poorly again! The poor girl has a cough and a cold and is generally under the weather, so I cancelled our plans  and decided a slow morning was on the cards instead. 

I feel like I haven’t offered many fine motor activities recently, and I remembered that I had a big pack of wooden beads sitting stashed away in a cupboard. I thought that now was about the right time to introduce them to Frida, as they are perfect for so many activities.

It goes without saying that beads, like any other choking hazards, should only be used by toddlers who are no longer mouthing things, and even then under close supervision. For this reason I won’t be leaving the beads out for Frida to freely access. 

1. Colour sorting 

This was all Frida’s doing. I provided her with the bowls (a set of Grimm’s stacking cups and a little dish) and she immediately started sorting them into colour groups with no prompting needed at all.

Frida has been naturally very interested in colours from an early age. Some of her first words were colours, and she’s been able to correctly name and sort them, including concepts such a dark and light, for a few months now. I think I need to find new ways to expand her colour knowledge! 

2. Threading onto a shoelace

This is the first time I have introduced Frida to threading onto a lace. I didn’t have a spare shoelace, so took one off from one of my shoes! 

I showed her a few times how to thread a bead onto the end, then she was keen to try. She successfully threaded one bead but then became frustrated, so I didn’t push it. I’ll keep offering the activity though. 

I have ordered this threading toy for Frida as another way to introduce the concept of threading. I’ll let you know how she gets on with it.  

3. Transferring using tongs 

This is the first time Frida has tried using tongs to transfer materials (a great activity for developing fine motor skills). I demonstrated a few times, explaining as I did so that it was necessary to squeeze them then release them.  The tongs are from an IKEA set of play utensils, and they are a perfect size for little hands to use. 

Despite beads perhaps not being the best first material to use for tonging – pom poms or perhaps playdough balls would have been easier – Frida successfully transferred a few beads from one dish to another. We found that the smaller, ridged beads were the best for this task.