With a daughter who is a huge craft fan, it’s good to try a variety of activities and one we were keen to try is HAMA beads. DKL Marketing kindly sent us the giant set comprising of 6000 beads with endless opportunities of things to make, the limit is your imagination!
The HAMA beads box was big and immediately got a thumbs up from Miss M. It looked very excited, lots of beads, a good variety of things to make, and a craft toy that would give lots of value due to the amount of things to do.
Miss M couldn’t wait to get stuck in and make a crocodile for her brother who had chosen that as his favourite picture from the front of the box.
The HAMA beads are simple to place on the peg boards, just following the designs in the pictures. Included in this set are three peg boards, a crocodile shape, rabbit and a basic square which gives you the freedom to create anything you want. Having lots of simple designs is better for younger children so that they don’t get bored doing a large piece and also get to see the finished result sooner. Miss M is 5 yrs old and did require some guidance on starting off and I also needed to keep check on her during to make sure she wasn’t going off track with the design she was trying to make. It is a lovely activity that she can sit and do independently though and she enjoyed the challenge of trying to complete each one.
Once all the beads are in place on a peg board, the magic really happens. After covering it in some special paper you can iron the creation which melts the beads. This bonds them together allowing you to remove the finished piece from the board.
We’ve so far copied designs from the box and picture sheet included but we have many ideas to make other things. With such a vast number of beads in the box, there are endless possibilities and you can have ago at anything. Miss M would like us to try a cat and we are also going to do her initials.
One thing that did slightly disappoint was that although we had a good range of colours in the box, we didn’t have a yellow, or a fleshy pink, and practically all the suggested designs contains one of these colours. Miss M in particular found this very frustrating initially but I explained that she could do them in any colour she wanted and just to swap a colour in the picture for one of her choice.
This is a great activity that can be done throughout the year – great for those dull, rainy days when you are stuck indoors! It also has plenty of beads so will last a long time depending on the rate your child works through them, but can easily be packed away between designs and got out again at a later date. It is also something that can grow with your child as they go from copying designs to creating their own.
We’d recommend HAMA beads as a great crafting activity that helps with fine motor skills, creativity and encourages concentration.
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.