We’ve entered the age of crafting in my house. And as I have 3 girls, I expect that it’s going to be a long period! My 4 year old currently adores craft packs and is becoming quite expert in all kinds of cutting, pasting and decorating. We recently received a pack of Aqua Beads to review and they have been right up her alley. Essentially, Aqua Beads are small, brightly coloured plastic beads that you can arrange into patterns and then spray with with to set into place.
I’m liking
The pack comes with a number of ‘patterns’ and you can either use these or create your own pattern. My daughter made a couple from the patterns and then enjoyed getting creative with her own ideas. We’ve tried a couple of similar types of pack and this one has been our favourite so far. The beads themselves are big enough for my 4 year old to handle with ease and the ‘grabber’ (the widget that you use to pick and place the beads) works well. Once the beads are in place, you simply spray them with a bit of water (spray bottle included in the pack we received) and wait for it to dry. The beads set best if you spray both sides.
Things that made me go hmmmm
The one problem that we had with the pack we received was that the container for storing the beads was quite flimsy and didn’t have a lid. This was a bit of a pain when we came to pack up as the beads inevitably ended up going everywhere. A quick web search tells me that you can get storage containers for the beads and I think I’ll be on the lookout for one of these.
The conclusion
A great craft activity for the holidays or a rainy weekend. Although as with many craft packs, the colouring of the packaging seems to target it at girls, I think this would be a fun activity for boys as well.
