Tuesday, July 17, 2007

And the Beads went flying...

Well, not really. That was just the way the scene played out in my head. Scary!

The little people decided the other day that they would like to make some beaded jewelry just as they had at the recent church festival. "Can we get our own beads like you Mama?" Little Mr. 5 was sure that he wanted "A B C" beads and Little Miss Almost 4 was in full agreement. Here we go... Or, should I say there we went! We picked out some beads at the AC Moore store a few days ago and today we finally had a chance to start stringing.

I pulled out my own bead supplies for wire and clasps and discovered there were no clasps. What? I thought I had everything in that box! At least the wire was there... Couldn't find the bead stoppers to hold the ends of the wire. Resorted to clothes pins to keep the beads from falling off. Oh, things aren't perfect! While I'm looking at my lack of supplies, 4 little hands are touching every plier, wire cutter, crimping tool, wire spool, bead bags, bead tubes. "Mommy, what is this for? I want that! I'll use this. Can I see it? I just want to touch it. Mommy, Mommy..." Those 4 little hands seemed like 12 little hands and the 2 little voices seemed like more... EEEEEEEE! What was I thinking? So we got over the initial wonder of THE BEAD BOX and moved on to the creating.

Here I am... I mean, there I was, trying to do this in an orderly fashion. "Don't you want to spell something? Do you want to make your names? Wouldn't it be nice to make your names? I'll pick the letters for you if you want." BIG SIGH!!! Yeah, I caught myself sucking their fun away. I STOPPED! Whew! It was hard. They were so happy to string some colored beads and pick some random letters. I had to pull myself out of my obsessive former teacher self and decide there aren't any rules. Oh, just one rule, to HAVE FUN!! Sometimes I need mental adjustments! HA.

In the end, we had loads of fun stringing beads for a good hour. And the best part was when Little Mister 5 said, "Thank you Mommy for letting me do beads!" They cleaned up in an orderly fashion. Surprise. Surprise! I can't wait to go to get clasps tomorrow to finish this project.

Much to my delight (RELIEF) the beads never went flying...

Happy Hobbies!

4 comments:

Biblio Kate said...

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Biblio Kate said...

This is so cute - your way of describing the battles we face with trying to get our children to do it OUR WAY.......
I enjoyed it!!

Just so you know- some day years from now - they will come to you and ask - can you show us how to do it YOUR WAY?

I can only say that after years and years of battling hair styles/cuts with my daughter, and after several months that recently she got her hair cut and I didn't like it and said so - - Yesterday she asked me to try and do something with it - - oh boy. It looked great with a little round brush blowdrying. I guess she finally forgave me for saying how I didn't like it.
Course I still THINK it could be a little shorter in the back - but she wouldn't let me touch the scissors.....not after all those childhood "bad bang cuts by mom" -
You know how that conversation goes -
"Let me trim your bangs a little"

"Oh, now this side is a little shorter"

"Oh oh, now that side is a little shorter"

Pretty soon - the bangs are sticking STRAIGHT OUT cause they are only 1/8 of an inch long!!!

And the hairstylist that we went to - to try and correct the problem said

"DON'T EVER LET YOUR MOM USE SCISSORS ON YOUR HAIR"

Mrs. Preschool said...

You're a brave woman. I haven't broken out any small little projectslie this for my kids. I think the beads truly would be flying.

Katie Hacker said...

I love this post about beading with your kids. I can't wait until my little one is big enough to give it a try.

Thanks for linking to my blog!