Hama Bead Sets (Review)

When my 17 year old niece was a tiny little thing with thick blonde plaits and a penchant for making jelly from the blackberries in the grounds of our apartment block during her monthly weekend stays, I used to spend many an hour making Hama bead creations with her.

Thirteen years later I still have the remnants from our crafting sessions and have recently dragged them out to use with The Boy. However he needs templates to stimulate his imagination and creativity, and fortunately we've recently been sent a couple of Hama bead sets from DKL Toys to try out.

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My First Hama Maxi Beads (Review)

I've known of Hama beads for quite some time; when I first started teaching in 2001 the after school club used them frequently as an activity, and I will confess that occasionally I could be found skiving from my marking and making a flower badge with a child helping me out and giving me tips. I've also seen various 'compatible' brands to the more well-known Hama beads but I haven't come across any suitable for children under five years old until recently.

The problem with traditional Hama beads is that they are very small and fiddly for younger children. While they are able to pick them up fairly easily (after all they only have little fingers themselves), placing them in the correct place on the template proves more challenging for children with developing fine motor skills. The Maxi Hama Beads, which we were sent by Play Merrily, are ideal for children of The Boy's age (three-four years) because they are twice the size of the original beads, which also means that the pegs on the template aren't so difficult to use.

We were sent the My First Maxi Hama Beads set, along with a pack of 500 extra Maxi Hama beads in pale colour mix.

maxi hama beads

The pack contains beads in a variety of colours, and three templates to use (a lorry, an aeroplane and a boat) along with four plastic stands to display the finished artwork, ironing paper and a sheet of designs to help create the masterpieces.

The Boy couldn't wait to get started on making one and eventually chose the lorry to start with. I placed the whole set up on a tray which meant it could be easily set aside to complete another time, the projects aren't large and they aren't complicated, three year olds have a limited attention span and I knew he wouldn't complete it in one sitting. The maxi beads are much easier to use than the traditional size, and he found no difficulty in placing them on the right peg. The added bonus in this activity is the mathematical development as he had to count out how many pegs he needed to fill with a colour, assess length and direction.

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On the larger patches of one colour, I did need to help him fill in those sections, but he found following the plan very easy. And it was only after two sessions of 15 minutes each that we'd finished his lorry artwork.

Of course, the choice then is whether or not to empty the template out and reuse the beads another day, or to iron them and keep the creation. We decided to keep it, and using the ironing paper I had quickly melted one side of the Hama beads, ensuring they joined together. I personally always melt both sides as I find it makes it stronger and less prone to damage, which did mean it needed to be left a little longer out of his reach to cool down. However, it creates a very sturdy 'sculpture' indeed which he loves to play with and examine.

Hama beads, especially the maxi ones, are useful in other activities too like threading with pipecleaners, which is a great fine motor-skill activity. In fact, Hama beads are a marvellous play resource to promote hand-eye co-ordination and manual dexterity. A big 'thumbs up' from us!

We were sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Pipecleaner Space Hat

I have never understood the appeal of pipecleaners. They bend and make cool shapes, but for a pre-schooler I've always thought they were a little pointless and hard work.

And then I discovered (via Pinterest) a few activities which suggest that they can be used as a tool in threading and beading exercises.

I set out a tray of materials for The Boy as an invitation to explore and play.

We used:

  • metallic coloured pipe cleaners
  • buttons of various sizes
  • maxi Hama beads
  • a metal sieve
  • silver confetti strands

The pipecleaners are much easier to use for threading than a shoelace as they stay rigid and don't flop over while trying to fit the beads onto the end. This also makes them easier to shape when creating a design. One more bonus is that the metallic fibres covering the wire enable beads to stay in place and not slip down to the end.

We started by poking the wire end into the sieve and bending it over 'inside' to prevent it from being pulled out. Then The Boy was keen to have a mismatch of buttons and Hama beads on the pipecleaners, alternating and contrasting the design. Buttons that have multiple holes are really useful to thread two pipecleaners through. To ensure the buttons and beads didn't fall off, we tucked the loose end back into the sieve and bent the end over again.

Threading with pipecleaners

Threading is an excellent activity for pre-school children as it helps to develop fine motor skills, hand to eye co-ordination and the pincer grip; all of which are needed to develop pre-writing skills. Pipecleaners are a very useful tool for threading because of their rigidity.

And it's great fun too!

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