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Monday, July 1, 2013

Little House on the Prairie Bead Activity

I am so excited about today!

This is the first post in my exciting (to me, at least) series called:  "Because Summer Should be Fun!"

Every weekday in July I'll be posting something easy and cheap/free to do with your kids!  

Plus, there are going to be giveaways...GIVEAWAYS!!!  Because free is better, right?  My first one is today from Hannah at Happy Days!  More about that at the end :)

Anyway, it makes me slightly crazy when I follow a pin from pinterest to a blog post that tells me about a fun and easy craft activity to do with my kid, but then I find that my idea of easy is significantly different from theirs!  

Or, when instructions for a craft starts off by saying something like, "I just go to my fabric stash and pull out 5 yards of a solid fabric and then 3 yards each of 4 other coordinating fabrics."

I think to myself, "Do you live at Hobby Lobby?  Because I don't live at Hobby Lobby.  I just have some crusty glue and rogue glitter in my stash."

I'm not alone in that, right?

Right!

Enough chit chat...let's get started!


I've talked about my obsession love for Little House on the Prairie before, so it's only natural that we have a Little House-esque activity!

We started out by reading chapter 14 (Indian Camp) out of my copy of Little House on the Prairie.


Please raise your hand if you have a well loved copy of Little House like this.  

I see that hand!

In the chapter, Laura, Mary, and Pa visit a deserted Indian camp, and Laura and Mary find little beads all over the place.  They collect them, bring them home, and end up making a necklace for Carrie.

So, I got some beads at Walmart.


When I got home and looked at the bag more closely, I saw that there were 1400 beads.

1400 beads!!!

That's way too many.  I could just see them covering the kitchen floor.  Plus, the holes looked a little too small for Maggie and Gracie to string.

I took them back and got some classic pony beads for $1.97.


Plus, they are glow in the dark, and you can't lose with glow in the dark!

The night before we read our chapter, I went outside and tossed about half of the beads from the bag into a section of our backyard.

The next morning we read our chapter and headed outside to hunt for some beads!


They were really excited and got right down to it.

The problem was that most of the beads were reeeeeally hard to find and kind of sunk down way under the grass.

So much for my forethought and planning!


I just ended up tossing the rest of the beads out for them to find which was easier because they hadn't settled into the grass.


On a side note, I'm hoping that the beads we didn't find end up glowing in the dark, so we have a polka dot backyard :)


After they found enough beads to string, we headed inside.

I had them put their beads into little cups so they didn't roll all over the place.


I cut them each a piece of stretchy string...but you can use anything you want.  I put a piece of tape on the end so the beads stayed put.


And they got to work!


This upcoming picture of Gracie was taken right before she started freaking out about having tape on the end of her string...even though everyone else had tape on the end of her string, too.  


I ended up having to put her in her crib while she had a bit of a temper tantrum.  I only tell you this so you don't have this unrealistic view of my life.  My girls aren't perfect...and I'm not either!

Once Gracie rejoined us, I helped her finish her necklace.  She's not quite 3, so she would hand me the bead she wanted on, I'd string it, and she'd hand me another one.  It worked out well for us!

Here they are with their finished project:


The only jewelry Leah likes are silly bands, so she put her glow in the dark beads on her bunk bed so she could have a little nightlight :)

Well, I feel that it's only fair that since your kids just made a beaded necklace that YOU should have a chance to win your own beautiful necklace!

I've been reading Hannah's blog for awhile and love it when she posts pictures of the jewelry she sells in her etsy shop!  

I've had my eye on this necklace, but I didn't really need it, so I never bought it.


But, then she had a sale, PLUS she was giving this necklace away with it!


So, so pretty!

I bought the necklace for this giveaway and mentioned that to Hannah.  She ended up sending and extra one along just for me.  Super sweet and totally made my day :)

Now, I want to make your day!  I'll choose ONE winner on Sunday, July 7th!  I'll email you to get your address and pop your pretty necklaces in the mail :)

There are lots of ways to enter, so enter your little heart out :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway



I'm linking up with Blair at Wild and Precious!

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