Perler Bead Play

Sydney is hooked on Perler beads. Seriously, she's got it bad.

I bought the Perler Beads and a small selection of their pegboards several years ago, and Willow and I played with them a bit while Sydney napped (if only she still took two-hour afternoon naps...), but they caught neither of our fancies as more than a novelty, and so they've sat, on the craft shelves, for years.

There they sat, temptingly on a low shelf, ready for a certain six-year-old to discover in her own time.

Since their discovery, the Perler beads have spent their time either on our big living room table or off of it, scattered across the floor, until the kid responsible finishes throwing her fit and picks them up and sets them back on the table. Other than mealtimes and schoolwork, Sydney designs with them almost constantly. She makes things like elaborate hearts and colorful fish, challenging her fine motor skills and exploring patterning and symmetry.

I don't completely have the patience for Perler beads, and every time I finish a design and go to iron it and accidentally bump the design and all the Perler beads fall off and I have to re-do the design, I get pissed. I did join Syd yesterday, however, to make her a tree for her dollhouse:

The renovation of her dollhouse is something that Sydney has wanted to do for YEARS. She wants to give her plain, unfinished wooden dollhouse the works--paint, wallpaper, carpet, etc. I've been shamefully putting her off for just as long, because, frankly, the dollhouse cost too much to end up looking like crap (instead, I let her paint a small dollhouse), but now that my Sydney is six, and has the patience and fine motor skills and design sense to work with Perler beads, I'm thinking that it's finally time for that special project.

Just...after Thanksgiving, you know?