★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

 Great stringing bead set! 

“I am an occupational therapist, working with children under 3 years old. I bought this to use during sessions to address several skills including the following: bilateral hand coordination, fine motor coordination, dexterity, in hand manipulation, and hand-eye coordination. I could not be happier with this set of stringing beads. It helps me to address the above skills and I also like that the beads are NOT heavy like wood beads are. Toddlers are prone to throwing toys (mostly due to learning cause and effect). When they throw these beads (and I'm sure they will!), these beads will not hurt or do as much damage as heavy wood beads do. Definitely a 5 star toy!"

- B.B.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Perfect size to avoid choking risk

“ I purchased this toy for my autistic 3-year-old. These blocks are much larger than sets I had purchased in the past, making them much safer as he still loves to put things in his mouth. Although he hasn't quite gotten the lacing concept yet, this set seems to be very good quality and he enjoys stacking the blocks with flat enough shapes. The different-colored strings are similar to shoelaces, with an aglet on either end for easier threading. They are sturdy enough to tie and untie in a bow to make a temporary necklace during playtime.

If your child has very small hands and understands well enough not to choke, smaller beads may be easier to manage. But these beads are the perfect size to avoid a choking risk if that is a concern for you.”

- Monique

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

 Highly recommended! 

“This is a great set of beads! They are plastic and easy to clean. I liked the size of them--won't be a choking hazard. Nice to have 4 strings and a storage bag for everything! My 28 month old sat and played with them for a lot longer than I had hoped! First she was excited about saying the colors and shapes. Then I showed her how to string the beads, which was a bit challenging for her but it's a great activity for her to practice! Then she was excited about building a tower with the beads. I was excited that she didn't want to stop playing with them!”

- Rebecca

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

 Nice set with unexpected extras

“These are nice sturdy beads and ALL are most definitely too large to choke on (I actually have a choke test tube since I work in children's publishing). I got them for my 16-month old granddaughter. I knew she wouldn't be able to do lacing yet, and I was delighted to see that the bag came with 4 pipe cleaners as well (bend the ends over so they're not sharp before using with a toddler). The ends of the strings are also nicely wrapped, longer than the ends of shoelaces, so I think she'll be stringing sooner that I thought. Bright colors and a good variety, but not even, so if you want to use for sorting you'll have groups but you won't have groups of exactly the same numbers of colors or shapes — which is only important if you're doing long patterns. I like them very much and consider the purchase a good value.”

-Sharon