'L'acing fun!!

When I was at Rite Aid about a month ago loading up on foam crafts galore, I stumbled upon some foam lacing beads. I have been wanting to order the Melissa and Doug lacing beads but I am a major cheapey and would rather make them or such. So when I found this huge package of colored shaped lacing foam beads for $1 of course I bought them. This week is 'L' so of course we had to try them out, the problem is I was planning on it being crazy winter outside and didn't buy yarn. The holes are also very small. I was digging through our craft laundry basket and found pipe cleaners and had to try them, well low and behold they work! Like magic, they slip in so nice and I must say are also the same colors...so we not only practiced lacing, but colors,shapes,matching,and soon I will add in patterns. If you have a Rite Aid near you you NEED to go and get these! This kept Colton so busy while I worked on other crafts. This was his first time and got really frustrated when he couldn't put the shapes on the pipe cleaners. I calmed him down and told him it was okay and when he accomplished taking the shapes off, I applauded like crazy which led to more and more trying. This is a great tool and I am so happy I found something like these.

trying hard on putting the bead on the pipe cleaner

Taking the beads off

concentrating on taking beads off

Having lacing with your sunshines!! Any other ideas? I am thinking of using toilet paper tubes and cutting out shapes from cereal box containers...those will be posted on a later date.