Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Stringing Beads with over 200 beads

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My almost 3 yr old loves this set. It's a great quiet activity. There are a ton of beads and several laces allowing you to make several necklaces. Everything fits nicely into the storage case.

I got these for my niece, she's nearly 6 and loved them. She is learning to read now and it was great to see her sounding out names and putting the letters together to spell them on the necklaces. It's evident that she'll be playing with these for a while as she discovers that you could actually load up the strings instead of having only a couple of beads in the middle. That said: you might want to get some extra beading string right off the bat; we were out in a very short time with lots of beads left in the box. The beads are sturdy, cute and easy to put on the strings. The box has a nice lid and keeps everything organized and easy to put away.

Great starter beading for young ones. Much more durable then the plastic ones and the strings with the covered ends make it easier on Mommy!

I thought these beads would be larger. The whole box is smaller than I thought and the beads are less than an inch in size. The holes are tiny too so it will be pretty hard for little fingers to string these together. By the time a child has the dexterity to string beads this small, I think they will have outgrown these cutesy colorful ones and would prefer jewelry bead sets instead. They would be a little too babyish for an older child. I was buying this set for a 4-year-old for Christmas but I am sending it back and getting something else. This set what just not what I was expecting.

Beads are made in China, if you care about that.

The storage of these beads is immediately difficult, as the only thing that covers the box is plastic ... which you'll need to remove to use the beads. THEN what do you do with this open box of beads?

Because there is hardly any protection on top of this box the way it is packaged for sale, some of the beads were scuffed through the thin clear plastic. They were clearly scratched or rubbed by something even though the plastic was still intact.

The description states "stores conveniently". In my opinion, it is not convenient to have hundreds of beads in a shallow box with no lid. I really like Melissa and Doug toys, but lately I've been buying a lot of little storage containers for my various Melissa and Doug toys. It's getting expensive and time consuming. I just wish these things would come with a sliding piece of plastic or a cardboard box. Something to contain the contents.

We have only used this little set a few times since we got it, and we had fun putting necklaces together (my daughter is 3). However, she wore one of the necklaces for a day and by the end of the day, the paint was gone from the beads on the side that touched her body! She said, "It's broken!" And I was unnerved to see paint just peeling off every bead on her necklace. This toy is not durable, and could even be dangerous if that paint is ingested. I am really disappointed because I think of Melissa and Doug toys as being durable. Also, there is not a good way to store these as is. We had to find something to put the beads in since there is no top to this box.

My sons (5 & 6) really wanted the alphabet and other beads to make necklaces. The beads are a good quality and they have fun using them. My big problem is the packaging - there is no way to "close" the beads so I had to swith them out of the pretty boxed package into a container with a lid. I noticed that this product is listed as many things, "beading necklace", "Alphabet beads" "Flower beads"

We got our 4 year old this last Christmas and it was a great present...while it lasted. I guess I just didn't really put together how many letters would be used for each name but we made about 6 necklaces and then didn't have enough letter beads to make many more. There aren't very many of the others either. I thought they were perfectly sized for good hand/eye coordination and it was a nice activity to help spell out friends/family's names and choose the fun colors to go with but unfortunately it was one of those toys that was really fun for a day or two and then we couldn't use it anymore. I think next time I'll go with a large case of plastic beads for $[...] from a local store to increase the length of time we'll get to use it.
Like the others said, it doesn't come with a cover. I do think it's perfect for the 4-6 age range.

The beads are just the right size for little hands, the box is great for storing the beads and string, and there is friction between the wood beads and the round-shoelace-type string so the beads stay on the string. This is a great toy. The box is less than an inch high so it is friendly to those of us with small homes.

I bought this one for my nephew. When I told my kids, they protested because they mistakenly thought that I had given theirs away.

Only problem: It is slightly tricky to get everything back in the box so that it closes. It is not too bad though.

Overall - I highly recommend this toy. I plan to keep it for my grandkids when my kids are done with it.