To think hamma beads are the work of the devil?

[ginandtoast]

I have a 12 year old. She was first given hamma bead sets aged two. I have systematically regifted every single one as birthday presents to other children.
Ten years later, subsequent child starts doing fucking hamma beads under DH's watch. The first design goes over the floor by accident as she tipped it up to show us. Cue lots of bloody awful tiny beads pinging everywhere.
Scoop them all up.
She does another one.
I read the instructions in seventeen languages.
I don't really understand if what she has are mini, midi or maxi beads (those are types of knickers, surely?!) and so I just locate the iron and go for it.
Iron it.
The fucking thing won't come off.
I put it in the freezer for two minutes.
I gently peel it off the board using two knives and the technical skill of a surgeon.
What is the point?
It's a slightly melted piece of plastic.
Why is this a thing? Why? It's utterly pointless.

Haha I used to work in a After School Club and these things used to bring me out in a cold sweat!! especially if a child wanted theres ironed before going home so I had to do it with the parent looking on.

Oh gosh, doing them for loads of other children would finish me off!
The 12 year old is doing then now and proclaiming I ought to have let her do these years ago. Grrrrr.

Wtf are hamma beads?

They are brilliant, but I agree a bit nerve wracking if you have to iron them with an audience.

However, for 8-13 girls play dates, especially with slightly awkward groups they are great.

You ironed it too enthusiastically! You're only supposed to iron it enough to join the beads together, not to weld it to the board.

I quite like them and they are really good for developing fine motor skills.

It is very frustrating when they all fall on the floor though!

Sorry not to be more sympathetic!

Well I think they are one of the best toys ever, my DCs have been doing them for years and we all feel the thrill when they emerge from the ironing, it will be a sad day here when they finally grow out of them.

Why didn't she iron them?

And come to think of it, why didn't she clear up the beads?

Take a step back OP and let her get on with it!

I like them. Mine are 3 and 4 and enjoy them. You iron too high.

12 year old should have enough Paitence surely or know they would fall off if tipped up!

I'm with you OP. Little pingy bits of plastic all over the place. Arghghghgh!

And what's that paper you're supposed to iron them with? I lost the paper and used a sheet of A4 that got horribly stuck. Took ages and upset daughter ruining the thing.

As far as I am concerned they are a lose-lose deal.

We ended up with hundreds of the things hanging around the house, then becoming un-ironed and breaking up, on their way to the bin. What are you supposed to do with them?

I have terrible memories of these beads, OP. My daughter loved them but, as you have found, they can go all over the place as you pick them up when the design is finished.

My worst memory of them is when we bought a big jar of mixed beads and spent hours sorting them out into different colours in umpteen separate plastic dishes - two separate lots for my daughter and her friend, who was coming round to play. Her friend arrived in a very bad mood as her mother had just told her off about something, went over to the table and swept all our carefully prepared dishes on to the floor in a tantrum! Well, we didn't have to worry about how to spend the afternoon...!

I've never tried it out but greaseproof paper might do the job if you've lost the proper stuff.

Worra and Art - I think it is a second younger child who is doing them, not the older one.

They were the first thing that would keep DS sitting still for more than 10 minutes and are something DD, DS and I can happily sit down and do together so lots of reasons to love them. But don't love the massive piles of plastic shapes sitting in our house - despite the frequent surreptitious recycling I do.

Permanentlyexhausted, I don't know, I'm confused

The OP says 'subsequent child' started doing them ten years later (after she gave the first set away?), so surely that would make her 12 as well?

I used to go to a afterschool group and loved doing hamma beads! Greaseproof paper does work

I understood that there was a 12 year old who'd been getting Hama Beads for the last ten years which the OP has been giving away. There is also a younger (age not specified) child who has now started using getting Hama Beads and instead of giving them away, the DH has let her use them. I assumed that the subsequent child was considerably younger than 12 but maybe not.

They put one of mine in hospital for two nights age 2.5! He found a small clump of his brother's, thought they were sweets, put them in his mouth and managed to inhale one before I could get them out. He had an op under general anaesthetic to remove it from the top of his lung, he was in surgery for over 2 hours iirc. So I'm not terribly keen!

I use baking parchment to iron them, do one side, get them off the grid, do the other side, pop them under a book to cool so they stay flat. It is what to do with them all that's the problem, they tend to get broken and thrown away in the end, the pleasure is all in the making. We've got some lovely snowflake and Father christmas ones for the tree which we keep carefully though.

They have been useful in teaching the DCs how to use a dustpan and brush too.

Baking parchment works just fine.

YABU. It doesn't have to have "a point". Its called having fun making something - you know, like kids used to do before ipads?

IKEA sell a good cheap clone version, btw.

You will be finding them in crevices for years to come. The little fuckers can travel through walls into rooms they have never been taken.

Whoknows does exactly what I do. Except I still have the proper bit of paper because I'm a bit anal organised like that!

I love Hama beads they kept ds1 quiet for ages when he was 4 and when dd had poor fine motor skills they worked a treat to help her.

Far, far easier to Hoover up better than loom bands.

I couldn't Hoover them up, ridiculously wasteful.

I do agree the finished articles are a pain. You can stick them to card and make pictures or iron on laminating pouch plastic (just slit and use the bead paper) and make really good coasters. But yes a lot do break up and end up in the re ironing heap and eventually the bin.