Those of you following my blog know Rebecca's story, and how I keep my eyes open for ideas that can help her to bypass her memory issues. So when Annie demonstrated counting in tens on a big set of coloured beads at her sharing assembly - a skill I hadn't known she possessed! I was inspired - could I scale this down and use it for other tables, the visual and tactile nature of the idea along with the repitition might just work.
So having found some cord and smallish beads I decided to make her the first one, then let her do the rest. In order to prevent arguments later and because there is just something about threading beads! I also made a 3s set for Sophie and a 2s set for Annie.
The strings were in my handbag when I was called in to school to take Annie to the hospital with a cut head, I remembered them when we were sitting in the waiting room and so gave Annie her set to play with thinking they would keep her entertained for a few minutes - in fact she played with them for ages and held on to them whilst having her head glued back together!
The observant among you will notice a random set of 20 beads - this was Rebecca's 1s !
The older girls loved theirs and set about making more sets - both of them which means I need more cord and more beads so I guess it's back to hobbycraft!
The whole excercise of sorting the beads into groups and working out how many groups of each colour was good in its own right, and the million dollar question - have they worked? I will get back to you on that one, most of their play at present has been teaching Annie her 2s , 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 !!
