Montessori Bead Holder — Clip & Sort Board
Montessori & fine motor · 36 months+ The quietest twenty minutes of your day. One bead at a time, picked up with wooden tweezers and set into a hole on the board. That is the whole activity, and it absorbs small children completely. Slide a pattern card under the board and they will work through it colour by colour until the picture is finished. 36 months and up Wooden peg board Tweezers and spoon included Silicone sorting cups Pattern cards Four ways to play 1 Follow a card. Put a pattern card under the board and match every bead to its colour. 2 Sort by colour. A silicone cup for each colour group, beads moved across with the tweezers or the spoon. 3 Make it up. No card, no rules — let them fill the board with whatever pattern they feel like. 4 Count them out. Five red in this cup, three green in that one. Early counting with something to hold. What it is actually building The grip they will write with Holding the tweezers uses the same three fingers as a pencil. This is pre-writing practice that feels like a game. Concentration that stretches Finishing a card takes patience. Children start with a few beads and end up sitting with it far longer than you expect. Colour, counting and sorting Matching beads to a card and cups is early maths, and it arrives before the words for it do. Calm, not loud No screen, no batteries, no noise. A good one for a long afternoon, a flight, or the hour before bed. In the box Wooden peg board Coloured beads in a rainbow of shades Silicone sorting cups Wooden tweezers and a wooden spoon Pattern cards Details Recommended age 36 months and up, with an adult nearby Material Wooden board and tools, silicone cups, coloured beads Approach Montessori-style fine motor and concentration work Skills Pincer grip, hand-eye coordination, colour matching, counting, focus Good for Quiet time, preschool prep, travel, gifting Questions about this set The beads are small — is that a problem? They are small by design; that is what trains the pincer grip. It is a sit-down-together activity for three-year-olds, not something to leave with a child who still puts things in their mouth. Can they use the tweezers at three? Most manage after a few tries, and the spoon is the easier option to start with. Fingers are allowed too — the tweezers are the challenge, not the rule. What happens when the cards are finished? The board works perfectly well without them. Free patterns, colour sorting and counting games keep going long after every card has been done. How do we store it? Beads back into the silicone cups, cups and tools into the box. Counting them back in is part of the activity. Put it on the table with a cup of tea nearby. You will both get through something. Safety: contains small beads — choking hazard. Not suitable for children under 3 years. Keep play supervised.