beads

[Rose-Roget]

Here's a dumb question... How big are the beads on a Montessori teens bead chain? Like, how long is one chain of 10? I was thinking I could make some, but then the smaller beads looked like the chain would be really short...

[Lillianna]

I think you may be combining a few characteristics of different materials.

There are "teens beads" that are used alone and with the teen boards. This is a box of 9 10 bars (10 gold beads on a wire) and a series of colored beads from 1 (red) to 9 (dk. blue).

Then, there are "bead chains" that express both the square and the cube of the numbers from 1 to 9. Each number's chains are a different color: 1 is red, 2 is green, 3 is pink etc. The 10 squared chain has 100 gold beads on it and the 10 cubed chain has 1,000 gold beads.

[Rose-Roget]

Yes, thank you Lillianna, I had the semantics wrong. It's the teens board with the beads on a wire (they look like little chains to me). Anyway, the question remains the same, and I know it's a dumb one. Is there a specific size the beads (or length of the bead wire) should be? When you get all 10 beads on one wire, approximately how long is it - 2 inches? 6 inches? Forgive my ignorance. Montessori is new to me, and so is anything remotely crafty (which includes anything I have to enter Michael's or the like for!).

Thanks!

[Kushali]

I did a google search and found several companies offering 7 mm beads individually. Another company said their bead cube was 7.3 cm on a side.

Both of those measurements make a 10 bar a bit under 2 inches long. You could probably get close with the "pony beads" you find at craft stores but if I remember correctly those are a bit bigger.

[eepster]

I trying to figure how cost effective it would be to make them myself I thought these seemed to be about right from having seen the ones they had at one of the schools we looked at. However, I just got to hold them for a moment, I didn't get out a ruler or anything.

[ramama]

I made my own bead materials and heard the 8mm recommended. I used really cheap plastic beads from Hobby Lobby (I think they were like $1 for 250. The 10 bar ends up being about 3.25 inches of beads (not including the curly-Q wire thing at the end). Glass beads are definitely preferable, but cost a lot more.

[Rose-Roget]

Thank you all! I don't know if it'd just be more cost effective for me to buy them pre-made, since I don't have the materials on-hand. But I might as well just make them and skip the shipping charges. That way, I can feel like I've actually made something for my son's betterment.