Parenting Idea : The “How Many More..?” Bracelet

I’m really excited to share this idea with you, it has been the single most useful parenting tool for doing anything or going anywhere with our children.
These bracelets work a bit like a watch for younger children, but they are better than that. To children the concept of minutes and hours is a very abstract one, and it can be hard for them to understand just how long ten minutes are.
That’s where the bracelets come in.

When we go to the shops before going to the playground, I can explain that we will need to go to four shops before we can meet our friends to play. Emi can then pick the bracelet with four beads on it and put it on. After going to the first shop she then slides the first bead across the knot in the middle of the bracelet. She can then clearly see how many more shops are left before going to the playground. This is a good visual aid and reduces stress and arguments by helping children to know what to expect next.
You can make these bracelets for a whole variety of things, we even use one to help keep track of how many drinks of water everyone has had during the day. They are easy to make, so you can make one for each number you might need!

The “How Many More…?” Bracelet

You will need:

An old T-shirt (the stretchy kind)
Beads
Scissors

How to:
Start by cutting long strips of fabric from the t-shirt.
Make these long enough to fit around your little ones wrist.
It doesn’t really matter how it looks, because once you have cut it all you need to do is pull on both ends to make the fabric curl inwards and turn into a sort of t-shirt yarn.

Tie a tight knot into the middle of your string. This needs to be big enough to hold the beads on one side, but small enough to slide them over the middle.
Pick out the number of beads you will need. (Four shops, six drinks etc..)

Thread the beads onto one side of the knot in the middle and then tie the bracelet around your child’s wrist.
Because the yarn is stretchy you should be able to just slide it on and off if you tie it loosely enough.

Once you have done the first thing on your list your little one can slide one of the beads across the middle and see exactly what is left to do.

We made a whole bunch of these bracelets so we always have the one we need,

though Emi sometimes likes to wear them all at once to pretend that she is very,very busy indeed..

Wishing you a wonderful day!
♥