Zirrly Super Bead Review

March is not my favorite homeschool month. We're usually all cranky and tired and just not feeling it like we are in the fall and spring. To combat all this negative energy we've been trying to do more arts & crafts, so we were thrilled to try Super Beads from Zirrly.  We choose the Mega Pack to get a good variety of templates to work with.

Both girls ADORE crafts. They will paint, draw, cut, glue, assemble and make lovely, learning messes. I, however, am not a fan of the mess nor the time it takes sometimes for me to be involved. I want them to be independent, but I also don't want chaos or tears. My girls have used bead crafts before. In fact, we went through a few months this past fall where they were downright obsessed and I had an ironing pile that was shockingly large waiting for me daily. These beads were intriguing because they require no ironing - just a spritz of water and a little wait time. The girls, at 6 and 7, could (theoretically) do this project start to finish with no help from me.


Each kit comes with everything you need: an instruction manual, beads, a spray bottle (ours came with two, which was PERFECT for two kids), trays for the creations, a plastic tool for placing the beads (only one of these, unfortunately), and pattern cards (the mega set came with four designs - but five cards each. Definitely better for a class than a family, at least in our case).

The girls spent a happy morning with the beads. Madison chose to do the apple, and Reagan, who is loving elephants right now, went for the elephant. Madison finished quickly, but Reagan got frustrated quickly. At six, she's at the low end for the fine motor skills of these beads, and probably would do better with help. Madison said it was pretty easy to make, but the one thing she didn’t like was that all of the beads have to be facing the same direction.  There’s a little lip around one end of each bead, and all of those must be facing up. It's a fine distinction that she didn't always get, and it was a little frustrating for her to place a bead, notice it was "upside down" and have to remove and replace it. The bead kits that use ironing don't have that issue, so it was an adjustment. As the girls get more accustomed to this particular kit, I'm sure that issue will fade away.

4500 beads is a LOT of beads!

We've found that these trays from IKEA are ideal for any bead crafting.

Ready to be sprayed!

Definitely proud of her creation!

There are enough beads for plenty of creations, and the girls loved that the trays could snap together to accommodate bigger creations too. They were planning on a "giant rainbow", but a glance through our beads did show that we'd be a little constrained by how many we had of each color, so they adjusted. There was definitely a surplus of red, blue and white. I'm sure different packs have different colors to create with.



Overall, the girls had fun and are already looking to see which set they'd like next. They are leaning toward the Jewelry Set, but they also loved the idea of the 3D projects (which I'm sure I'd need to help with).



Other members of the review crew reviewed different sets. It was very cool to see how each family made these craft kits their own!