Working with Modelling Beeswax

Beeswax is a great modelling material for children 5 and up.

Before the age of five it is not really pliable enough for very young children. Before age 5 I fully endorse the use of MANY different play dough recipes (Maryann Kohl's book Mudworks is constantly being pulled out to find something new to try), real clay (dig it up yourself if you can!) and nice smelling plastercine.

At 5 a child is settled enough and has the finger strength necessary to use the beeswax.

If you buy a box of it you, and your child, will be frustrated by the slabs. I prepare my beeswax for the kids by tearing it into small pieces (1 inch by 2 inch pieces and making discs, I warm the torn pieces on a ricebag, then roll it into balls and squish the balls flat. We keep our beeswax basket on a table in the sun.

When you give it to a child tell them to warm it in their hand until they can roll it into a ball again. Once it is warmed enough to roll into a ball they can start pulling out shapes from the ball. It is great for delicate natural items like sprouts and leaves. As you pull it out it transforms in your hands from a fiddlehead, to a fern, or a bean to a beansprout, to a young bean plant.

I've planned lessons on the alphabet sounds to do with Nature Girl and I want to make sure she is fully engaged in them and not at all self conscious about this return to first grade work. So while I tell our alphabet stories I will create icons from the stories out of beeswax then transform them into the letter. She can watch, she can copy me if she wants, but it is far enough away from "This is the letter A. Lets start the alphabet all over again" that I know she'll be interested.

We'll be using modelling materials a lot to work with letters and letter formation. The beeswax letters will be sturdy enough to put aside to use again (unlike the plastercine)