can't get strings through the beads!

Sure this would be great for motor skills and hand/eye coordination, except that my 2 year old gives up in two seconds since the nylon string will not go through most of the beads! The beads are rough and splintery inside, which snags the nylon string so it won't go through. Very poor design in my opinion, I mean, isn't that the whole point of these things?

The string gets stuck!

These beads are very difficult for my daughter to string together because the string gets caught on the inside of the beads. The beads should be sanded down inside so the string cen be put through smoothly.

Good idea, bad product testing...

This is such a cute, colorful and seemingly great product - BUT, it's very difficult for even Mom to get the string through the hole in the bead. The inside of the bead is painted but not sanded. It's rough inside, making it very hard for little hands and impatient minds to get that string through. You have to get the tip of the string all the way through without touching the bead itself or else the threads get caught and you really have to tug. I called this company 3 TIMES and each time they said they'd send me a new box of beads because they weren't supposed to be like that. By the 3rd box of unsanded beads I finally gave up. The last customer rep said he'd even have it tested for me. Didn't happen. This company puts out super toys, educational and really nice quality - most of the time. Steer clear of this one unless you want to spend hours sanding the insides of 30 small beads! They're basically useless as a "beading" toy for my kids - they do enjoy stacking them, however.