My 6 year old daughter loves working with these cool beads.  Essentially Perler Beads (or fuse beads) are little plastic beads you make designs with - and then (with the help of an adult) fuse with an iron. Kids love 'em! 

The themed sets come with a bunch of patterns that kids can create all different designs on.  We have the animal set, which comes with a horse, cat, dog, fish, turtle, etc..  The boxes all have samples of great designs that you can create or you can create your own.

There are also great seasonal and holiday themed sets like Halloween, Autumn Leaves, Valentines Day, etc..  View them all!

I've gotten our sets at AC Moore.  They last a long time.  We got ours last Christmas and we are still using it.  So you get lots of beads, and hours and hours of fun.  Kind of a nice one on one activity that you can do with your child.