Today, however, I am making an exception! With most of JR's friends in school, or back in school, I decided that it was up to me to make sure she did not feel "left out". One way to do that is to engage her in what people may refer to as "educational" toys. To me every minute of every day of JR's life is educational, and everything around may as well be a toy. But this particular purchase could be considered "educational" in the sense that is fosters "formal" learning of math; size, shape, weight, color, addition, subtraction, and counting.
Learning Resources Three Bear Family Rainbow Counters provided this lesson of the day wherein JR sorted the bears by size. She lined them up to form a line, and gave them names. She also imagined they were "waiting" in line for their turn, and even sat behind them for her turn. We talked about small, medium and large, and tried to associate that with babies, mothers, and fathers. Of course, she had her own ideas of who the mothers and the fathers should be, but that is all part of the fun. When she was done, she counted them as she put them back in their tub, without prompt from me, or help!
While the tub comes with 96 bears, I thought that was too much bears to keep track of, so I split it with a friend. I recommend you do that, too, otherwise you will be chasing these multi-colored figurines all over your house.
You could buy them from Amazon, here.
