EDUCATIONAL TOYS DISGUISED AS A PREFERRED ACTIVITY

Last week I introduced these cute little bear counters to the girls during school as a math activity, and they were SO excited. 🤗 This particular set comes with different size and color bears 🐻, 2 tongs, the colored cups, activity cards, and a convenient carrying case. What can I say? I get excited about school purchases. 🤓🙋🏻‍♀️

The word “tong” became a new vocabulary word and their use was a great way to add a fine motor skills challenge into the mix. We also searched for small and large bears of a specific color (this worked on their ability to follow verbal directions), and I split the cups up (3 each) so that they could sort independently while still sharing the bears in the middle of the table. At this age, we’re working on the concept of sharing, so anything that reduces arguing (notice I didn’t say “eliminate,” lets be real here) while allowing them to learn is a success, as far as I’m concerned.

We also used the number cards provided to match the number pictured with the correct number of bears (i.e., 1 = 🐻, 2 = 🐻🐻). This was great for number identification, naming, and 1-to-1 correspondence.

Because we have this at home now, Bianca has requested to play with it daily since we used it in school. Since the day I introduced it, the set has been used extensively for pretend play as well, and we got to talk about sweet and spicy and fruits and vegetables as she pretended to bring me different kinds of juices 🥤. Jalapeño juice (in the green cup) required lots of water afterwards because it was SPICY! 🤣

I say this all to you because I want you to realize that when I suggest extending an activity, or investing in toys that will have multiple uses, THIS is what I’m talking about. As a parent, I often feel like we’re drowning in toys (post on toy rotation coming soon), so if we can at least make sure we have the kind that can be used for a number of things, that really helps (post about birthday and holiday gift registries coming soon too).

What’s your child’s most versatile toy?