Three Bear Family

Many children are attracted to teddy bears. Thus, these bears are fantastic tools for helping children to learn about colors, both naming and sorting, counting and many other Maths activities in a fun way. They are value for money, because they are suitable for a wide range of age groups and grow with the child. It is good to sit with your child and teach him what to do with the bears before you leave him with this toy. You can get them from Amazon:

Here are some fun and educational ways you can use the bears:

Fine motor skill training - pincer grasp (From 1 year old)

If your child is not ready for sorting or counting, simply letting your child play with the bears by picking up the bears, getting the bears to stand upright, is good practice for fine motor skills because of their small size.

Warning: Not for toddlers who are still mouthing.

Montessori Activity (From 1.5 year old)

When your child could pick up the bear by hand, you can increase the challenge by letting him pick up each bear with a tong.

Teach colours and sorting (From 1.5 year old)

You can talk about the colour of the bears with your child. You can place all the bears in a bowl, and ask your child to sort them by colour into each cup with the same colour.
Teach size (From 1.5 year old)

You can talk about the sizes, which one is Daddy Bear, Mommy Bear and Baby Bear.

Counting (From 2 years old)

Ask your child, for example, to get you 5 blue bears. Get him to count them, as he gets you the bear.

Talk to your child about the total number of bears (50), and that there are ten bears in each of the five colors. When cleaning up, count the bears as you put them away

For older children, when cleaning up, you can ask your child to put them into the plastic bag by colour and ask him how many there are each time each bag is completed. For example, say, "Now there are 10. Now there are 20. Now there are 30.

Props for trucks (From 2 years old)

Our Little FECS loves to use them as "cement" in his cement mixer truck.  

Language (Playing I Spy) (From 2.5 years old)

You can use them to work on your child's language skills (both expressive and receptive). For example, you can put the bears around the house and then say, "I see a bear on top of the table!" And your child has to go and find them. You can use them to work on workds like "beneath", "between", "inside", "in", "under", "near", "over", etc. Your child will have fun hunting down the bears based on your instructions all around the house.

When sorting, they work on numeracy words like "few" "many" "most" "all" "some" and "none." For example, ask your child to put a "few" in the cup, or to find "all" the bears and put them on the plate.

You can discuss the similarities and differences with the bears.

Patterning (From 3 years old)

You can make patterns with the bears together with your child.

Weighing (From 3.5 years old)

You can put the bears on a scale and weigh them. Ask your child how many baby bears equals the weight of one papa bear?

Counters to Teach Maths (From 4 years old)

You can use the bears as counters for Maths to teach addition and subtraction, multiplication and division.

Obstacle Course (For ADHD children)

According to a review in Amazon, you can make obstacle course with a loop of climbing through things, jumping over pillows, running down the hallway, etc. in which you put 10 bears in a cup at the beginning of the course and an empty cup at the end of the course to collect the bears as he takes one through each round. You can set up the cups all over the biggest room of your home and have your child running around the house to sort the bears into the appropriate cup.

Montessori Activity: Playing "I Spy"/视觉游戏

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To prepare the child to listen for sounds in words.

Materials:
1. Alphabet cards (optional)
2. 3-5 objects that match the beginning letter of the alphabet card.

Directions:
1. You can also play this game on a mat and putting out a few objects start with clear sounds such as a dog, apple, cat and ring, etc. *

2. Take out a letter card and say, "I spy something that begin with 'd', can you tell me what it is?"

3. Then place the letter on the object (the dog) on the mat that begins with 'd'.

* For younger children, according to The Learning Ark, when introducing them to the "I Spy" game, you may only want to start with one object. Take one object from a drawstring bag and place it on the table. Then say, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'd', can you tell me what it is?" Since there is only one object on the mat, the child will be able to succeed and reply "dog". Reply: "I spy dog" and emphasis the 'd' in the word. Put the object back in the draw string bag and take another object, repeat the activity for the other object.

OR

1. When your child is familiar with the "I spy" game, you can expand the surrounding such as identifying something in the room, garden, park, street, etc. that for example, begins with the letter 'd'.

2. Then say to your child "I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'd' (make the phonic sound of 'd'). Can you guess what it is?"

3. Your child has to guess what it is that you can see. For example, if you are in the street, you may be seeing a "dog", which is something that begins with "d".

4. Reverse the game and let your child have you guessing what he sees by him saying the letter's sound.

Video Demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXD10pIUZcA

Here is a good video on the sounds of the alphabets:

http://momtessori.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-want-me-to-do-what.html

Additional Information:
I haven't started playing with J on "I Spy" yet, as English is his third language, and I am already struggling just to allocate a day a week to speak English to him. I can't use this game on Chinese, because the Chinese language is not based on phonics... aaarrrrgggh. But I hope that I will be able to start this game with J during our English class soon. I am feeling a little overwhelmed with my determination to stick with 3 languages, but some days are like that... Whe I focus on Chinese, I worry about his English! When I focus on English, I worry about his Chinese! As such, I could not do anything well. I should worry less, pray and just do my best and be happy with it.

References:
- http://thelearningark.blogspot.com/2010/11/montessori-i-spy-sound-game.html

- Play and Learn by Lesley Britton