50 Counting Bears with 5 Cups Review

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**I originally posted this review under the item listing where we had bought this, which is now listed as "discontinued." But it's clear that this is the same item, so I am re-posting it here where more people are likely to see my review. I don't want this outstanding toy to be overlooked!**

I had been thinking for some time of buying "counting bears" to help my 3-year-old daughter better connect the math equations she was (totally on her own) memorizing, with real-world understanding of counting, adding and subtracting. I only finally took the leap when I noticed that these bears were available with the free Super Saver Shipping.

OH, what a wonderful purchase. 50 bears, sturdy and plastic, and they're quite cute, sitting upright and easily balanced. The bears' colors are vivid and exactly match the colors of the cups, which are a big part of what separates this toy from others.

Let's face it, kids like to grab things, move them around, arrange them as they see fit, and this is a toy that caters to those impulses. There's no aspect of "Here is how you are SUPPOSED to play with this," no rules, no narrative, nothing to interfere with good old-fashioned manipulation and experimentation.

Almost without fail now -for several weeks -my daughter has woken up asking to play with her counting bears. She pours them out on her table, then dutifully sorts them by color, filling in each cup with that color of bear. She hardly needs practice in color recognition or sorting, so at first I thought she might grow bored with this. But I've been so wrong, her play has only become more involved as she's repeated the routine. I haven't needed to try to deliberately use these bears to teach elementary math -they do it themselves. Very soon we were having conversations about the total number of bears (50), and then how there were ten bears in each of five colors.

She now has me hold open the little plastic bag after each cup is filled, and she comes over and ever-so-purposefully pours each cup's bears into the bag -first purple, then blue, then green, then yellow, then red. As she does it, she triumphantly announces the numbers. . . "Now there are ten! Now there are twenty! Now there are thirty!" This isn't drilling or work for her, it's purely delighted play. It's a way for her to organize a little world of her own.

I just can't say enough about this wonderful toy. Kudos to the makers -they really did this one right. Simple, unpretentious, but just enough there to delight a young mind.

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Aside from all the wonderful, yet obvious uses for this toy (counting, sorting, color recognition, math) my 2.5 year old daughter's Early Intervention teachers use these to work on her language skills (both expressive and receptive). For example, they put bears all around the room and then say "I see a bear ON TOP of the bookshelf!" And my daughter has to listen and go find it. They work on words like "under" "over" "beneath" "between" "near" etc. She loves hunting all around the room and listening to the clues. When sorting, they work on numeracy words like "few" "many" "most" "all" "some" and "none." For example, they will ask her to put a "few" in the cup, or to find "all" the bears and put them in the cup, etc. I love toys that can be used in many, many ways and this one fits the bill! So many great uses!

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My almost four-year-old loves to sort and count so I thought these would make a nice stocking stuffer for her this year. I didn't expect them to be her favorite present because I knew she would be getting flashier, larger toys, but I thought that after things had calmed down I could set her up with them at the table and she'd enjoy sorting the bears into cups. Unfortunately, the first of cups broke before she even got to play with them at all. She had taken them out of the packages and looked them over before (as expected) getting distracted by a different toy, so I picked them up and put them in the box with her puzzles and other toys that contain small pieces. A few days later when I went to get them out I discovered that the blue cup was cracked all the way down the side. I know she hadn't played with them for more than a few minutes that first day, and for them to break that quickly is really disappointing. They are about the thickness of those plastic cups that come with some egg dying kits. I can't help but think that they could've invested in somewhat stronger/thicker plastic in order to make these toys durable. I'll probably replace the blue cup with a small drinking cup and hopefully she'll still get some use out of the set, but I wouldn't advise buying this particular sorting set due to how easily this one became damaged.

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Very poor quality. The package arrived wth the cups already broken! The bears are so tiny nothing like the image on the item. I'm returning this one!

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This is a great toy to teach colors, numbers and counting. My son loves it! Would recommend this to anyone wanting a fun and educational game.