Perhaps it's turning five and starting school that's done it, but board and card games have become very popular in our house, with Snakes and Ladders, Kerplunk and Happy Families the main ones in our repertoire. That was before we were introduced to the Nice Bear Naughty Bear card game.This "good manners card game" was designed to help young children learn good manners and social skills. The game comes in a handy little cardboard wallet just the right size for a train journey or weekend away. The pack contains pairs of matching nice and naughty bears and a couple of joker bears as well as instructions for six simple games.
The games include classics like Bear Snap, the memory game: Memory Bears, musical statues: Statue Bears and old maid Joker Bear. The difference is that each card illustrates a bear with a short and immediate message, such as Rude Bear telling us "There's no excuse for being rude, just because you're in a mood" or Tidy Bear extolling ‘We know that everyone enjoys, bears who tidy all their toys'. Musical Statue Bears sees each player freeze in the position of the bear on their card on the command ‘Be Your Bear'; Toby always hoped for Nose-picker Bear!
There is also a suggestion for a good manners role play game where a mime or story is acted out to show the characteristics of the bear on the card. The winner is the individual or team who guess the name in the quickest time.
Nice Bear Naughty Bear cards help reinforce the foundations of good behaviour that we all seek to instill in our children and provide opportunities to talk about how important it is to be considerate, thoughtful, kind and respectful to others rather than being rude while playing. At five years old Toby loved the surprise of finding a picture of a tutu-wearing teddy bear picking her nose and was very happy to correct her (as if that behaviour had never been seen in our house!).I look forward to playing this game with Toby's little sister Pippa whose table manners could certainly do with some nice bear training.
A fun game which is packed full of important messages.
Nice Bear Naughty Bear is available from www.nicebearnaughtybear.com – at £6.99 a perfect stocking-filler or birthday present.
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