publication date: Dec 9, 2009
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author/source: Alex Bell
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 y
oung 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.
