Love this creative and cute idea! A mom down in Texas has created a line of teddy bears that helps teach young children letters, colors, and more in two different languages.
Dr. Tameka Maiden came up with the idea after trying to teach her then-1-year-old daughter, Tori, her colors. However, she wanted Tori to have more exposure to the world than just the English language. “Most kids don’t learn a second language until they’re in high school, so I was like, ‘How about I start them early and that way, they’ll have the foundation and by the time they get older, it’s something that they have and they can expand off of?” Tameka shared in an interview with PEOPLE.
So the mom created Cubby Love Bears, a line of vibrant and adorable teddy bears that recite letters, words, and numbers in English and Spanish. The brand of bears also teaches colors, days of the week, and months in both languages!
“My goal was to make the children be impactful in the world,” Tameka shared. “I know that the most impactful tool that a child can have is through communication. This will set them up for future success.”
The mom developed four different products: Ory, the orange alphabet and numbers bear; Yancy, the yellow days of the week and months bear; Zoli, the blue/green cellphone and tablet-holding bear; and the colors bear set, which features four bears and eight different colors. The bears range from roughly $20 to $65, depending on if you want one specific bear or an entire set of them.
Tameka revealed that she initially came up with the idea in 2016, but didn’t launch the line until June 2019. In fact, Cubby Love Bears just celebrated its first year anniversary on June 5. “It took a while [to start] because I was fearful,” Tameka admitted. “When you create something, you never know if people will be receptive to it or not… my daughter motivated me to jump and go for it.”
Because of her idea, Tameka’s now 4-year-old daughter, Tori, and hundreds of other kids are learning in a whole new way. The mom has plans to create bears that teach other things like body parts to young children. She also has plans to wants to create bears to help kids battling PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as well as elderly people who are non-communicative. And what’s even better is that this is a brand that Tameka hopes to, one day, pass down to Tori, who absolutely loves the bears.
I love this idea and these bears are so cute! It’s such a great way to continue to help kids learn especially at a young age where their brains are like sponges soaking everything in. I think it’s also a reminder that we should all step out on faith with our ideas…you never know what could happen!
Imperfectly B 