Learning Resources Baby Bear Balance Set, Weights & Counters

Another great Learning Resources product! I purchased this with the hopes of avoiding purchasing the "3 Bear Family" counters separately... That doesn't work... I purchased the pattern cards, and had intended on using the bears that came with this for those, but I didn't read carefully enough, apparently. The pattern cards require Mom, Dad, and Baby bears, so if you intend to avoid purchasing the others, it really doesn't work very well.As far as the scales--Fantastic! They are of really nice quality, and are a great visual aid, and a really nice introduction to weights, and measurement. They have spouts, so that you can easily weigh different liquids, and have platforms that fit on top of the containers for smaller items. If I were to complain about anything, it would be those: the "platforms" do not attach to the containers very well, and fall off rather easily. I found out once I purchased it that my kids may still be a bit young for it (2 and 4,) but it will be invaluable for years to come. We will be able to compare the weights of many different items for a very, very reasonable price.

The built-in drawer in the balance is convenient; it holds just over 40 of the included bears. I placed 7 of each of the different colored bears in the drawer for use with the balance, and the remaining 60 bears are set aside for other activities.The negative:The sides of the buckets are pushed in a bit, causing them to not quite reach the supporting arms and the lids to be a bit difficult to put on (could be frustrating for a preschooler). Once the lids are on, the bucket is in its proper shape and sits in the balance arms just fine. I would think that leaving the lids on the buckets for a couple of days will return the buckets to their proper shape.Overall, I'm very pleased with this balance set and would purchase it again.EDIT: Leaving the lids on the buckets for a couple of days worked, and they are now working just fine.

Fantastic math tool during quarantine. If you're teaching or have a child at home learning about size and weight this is perfect. Even if its only used in passing now there were several days where everything was being measured and THAT learning experience was worth the cost of this.

So out of the blue, my 5 year old daughter asked for a scale for Christmas. She wanted to weigh things and she described comparing weights of different objects, so it sounded like a balancing scale would probably be the best bet. I shopped around and this scale seemed like a good product, with the understanding that toy scales aren't perfect. The nice thing is that it also included a bunch of weights in the shape of colored teddy bears, that can be used to measure the weight of an object. It comes with 102 bears that are 4 grams each. You could buy a different scale, but once you add in the weights, this combo balance scale set ended up being a good value.I debated as to what style to buy. There were several types including the scales with hanging pans (picture the scales of justice), scales with buckets and scales with flat surfaces. I immediately ruled out any scales with hanging pans. The strings that would hold the pans would get in the way of any tall items, really limiting what you could weigh. I settled on this set because the scale not only had nice buckets, but it also had covers for the buckets that would create a flat surface to place an item on. Really, the best of both worlds. My daughter had lots of fun weighing various items and princess figurines against each other and with the bear weights. The set also has a storage drawer for the bear weights and adjustment sliders to adjust the balance. The only negative is that the buckets aren't perfectly equal in weight which means you need to adjust the sliders to get the starting point to be level and we can't quite get them perfect, so it gets a star knocked off for this slight quality issue.Overall, this scale turned out to be perfect for her because it doesn't have to be precise, just fun. You get both a bucket and a flat surface to place items on without any strings to get in the way, and you get included weights making this balance set a great value. If you are looking for a fun little kid's scale, this one is a good choice.

I received this item within 13 hours of ordering it-very pleased with the super fast shipping! I like that my 5 year old was interested in 'playing' with this item outside of our planned school use. I had no trouble balancing the scale using the blue sliders. I was considering purchasing the counting bears and having them included with this item worked out perfectly!

It balanced at 0 just fine. I can imagine this lasting a long time. There are almost too many bears, they all don't fit in the drawer. That's okay though, I imagine we could use some spares.

Great learning tool for kids. I love the colored bears that come with this product - they come in handy for other counting activities as well as for use with this product. My son loves that it has a drawer underneath to keep stuff in. There were many counting bears that came with the product, so all of them don't fit in the drawer, but the drawer is a nice feature to have.

I actually bought this to help my son balance his math equations as he was having a little trouble conceptualizing subtraction. We would put the number of bears that we were subtracting from on one side and the number it equals on the other side so he could more easily see how many he had to take away. Great way to really drive home the concept of both sides of a math problem needing to be balanced.