Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Happy New Year to our wonderful Amelia's Ballerinas Family!

It has been very quiet here in the Blog and on my Facebook page. Mostly because I am moving house this weekend, which is always a big job. Still, I've been doing lots of behind the scenes jobs. One of thee is taking stock of our props. What do we use most? Which are the favourites? What needs fixing or replacing? What new ideas have I come across?

One thing I've been wanting to do is get a 'Class Set' of Teddy Bears. (I'll explain WHY later on...)

I was stoked to find these gorgeous guys on sale. Even though it had to go straight back in the car to be moved to the new house, I had to have a peek. My daughters were surprised to see a whole box full of Teddy Bears and I must say, I felt like a kid again. We had to get them out for a cuddle!

Teddy Bears are one of my favourite props to use in ballet, especially with our Baby Ballerinas.

Giving little hands a big teddy bear to hold and cuddle brings magic to our ballet lessons in many ways.

The bears are so cute that everyone gets really involved and engaged with them- even the children who are a bit shy, having a hard time listening, or those who are just having a bad week.

For my more boisterous dancers, it helps them to find their inner calm. Wrapping their arms around the bear and giving it a big squeeeeeeeze is a great way to use up that extra energy. Having a bear to hold brings their focus into what is happening with their hands and arms, and away from any distractions. They have such fantastic imaginations at this age that they really get in to helping Teddy dance! Suddenly, they are really enthusiastic about doing a Pirouette, or Plie or Jete, because Teddy is doing it too.

For my dancers who are more shy, having a soft, snuggly teddy to hold helps them feel safe. They feel less self-conscious as the attention is not on them anymore. Their focus turns on to what Teddy is doing, and they forget that they are nervous or shy, instead getting swept up with the fun things that Teddy is doing. It's like having their very own friend to dance with!

PHOTO

We can do all sorts of things with our Teddies. Jumping, spinning, balancing, leaping, lifting up high and down low, and of course, giving him a huge cuddle! One thing my littlest ballerinas find hilarious is when we put Teddy on the ground, take a running start, and try to LEAP right over him! Sometimes Teddy gets a foot to the face, but he doesn't mind ;-)

I've only encountered ONE problem with the Teddy Bears...and that's having many different ones.

In the past, I've gathered up teddies from my own children's collection. A big bag of all sorts; big ones, little ones, brown ones, fluffy ones, ones with ribbons, other animals...(cats, dogs, bunnies, birds, even a shark!)

The worst culprit was this small pink dolphin. To me, it wasn't fabulous. It was kinda old, kinda small, and didn't have much squish to it. But to my little ballerinas, it was like the Holy Grail of Teddies. Boy, there were tears over this one!

Of course, one of the skills we learn in our ballet group is sharing. We were using Teddies for our recital so I began to bring them along each week and with some patience and encouragement, even my 2 year olds learned to share. In fact, almost everyone ended up with a favourite! Kate like the Bunny, Caden loved the cat, Lilly liked the one with the ribbon etc. But every now and then, someone would change their mind and we would have to swap them all around until everyone was happy. It was taking time out of our lesson that I would rather spend dancing!

So after sorting out the end-of-year finances and working out how much we had to spend on props, I was so glad to be able to buy a class set of bears. I waited until they were on special and put my order in. I'm sure it was the weirdest order for The Warehouse Online that day (16 matching bears? Who needs that many bears?!?!)

They arrived just before I was due to move house and they are lovely! So soft and cuddly...and exactly the same, so no-one misses out ;-)

I can't wait to use them with my dancers this year!