Little Bear - Summertime Tales

If my pen name doesn?t tell you that I?m a foster parent, then I?ll tell you. I am a foster parent for DDSD. This is the agency for children with disabilities. Over the years, we have had all different role models, idols, and hobbies. My newest foster son, (I?ll refer to him as Josh) loves Little Bear. Josh is hard to get out of bed in the mornings, but a promise of a sausage/egg biscuit and Little Bear usually gets him up and going.

Little Bear is an animated cartoon that has a subtle message in each of the short strips. Each toon lasts around 10 min. The main characters in this toon are, Little Bear, Mama and Papa Bear, Chicken, Duck, Cat, Owl and sometimes a girl named Emily.

Little Bear Summertime is a video that includes four different strips. I?ll separate them and describe them each for you.

Caterpillars
Little Bear and Duck are lying on the ground looking up watching the clouds near Mama?s garden when they hear a loud cry. They run to investigate the cry and find No Feet (snake) being attacked by caterpillars. They were tickling him and eating Mama's garden. They realize that they must move them, but when they try to wash them off the plans, it doesn't work. They then try playing a game of follow the leader, but when they arrive at the top of the hill, only one of the caterpillars has followed them. The catipiller starts eating a bush when Little Bear comes up with the idea to use the bush to intice the rest of the caterpillars to follow. It works and the caterpillar move to their new home. When Little Bear leaves to go back home, on of the caterpillars wants to go home with him as a pet. The next morning, Little Bear hears Duck crying from the hilltop. He also realizes that the caterpillar is gone from the jar. He takes his jar to the top of the hill and finds out why Duck is crying. All of the caterpillars are gone. Suddenly, butterflies start hatching and flying around them. Little Bear realizes what has happened and smiles at all the butterflies. The End

Follow The Leader
Duck, Duck, Goose says one of the friends. Owl complains that it?s too hot to play. They all agree and decide to head over to Hop Frog Pond. They play follow the leader on their way there. They each take a turn being the leader. Each of them use their imagination to have different adventures along the way.

Little Bear?s Mermaid
The Bear family, along with their friends, goes on a picnic at the lake. Little Bear jumps in for a swim when he notices a frog next to some cattails. Upon closer investigation, he catches a glimpse of a mermaid?s tail fin going into the water. When he tells his friends about the mermaid, they don?t believe him. The look for her and don?t see her. Little Bear suggests that she?s shy, so he has everyone lie down and pretend to be asleep. Everyone falls asleep, even Little Bear. He is woken up by a splash. The mermaid has returned and invited him to come in to the lake and have a swim with her. When they finish the swim, his friends and family are all still asleep so he said goodbye to the mermaid. When they all wake up, he tells them about his adventures with the mermaid. They don?t believe him again, but his Papa said that you just couldn?t ever predict about a mermaid.

Hop Frog Pond
Little Bear, Emily & friends are all sitting on the grass underneath a shade tree. Emily will be leaving soon to go back to school. They talk about some of their happy memories, which includes a time that they went to Hop Frog Pond. They decide that for their last day together, they?d go back and make some more happy memories. They swim with the fish, frogs and meet some new friends, the otters. The otters have a mud slide that they all slide down.
They all have a good time and can?t wait for next summer to get here.

This is a good video for young preschoolers to about 1st grade. Though I must admit that I wouldn?t buy the video. All the strips are from Nick Jr. and you could easily record these on your own. Josh already had this video when he came, so I didn?t make the investment of purchasing the video. It also had about five to seven min. of previews before the first strip started. For a child with a short attention, this could loose his attention before the strips actually start.