Tips For Choosing Stuffed Animals For Every Occasion: 

Romantic Occasions

This is one of the most special categories when it comes to occasions. In this category, if you are thinking of a gift, then big-sized teddy bears or stuffed animals will work the best. While searching for the same, it would be best even to add a personalized love message to the stuffed toy. When there’s something associated with romance, the two colors that vibe the best together are red and white. So, a teddy bear with a customized love message will be the best gift for a romantic occasion. It will show your passionate and long-lasting love for your partner. 

Get Well Soon

Another time when we often think of teddy bears or stuffed animals as an ideal gift is during the bad health of the significant other. If someone you know is hospitalized or injured, then a cute stuffed animal is a popular get-well-wishes gift. You can choose a plush bear, monkey bear, or hippopotamus teddy and engrave your special get well message on that. This get-well gift will help in the healing process and will act as an epitome of your sympathy and support. There are several options for get well teddy bears or any other stuffed animals.

Happy Birthday Time

If you wish to shower the best blessings on your loved ones, especially kids, on their birthday, then teddy bears are the ideal gift choice. An oversized happy birthday bear is the best surprise gift you can choose for them. This is not just an ideal gift for babies and toddlers but adults too. If you are giving it to a girl, then go for pink or white shades, and for boys, you can go for brown or gray shades. If you are thinking of gifting it to your friends, then the best idea would be to choose their favorite stuffed animal. It could be a panda, penguin, monkey, or simply a teddy bear. No other gift will delight the person in a way teddy bears can, especially on birthdays. 

Showing Gratitude Moment

A stuffed animal is a great gift to show gratitude to someone. It is one great way to pay regard and give tribute to someone out of respect. So, when you feel like saying thank you or wish to pay respect to someone, then choose a stuffed animal as a token gift. As this is something to show gratitude for, white, brown, or cream color teddy bears or cute stuffed animals will work the best. There are plenty of options out there. You just have to choose the right one, the one that can portray your feelings in the best way. 

Baby Shower

We know for a fact that babies adore their teddy bears. After all, they make them feel as if they are their partners, buddies, and, most importantly, their best friends. A kid shares everything with their stuffed toy or animal. As a result, we can say it can also be a great gift for a baby shower occasion. Babies cannot play with huge plush toys, so it would be fine to gift a small-sized teddy bear or stuffed animal. It can be a monkey, bear, panda, or more. This will be a great gift for the mother and the baby, who will arrive in a few months. 

Conclusion:

Being parents, your first and foremost responsibility is to provide a good upbringing to your child and equip them with essential values that help them become good human beings. Empathy is one of such indispensable values of life that will not only help them appreciate the thoughts and feelings of others but will also aid them in dealing with different situations better. And teddy bears can play a pivotal role in teaching empathy to your child. You can easily get quality wholesale teddy bears from a reliable online store and use them for your child's educational and developmental purposes. 

However, before discussing how plush bears can help, we will understand what empathy is and why it is important. So, without further ado, let's begin this highly useful piece of content for thoughtful parenting. Build Empathy in Your Child with Stuffed Bears.

What is Empathy & Why is it important to develop in Children?

Though most parents already know what empathy is, there are still those who might be unclear about the meaning of this term. Some people even confuse 'empathy' with 'sympathy,' but both terms have different meanings. Empathy is the ability to feel or understand what the other person is experiencing or feeling by placing oneself in their position and responding with care. In layman's terms, it is the capability to imagine oneself in another person's shoes to understand them and respond accordingly. The skill is not as easy to develop as it sounds.

It is not just about understanding others; it is also about knowing that you are entitled to have your own thoughts and feelings about different things. In addition, it also means having the maturity to accept and respect the reaction and emotions of others. 

Now that you know what empathy is, let's understand why it is important to instill empathy in children. Empathy is a social-emotional skill that helps kids develop the following characteristics.

• Having the understanding that they are a distinct person and other people can have different feelings than their own.

• Ability to recognize one's own feelings and name them.

• Understanding the perspective and emotions of others.

• Ability to establish a strong and secure relationship.

• Skill to regulate own emotional responses.

• Having the ability to recognize how to comfort the other person.

All these abilities will make your child a good human being not only today but also later in life, teaching them good values. Also, empathy will make your child more social, enhancing social skills. Nurturing good values in childhood helps throughout life. 

How Teddy Bears Contribute to Developing Empathy in Children?

For most children, the first relationship that they establish outside of their family is with a stuffed bear. These teddy animals provide children with companionship and comfort. Children not only share their emotions with stuffed animals but also practice all sorts of skills with them. They talk to them, teach them and take care of them. In short, they rehearse everything they have learned through observation. 

When a child plays with a plush brown teddy bear, it allows them to recognize their emotions. Pretentious play is an excellent way to explain and showcase different feelings, especially complex ones. It is quite easy for a child to imagine that a plush bear might feel things. For example, a child can pretend to be a doctor while the teddy is a patient. While playing this pretentious game, a child can understand what the teddy must be going through. It can help them empathize with their cute furry friend and feel the pain. 

Moreover, many children's mental healthcare experts agree that the best thing about plush teddy bears is that their faces give them personalities in children's minds. Children learn to talk with their stuffed animals when nobody is around and tell them all their secrets. This, in turn, helps them develop their communication capabilities and eventually be more accepting of feelings of both their own and others. 

Stuffed animals are the major source of emotional comfort for children. Most of the time, when a child is sad or disappointed, they will choose to confide in a teddy. It is because they associate the feelings of security with their stuffed teddy bears. This is one of the reasons why a child sleeps better with a heart pillow and an adorable stuffed toy. Having a teddy around can help them develop thoughts and care towards others. Children treat and take care of teddy animals like a person with feelings.

Furthermore, to be able to understand what the other person is feeling, you need to have a bond with them. Teddy bears help children develop trust and teach them how to bond. The cute and caring appearance of a hugging teddy bear makes it easy for children to bond with them, eliminating the awkwardness of interacting. Also, soft bears help children learn skills like negotiation and cooperation. Playing with teddy allows them to share, acknowledge and respect different emotions or feelings, creating a foundation for empathy. 

In addition, cute and cuddly bears help children deal with the feelings of loneliness and inferiority, providing them great comfort and emotional security. 

Takeaway!

Here we discussed how teddies could be a great helping hand in developing the values like empathy in children. Parents are free to invent creative ways of using teddies to develop their children's sense of empathy. Thus, stuffed animals are one of the best gifts you can give your child. If you are looking for a special teddy bear to pave the way for your kid's happy and hopeful childhood, you can explore a full range at Giant Teddy. Here you will find a great collection of stuffed animals at the best price.

Here are a few teddy bear games you should add to your kid's birthday party celebrations. 

Pass The Bear

We all have played pass the ball game in our childhood. Now you can make this game more fun for your kid's birthday party by replacing the ball with a stuffed bear. Are you wondering how to play with a bear? Well, let the kids sit in the circle on the ground and give them a bear to pass from one to another kid while music plays. Once the music stops, the kid who is holding the bear will be out. You know what to do next; no need to tell further! Make children play this fun game at your kid's birthday party and let them have the best time of the evening.

Teddy Hide & Seek

You must be speculating about how you can play hide and seek with a plush bear, right? No need to guess any further because we have come up with a really fun way! Get small stuffed animals and hide them all. Now, ask children to find them within a set time limit. To uplift the spirit of children, let them keep the ones they find. But do keep some extras to hand out to those children who don't find any at the end of the game! What a lively and rewarding game to play with teddies!

Stuffed Bear Rescue

This game is to be played in teams, so divide the kids into two groups or teams. Also, divide the plush teddy bears among both teams equally. Now, put the stuffed bears in troublesome situations or anomalous positions from which they need to be rescued. For example, a bear stuck in a tree or between cushions. Ask each team to rescue all these bears. The first team that saves the maximum number of bears wins the game. You can also reward the winning team with little gifts. Since kids play the game in a team, it is a great way to nurture your kid's social and teamwork skills. 

Guess the Stuffed Animal

Here are the rules to play this game; firstly, get all the stuffed animals you have and put them in a large bag or big basket. After this, blindfold the kid and ask them to pull out a random animal. Now, the player has to feel the shape of a plush animal to guess what animal it is; whether it is a stuffed monkey or a stuffed koala? Do not give them more than one minute to guess the name of the animal. Also, to make it more fun, give some points for the right answer while deducting the points for every wrong answer. It is an excellent game to assess the knowledge of children regarding animals.

Teddy Bear Fashion Show

You can organize a teddy bear fashion show for your kid's birthday party! All you need is some amazing baby outfits and accessories for teddy bears. Ask kids to dress up teddies and style them with accessories. Now, make a runway in the living room and show off these well-dressed teddies in the fashion show. Let every kid walk on the ramp with a dressed-up cute teddy bear in hand. Of course, you can also dress up little ones in fashion style. Also, make it more real by playing a fashion week theme song or a party song in the back. This game will allow kids to show their creativity in the fashion domain.

Musical Chairs with Stuffed Animal

A musical chair is one of the most admired games that every child loves to play! Make it more interesting for children by including stuffed toys in the game. Set up the party space for the musical chairs game. As per the rules of the game, each kid will hold a plush brown teddy bear. Now, play the music and once it stops, ask kids to place their stuffed bears in the chairs instead of sitting themselves. As the tradition goes, the player whose animal is left unseated will be out of the game. 

Takeaway!