My students love these

Easy to play with

My daughter plays with these nonstop! She is one but not too young to open and close the jar, pack the turtles up and unpack them again, put the baby turtles in the momma turtles bellies, group the mommas & babies separately...endless entertainment! We have not reached the point of appreciating the numbers, but this set is so versatile and sturdy that she will be playing with it for years. I received this product as part of an incentivized review program.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have two children- nearly 2 and 4.5. We recently received these turtles. I wasn't sure which age would work best with them. Would they be too hard for my youngest? Too easy for my oldest? Turns out- they're great for both ages. My younger son liked matching the colors. While he can't name the colors yet he was able to pair up the baby, mother's body, and mother's shell that were the same color. As he did this I talked to him about the colors. He was repeating them after me. My older son enjoyed showing off his number skills with the turtles. He named each number and we talked about the shape that had that number of sides. He wasn't too interested in the colors since that's a skill he mastered awhile back. Both boys liked making "silly turtles" by mixing up the shells and bodies. They also made a turtle parade and played together to march the parade around the room. The toy was interactive and able to keep them both interested in much different way.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The toddlers in my classroom loved this product. They were so excited playing with the turtles matching colors and shapes they didn't realize they were learning while they were playing. They had fun putting the baby turtles inside the mommy turtles which improved their motor skills.

My daughter plays with these nonstop! She is one but not too young to open and close the jar, pack the turtles up and unpack them again, put the baby turtles in the momma turtles bellies, group the mommas & babies separately...endless entertainment! We have not reached the point of appreciating the numbers, but this set is so versatile and sturdy that she will be playing with it for years. I received this product as part of an incentivized review program.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have two children- nearly 2 and 4.5. We recently received these turtles. I wasn't sure which age would work best with them. Would they be too hard for my youngest? Too easy for my oldest? Turns out- they're great for both ages. My younger son liked matching the colors. While he can't name the colors yet he was able to pair up the baby, mother's body, and mother's shell that were the same color. As he did this I talked to him about the colors. He was repeating them after me. My older son enjoyed showing off his number skills with the turtles. He named each number and we talked about the shape that had that number of sides. He wasn't too interested in the colors since that's a skill he mastered awhile back. Both boys liked making "silly turtles" by mixing up the shells and bodies. They also made a turtle parade and played together to march the parade around the room. The toy was interactive and able to keep them both interested in much different way.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The toddlers in my classroom loved this product. They were so excited playing with the turtles matching colors and shapes they didn't realize they were learning while they were playing. They had fun putting the baby turtles inside the mommy turtles which improved their motor skills.

Perfect for my Autistic students

The counting turtles set is a great toy for my almost-two year old to play with any of his older siblings or parents. It is packaged in a clear, sturdy, plastic container that is easy to use for storagewhen not in use. The set comes with 5 brightly colored turtle pairs - a larger "mama" turtle, and smaller "baby" turtle. Each baby turtle is marked with a number, 1-5. Each mama turtle has a detachable, snap-on shell with a different shape on the back.There are 5 different bright colors; each matching mama-baby set has corresponding numbers on the backs (eg., the red set has a baby with a 1 on its back; the mama has 1 circle on its back). This set is fantastic for matching and identifying colors, shapes, and numbers, working on one-to-one correspondence to 5 (or 10), adding, subtracting, counting, fine motor skills (the snap-on back is a cinch for my 4 year old, but the almost 2 year old has to work on it for a bit before snapping in place), and demonstrating to little children that different number symbols have different values. It's also great to watch my older children try to use the turtles to teach the 2 year old. I do feel that there is a limited window of time for children to get good educational use out of the toy, though it depends on the child. The two to three year age range seems just perfect; we can, however, extend the age a bit for my 4 y/o to practice addition and subtraction, using the turtles as manipulatives. Because I have 4 kids with a 7 year age range, I prefer toys that fall within more than one! So, while the toy is fantastic, and works on so many different skills, the age range is somewhat limited. That being said, I would definitely recommend it for those in the 18 month to 4 year old range (especially when there are older siblings who can help teach the littles)! Note: I received this product as part of an incentive program in exchange for my honest review