A Cleveland family has invented a year-round behavior buddy for kids “The Bear On The Chair®!” The Harrison family (dad Jim, mom Tania and daughter Symonne) always practiced creative behavioral rewards with their daughter. On a January day in 2013, 6 year old Symonne thought out loud “how fun it would be to have a really cute bear sitting on a chair and be happy when I do good things. Then everyone else would know I have been good by just looking at my bear!” Mom and Dad thought it was a really cute idea! They asked her what she would name this bear and that’s when she said “Bear On The Chair®!” Jim and Tania thought it was a pretty catchy name and that is when Bear On The Chair® was born.
The Harrison family and family friend, Julie Vaccarelli, have worked tirelessly for 15 months to bring this product from Symonne’s idea to a real patent pending retail product. From doing market research, customizing every detail of the bear, finding a manufacturer, a graphic design artist, trademarking the name and logo, copywriting story it was all quite the undertaking. “We really wanted to see this project through, as we felt is was an invaluable lesson to teach Symonne, that anything she puts her mind to she can accomplish” added Tania.
Positive reinforcement motivates people of all ages, especially children. The Bear On The Chair® will help parents work on behavior with their children throughout the year. Through the patent pending velcro shirt patch system, the bear helps motivate your child to earn the reward of the happy face patch on its shirt. The frown face patch is not meant to be negative but rather meant for a moment of pause, for both parent and child, and it makes the child think about their actions and realize their misbehavior needs improvement. They will feel empathy when they see they just made their parents and their special bear sad because of their actions.
The bear comes with its very own white chair, shirt, 2 velcro patches and a poetic story which Symonne and mom co-authored together. Children will give their bear a special name and register it on the website www.bearonthechair.com by completing their Bear On The Chair® adoption certificate and bring their bear to life!
There are also subtle creative ways Symonne is infused in the product. It is her handwriting in the logo “The Bear On The Chair” and her handwriting “BOTC” sewn on the left paw of every bear. She is also excited to be featured on the side of the retail packaging.
The family is using social media including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to promote product interest. The response has been staggering with 700 Twitter followers and 2.200+ Facebook likes from across the nation in just 3 weeks! Newspapers, bloggers and news stations have picked up the story. Tune in on Fox 8 news Tuesday, April 29 in the 8’oclock hour, as Stefani Schaefer will be interviewing them. Bear On The Chair® will be sold exclusively on www.kickstarter.com through May 8 and thereafter on their website. Log onto www.bearonthechair.com for more information.
