Patent Publication Number: US-2007110930-A1

Title: Educational cups and game sets

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      This invention relates to cups for play and education.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      Every parent or caregiver has been in the situation where he or she has found it difficult to keep young children occupied and stimulated. The ubiquitous challenge to keep young children engaged in interesting activities surfaces in visits to doctors, friends, restaurants, home, in short, almost everywhere.  
      Embodiments according to the present invention help to keep young children in affordable, fun and educational activities for hours, thereby providing interactive alternate solutions to passive activities such as watching television.  
     SUMMARY  
      The present invention provides educational and fun play cups for keeping young children at an interactive activity. A cup according to the present invention includes a printed material on its side such that the printed material is right side up when the cup is upside down.  
      In use, a child plays a plurality of cups according to the present invention, and thus engages with a plurality of printed materials shown on the cups. Using the printed materials on the cups as a guide, the child may stack, sort, match, and arrange the cups. The printed material are fun and educational, thus the child&#39;s attention may be engaged in educational process while he or she is playing with the cups.  
      A game set according to the present invention includes a plurality of cups according to the present invention and a mat having a plurality of printed materials. The printed materials on the plurality of cups comprise a first series of printed material, while the plurality of printed materials on the mat comprises a second series of printed materials. A child may be engaged to identify, sort and match an item in the first series to the corresponding item in the second series.  
      Cups and game sets according to the present invention enable numerous educational and fun activities, such as, among other things, spelling words, making phrases, counting numbers, identifying shapes and colors, and even learning foreign languages. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1   a  shows an embodiment of cup  10  according to the present invention when the cup is right side up.  
       FIG. 1   b  shows an embodiment of cup  10  according to the present invention when the cup is upside down.  
       FIG. 2  shows exemplary printed materials on cup  10 .  
       FIG. 3  shows a pyramid structure that a user may build using a plurality of cups  10 .  
       FIG. 4  shows a word pyramid that a user may building using a plurality of cups  10 .  
       FIG. 5  shows that an embodiment of game set  60  according to the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       FIG. 1   a  shows an embodiment for an educational cup  10  according to the present invention when the cup is right side up. Cup  10  comprises a top  12 , a bottom  14 , a side  16 , and a printed material  18  on the side  16  of the cup.  
       FIG. 1   b  shows the educational cup  10  when the cup is upside down. In particular,  FIG. 1   b  shows that the printed material  18  is right side up when the cup  10  is upside down.  
      Cup  10  may be any drinkable cup of any size. However, they are preferably made from disposable materials such as paper and plastic (hereinafter “disposable”). In addition, they are preferably five (5) ounce cups.  
      The printed material  18  on cup  10  may include any educational and fun materials for children.  FIG. 2  shows various examples for printed material  18 , including, among other things, letters  22 , numbers  24 , words  26 , symbols  28 , and phrases  30  (collectively, hereinafter “alphanumeric”), shapes  32 , pictures  34 , FIGS.  36  of animate and inanimate objects (collectively, hereinafter “shapes”). The printed material  18  may be black and white or in color.  
      A child may stack a plurality of cups  10  to build a pyramid structure  40 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . The pyramid structure  40  is easy to build, demolish and put away for the next time. More over, by stacking the cups  12  as regular disposable cups, a caregiver can easily carry them to any place his or her child may travel. The printed materials  18  on cups  10  engage the child&#39;s mind as she or he, among other things, stack, sort, match, and arrange them.  
      In addition, while a child is engaged with the cups  10 , a caregiver can also emphasize the learning experience by bringing the printed materials  18  on the cups to the child&#39;s attention. As an example, a series of letters may be used to teach young children how to put together words, such as “hi”  42  and “dog”  44 , as shown in  FIG. 4 .  
      As can be appreciated by those who care for children, cups  10  according to the present invention facilitate numerous educational and fun children&#39;s activities. For example, the colors in the printed materials may be used to teach the child the names of colors; while the shapes in the printed materials may be used to teach the child the names of shapes; and the alphanumeric printed materials may be used to teach the child the opposites, rhymes, or even a foreign language.  
       FIG. 5  shows an embodiment for game set  60  according to the present invention, the game set comprising educational cups  10  according to the present invention and a mat  50 , which includes a printed material  52 . Preferably, a plurality of cups  10 , thus a plurality of printed materials  18 , is used with a mat having a plurality of corresponding printed materials  52 . As an example, as shown in  FIG. 5 , a plurality of printed materials  18  forms a first number series, and a plurality of printed materials  52  forms a second series corresponding to the first series. In play, the child may engage in matching one of the items shown in the plurality of cups  10 , that is, a number in the plurality of printed materials  18 , with the corresponding item shown in mat  50 , that is, a corresponding shape in the printed materials  52 .  
      Again, as can be appreciated by those engaged in child caring, numerous educational and fun games may be played using cups  10  and mat  50 . As an example, the first series of printed materials  18  on cups  10  may be letters of the alphabet and the second series of printed materials  52  on mat  50  may be shapes of the objects whose name starts with the letters shown on cups  10 . The child is then directed find the item in the second series of printed materials  52  that starts with a letter shown on one of the cups  10 . As another example, the first series of printed materials  18  may be names of colors and the second series of printed materials  52  may be colored shapes. The child is then directed to match using the colors on the cups as a guide, each cup with the corresponding item in the second series of printed materials  52 . In addition, cups  10  according to the present invention may be used to play popular games such as, among other things, crosswords, scrabble, and checkers, as well as construction games, such as, among other things, build-a-house, build-a-picture, and build-a-castle. Cups  10  according to the present invention may also be used to inform children regarding events such as, among other things, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, and Hanukah, as well as regarding subjects such as, among other things, zoos, flags, presidents, countries, and states. Accordingly, educational and fun play cups and games sets according to the present invention may be used for innumerable fun and stimulating activities.  
      Numerous modifications to and alternative embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the foregoing description. Accordingly, this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode of carrying out the invention. Details of the embodiment may be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention, and the exclusive use of all modifications which come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved.