I'm a full-time mummy

The playgroup where I bring my 2 kiddos to since early this month have this nice system for their toys arrangement/placement. Each toys are placed in their respective containers in their respective spots in the book shelves.

When a child takes a toy to play, they can only play 1 toy at a time. It takes a while for my 2 kiddos to get used to this as they have been playing more than 1 toys at a time and to be told suddenly they can only play 1 toy at a time, to return it back to its place before they can play another toy takes a little bit time to get used to. But within half hour, they got the message. One toy at a time. Neat!

I like the idea that a child must always returned back the toy they finished playing with by following and matching the stickers on the toy's containers and its spot in the shelves. According to one of my FB page follower (Miss Jennifer Dansberger Jones who worked in a preschool for years), she said that "the labeling system was mandatory for 2 reasons, 1) easy clean up and identification 2) pre-reading skills -matching, observation, and (we labeled with the word and picture for word/object association. I feel children should have more art supplies available, and manipulatives ( puzzles, sorting beads,etc.) any problem solving and fine activities- because children are lacking those skills."

So yes, I am so going to do this to our home as well! Picture below taken on 13th Sept 2013, bought 5 cloth boxes from Ikea (after making sure it fits our Expedit bookcase) and reorganize all toys and books in our room into the appropriate boxes with labelling (words and pictures). Still pending: need to tidy up the wires and cables dangling at the back and probably fill up the rest of the shelves with the blue cloth boxes as well hehehehe...

I hope I will be able to train my kiddos to organise and clean up the toys according to the correct boxes and by matching the labels to the boxes. Wish us luck!!!

**Personal notes: Apologies but due to my paranoia of privacy and security of myself, my family and my kiddos, I am not going to reveal what is the SAHM group I'm in, the playgroup name, the area and so on. Apologies but like I said, I am really paranoid and with info like this being shown in public, I hope you can understand my reasons for doing so.

Sharing pictures taken of my labor bag as I realised I have never actually had a proper checklist to keep track or remind myself what to bring when I am due to give birth! I packed this when I was at my 36 weeks pregnancy.

Stuff for myself:

* A pack of disposable panties (the hospital I am going to give birth at only provide the 1st maternity pad which is those string type where they tie at the sides, but other than that no free panties or maternity pad for you)

* A nursing bra

* A T-shirt and a long pants for myself when I checked out from the hospital (will be wearing hospital gown during my stay after labor so no need to bring any extra own clothes until I leave hospital)

* A pack of maternity pads

* Some light snacks (though I can get hubby to bring more from home if I needed to)

* Books to pass time (hopefully can read when baby is asleep)

(Not in picture yet: My mobile phone and charger, hospital health booklet, my identity card)

Stuff for newborn baby:

* A pack of newborn diapers (we don't need to bring the whole pack but I'm lazy to open it up and bring some so just going to lug the whole pack over to hospital since the hospital will not be providing any to us also)

* 3 pairs of baby clothes (short/long sleeve and pants)

* 2 packs of baby wipes

* Talcum powder (just in case need to use)

* Towel (though we can get from hospital as well)

* Few hankerchiefs

* Baby blanket and some comfu swaddles

In case you are wondering what about baby formula powder, bottles and pacifier, well, we never have it for our previous 2 kiddos. Our birth hospital is pro-breastfeeding and they ban any form of baby formula powder, bottles and pacifier so that's the reason we don't need to pack these items in my labor bag.

Let me know if there is anything I should bring along! Thanks!

Our 4.5 years old boy loves maps! So when I received an email pitch on this app, I immediately requested to review it as I could definitely see the potential in our learning aspects! Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: There’s a Map on My Lap!
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Released: 28 Aug 2013
* Version: 2.3
* Size: 49.2 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"Come along with The Cat in the Hat as he travels the world to teach Sally and Dick all about maps. Learn the many uses of different types of maps, including city, state, world, topographic, temperature, terrain and more. Find out about various map formats (flat, globe, atlas, puzzle) and tools used to read them (symbols, scales, grids, compasses)."

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* I like how we get to learn the many types of maps and how to interpret the symbols and legends on the map.

* I can imagine the possibilities of using what we learned from this app and applied it to the world map we have in our kiddos' playroom. Exciting!

* I find myself learning new things from this app too! An eye opener!

You can purchase the "There’s a Map on My Lap! " app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"