I'm a full-time mummy

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. Do note that sharing this does not mean I agree or disagree with it. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

Given how tricky it can be to just get your child to sit still for a moment, you'd be forgiven for not analysing the position they're choosing to sit in too much. But there's one position which little kids love to use - maybe you loved to use it, too - and its prevalence is causing a lot of concern.

The common 'W' position is when kids (and sometimes adults) sit flat on their bottoms with their legs splayed out to each side, knees bent and feet pointing outwards - forming the letter 'W'.

But whilst it may be your child's default mode when watching TV or playing, it may be causing lasting damage to their posture. This in turn can affect their growth and development and lead to orthopedic issues.

What it's bad for:

 - Hips
- Knees
- Ankles
- Postural muscles (found in your back, abdomen and hips)
- Core stability development

Why is it bad?

Whereas crossed legs, side-sitting, or sitting with your legs stretched out in front of you engages core strength, the 'W' position does not challenge the muscles in our back and abdomen - which we need to keep us upright.

It's particularly risky for very young children to adopt this position, as they are still very much developing and adapting their posture. Dr Challoner provides some useful tips on preventing your child from sitting in this position for prolonged amounts of time.

One way of ensuring they don't get into the habit is by praising their posture when they are in a different position.

What you can do? 

Everything in moderation. If the child is transitioning in and out of different positions and occasionally chooses “W” sitting then this should not be concerning. But if the child is only sitting “W” style, then alternative positions should be utilized. In this instance, I urge you to encourage other positions like kneeling, ½ kneeling, long sitting, side sitting, cross legged (criss-cross applesauce), or a deep squat.

What do you think?

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I had previously written about how we make use of technologies to parent, educate and learn together as a family, shared our family's guidelines on technology usage for our children and also recommended some favourite Windows apps and utilities.

As mentioned before, I'm very blessed to own a reliable Windows computer with the fast processing power of Intel processors that does magic in our everyday lives and so for today's post, I will share with you on some of our recommended Windows games that we use in our family. Here we go, the list in no particular order:

Minecraft

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

You would have to be living on another planet if you have not heard of Minecraft. Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. You chopped off trees, gather the woods and materials, build your shelter, hunt for food and more. You can play in free mode or survival mode (it gets dark at night and zombies and monsters came out so you really need to build/find a shelter fast!) You can play on your own or join other networks/servers and play with your friends.

Some might think it is quite costly to purchase this game, I mean, hubby and I had the same thoughts too prior to our decision to purchase the app. In fact, we delayed for almost a year thinking it through and happy to say, no regrets so far with our decision to get this game. Our 6.5-year-old boy loves Lego, he loves building stuff so to see him blossoming more after playing on Minecraft, just magical.

Just look at what he built when he was 5-ish... I am not kidding you, all these were done by himself without any help from us except when he needed help to spell some words (he started kindergarten at 5 years old) so that he could type them onto the sign boards to place into his Minecraft worlds.

You can research more on this game for the pros and cons, don't need to take our words blindly. For us, this game really does wonder in our boy, he learned a lot from it, building and securing his shelter, sourcing for materials, mining for resources and minerals, combining materials to create new tools and stuff. On the rare occasions where I played together with our boy on our server, I was very impressed as I see him getting straight to source for materials to build his shelter while I was still fumbling around trying to get my direction LOL. Even from time to time as I read news articles to him or share something new that I learned, he will suddenly tell me 'Yeah, yeah I know. In Minecraft we have that!'

Agent P Strikes Back

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

In this game, you have to guide Perry aka "Agent P" and try to locate the other missing agents while battling robotic guards and double jumping your way through Doof's complex. When our 6.5-year-old boy first started playing this game, he was quite frustrated as he was not used to playing games like this. Having had to learn to manoeuvre left, right, up, down all of a sudden is quite a shock to him. I mean, for a child who has absolutely no problems playing Minecraft (twirling around 360 degrees you know!) and suddenly had to slow down to control the directions and to achieve some goals in each level is a challenge but after a few attempts, he got the hang of it and loves the game.

I am glad to see him being able to manipulate the controls on our Acer Switch 12 device and was amazed to see him whizzed through levels after levels.

Plumber 3

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

This is an interesting game that I like. In this game, you need to rotate the pipes to form a path from the valve to the end to let the water flow. Once you complete the path from begin to end, you will go to next level which will be more challenging than previous ones.

I used the opportunity from this game to let our 6.5-year-old boy tried out, to see whether he can have a bigger picture and solve puzzles like this. He managed to solve one level all by himself without any guidance from me!

Princess Memory

(** Click icon below to download the app for free)

In this Princess Memory game, you get train your mind matching with the Princess characters alone or you can challenge a friend. I like that our 2 girls can play this game together at the same time (awesome way to avoid the girls fighting to play with their favourite Disney princesses LOL). I also like that the game tested our girls' memories and enjoy seeing them trying to recall the pictures being flipped as they tapped each one and tried to find the matching ones.

Candy Crush Saga

(** Click icon below to download the app for free)

I am addicted to this game!! Argghhhhh... I can't stop playing this game! It is so addictive and fun to match the candies and solving each puzzles and journey through the game. So so so fun! I'm not even sure I should recommend this game but it is a favourite of mine so I had to share this LOL! This game is completely free to play but some in-game items such as extra moves or lives will require payment, so if you do not want to spend any money, just wait it out and keep annoying friends and players on the game asking them to give you live and chances like what I am doing so far hahahaha...

There are other games which we use for our family of course but the above are the regularly used ones that can be found on our Acer Switch device, computers and smartphone. I hope my recommendation is useful and helpful to you guys!  In the meantime, you can learn more at the Make Magic website. 

Make magic. Every day.

#makemagiceveryday

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur is having a "Double Your Ong" Promotion as part of their celebrations to usher in the Year of the Monkey! Some of the special Chinese New Year activities lined up are as follow:

For a chance to win a free double pass (1 Adult + 1 Kid), follow the steps below:

1. Share the KidZania Kuala Lumpur Double the Ong poster on your social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram) before February 7. Remember to set the privacy settings to PUBLIC.

2. You must hashtag #KidZaniaKL & #KZKLDoubleTheOng and put the link in the Comment Box of MY blogpost.

3. The first 5 readers to share the poster will win a pair of passes to KidZania Kuala Lumpur (1 Adult + 1 Child).

** For more info, check out Kidzania's website or their FB page.

 
Good luck!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on this blog post as the first 5 commentators have left their links to their sharing on my FB/blog post. Thanks for those who participated!