Book Review - Scholastic - Bodhi and Friends series

~ Posted on Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 6:41 AM ~

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013 and especially now with 4th kiddo due at end of 2016. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, being preggy, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books, what more from a big brand name like Scholastic! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Extreme Colouring- Amazing World

Title: Scholastic - Bodhi and Friends series (Hello, Hey, Hi! and See You Later)
Publisher: Scholastic Singapore
ISBN: 978-981-47-2998-7 (Hello, Hey, Hi!)
ISBN: 978-981-47-2999-4 (See You Later)
Paperback: 24 pages (each book comes with a DVD)

Description from the product page:

"Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, presents a brand new book series “Bodhi and Friends” for kids ages 4 and up with the release of its first two sing-along books – Hello, Hey, Hi! and See You Later at its Book Preview Party held in Malaysia – the first across Asia.

This brand new book series is designed to provide a creative preschool educational program with adventure, music, fun, as well as the essential building blocks for early childhood.

The Bodhi and Friends books is a great series to be introduced to kids ages 4 and up as it is designed to help children to learn English phonics, vocabulary, grammar, listening skills while instilling a genuine love of language in them. "

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We received a copy of 'Hello, Hey, Hi!' and 'See You Later' for our review and the first person being enthralled by the colorful sight of the book is our youngest kraken, who at 2.5 years old now is fascinated with books as she tried to emulate her older sister who is flipping through book at 4.5 years old and making up her own stories as she goes along and her older brother who at 7 years old can read books at his own pace. Each book comes with a sing-along DVD of the song, very very catchy indeed!

However, I'm not sure whether it is because of my Zoom player app or what, the song ends abruptly. Usually when we hear songs, there would be a few seconds of music lingering on before fading off, but the songs from these 2 books cuts off abruptly. I have yet to get other app to try the DVD again though.

Scholastic - Bodhi and Friends

Hey there, I’ll see you later.

S E E   Y O U later.

Even I find myself spelling out the letters as I sing along with our kiddos. Very catchy indeed!

Scholastic - Bodhi and Friends

As a stay-at-home mother who is ehem.. stuck at home with our kiddos most of the time, I find these books entertaining and educational as well. Apart from getting your kids to learn as they sing and enjoy along with the upbeat songs, I also can't help but noticed the subtlety in teaching children about manners as well. To say goodbye, to share toys, to greet others with good manners and so on. So these books are not just plain sing-along song, there's more to it!

The illustrations are cute and eye-catching. Reminded our girls of the Disney Palace pets characters actually. The wordings on each page is big and easy on the eyes.

If you are observant like me (ehem, ehem..) you can also make use of the books to teach your child to name the objects on the page, to count how many friends of Bodhi in a particular page, to ask your child what do they think Bodhi and its friends are doing on the page (Going to school? Playing? Having a picnic? and more), to tell the time, to pay attention to the sky (dark = night time, raining etc), to name the colors on the rainbow, so much more learning opportunities if you just pay attention to the details in the book!

Thank you to Scholastic for the opportunities given to us to review these books!

Scholastic - Bodhi and Friends

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The book is available at all major bookstores.

For more information on the Bodhi and Friends book series, visit Scholastic’s website or Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ScholasticAsia

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with copies of the books 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

 

** 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.

Disney Junior ‘Animate Your Imagination’ Contest

~ Posted on Monday, May 30, 2016 at 7:19 AM ~

I received a mysterious paper bag recently and upon unboxing it, am pleasantly surprised to see the contents of it. Our kiddos were so excited especially when they saw the Disney Junior picture on the paper bag. They obviously know the contents were not meant for mummy LOL

So many cool goodies for our kiddos to use!

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Now you wonder what is going on? FYI, starting from 12 May 2016 till 12 June 2016, Disney Junior is running an ‘Animate Your Imagination’ contest. What you need to do is to tell them your child’s story based on his/her imagination set around a Pirate, Princess or Space theme, and Disney Junior will animate it! Do note that 3 of the most creative & imaginative of stories submitted will be featured as individually produced animated TV spots on the Disney Junior channel. How cool is it to have your kiddos' artwork being selected and animated and shown on Disney Junior channel huh?

Our kiddos immediately got down to drawing their preferred theme. Our 4.5 year old girl chose princess theme and started drawing herself and her little sister as princesses and then added a tower with Rapunzel in it. Our 7 year old boy on the other hand proceeded to doodle a pirate ship with some pirates inside.

If you want to find out more about the contest, do check out http://disneyjunior.disney.my/animate-your-imagination

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I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.

 

** 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.

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since 2014 and what more with baby #4 on the way this end of year, all the more I need to be particularly picky and selective with the products that I'm reviewing. Not that I'm trying to be hard sell, no, definitely not! But with 3 kiddos + 1 on the way, being a housewife at home with kiddos all the time and helping out with hubby's business, I just feel it is not fair to make companies and PR reps wait for my reviews while I slowly review and look for time to spare to draft out my feedback you know? But of course, like I said, I have to be selective, so products that we can definitely fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre) will be accepted!

When I received an email asking whether I would be interested to review this recently launched natural hair care brand for children with a unique Adventure Carousel theme, I was like 'Adventure Carousel?' This is interesting... and since it is natural hair care products, why not? 

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About the products:

"With so many other children’s hair care brands in the market, parents can sometimes find it difficult to choose a particular brand.  While there are a few children’s hair care brands that are natural or organic, their packaging designs are not necessarily attractive to children.

pout wanted to do something different that would make its new brand stand out, as well as appeal to the kids.  So it came up with the adventure carousel theme for its packaging, where the pout Care bottles are designed to form a colourful carousel.  Each product features a character on a carousel, with a short poem on the character’s adventures.  pout’s Blueberry Potion Natural Shampoo for example, features a knight on a quest to slay a dragon, while the Green Apple Whoosh Hydrating Conditioner features a witch trying to fly.

With its colourful adventure carousel theme, quirky characters and fun poems, pout believes its pout Care range will appeal to children’s imaginations and help build loyalty towards its new brand.  Made in Australia, pout Care is formulated with natural ingredients and organic plant extracts, with fruit-based scents.  The products do not include sulphates or parabens, which can be harmful to children. "

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I received the following products for our review:

Pout Natural Hair Care

Strawberry Magic Natural Shampoo

Pout Natural Hair Care

I first tried this on our 4.5-year-old girl because this is the first one she loudly exclaimed belongs to her. Well, apparently anything pink or with princess stuff is hers hahaha. Now, she has the tanglest hair of all our 3 kiddos and I liked that just a little dab of the shampoo can do the job!

I was expecting some pink colored shampoo but it looks more orangy peachy instead. It bubbles up fast but washes off easily. Her hair is already feeling slippery smooth after I washed it off her hair. I don't quite like the scent but that's partly because I'm not a fan of strawberry stuff hahaha but our girl loves it. As it turns out, I was informed by the company that the Strawberry Magic Natural Shampoo includes a vanilla caramel scent, so it doesn't smell like the typical strawberry scent. I see.....


Blueberry Potion Natural Shampoo

Pout Natural Hair Care

With the brave knight on the bottle, I let our 7-year-old boy tried this shampoo out. I love the smell of this! It has some sort of turquoise emerald sea color instead of blue. Just like the strawberry one, a little dab of this does the job! My boy's hair smells good! Heck, I sometimes sneakily use this shampoo on my own hair as well. Love love love the smell hehehehe...

 

Green Apple Whoosh Hydrating Conditioner

Pout Natural Hair Care

At first I thought this is another shampoo and thought of getting our 2.5-year-old girl to try it out since her favorite color is green. But then I re-read the label again and realized, oh, it's a conditioner! It has a cute little witch character on the bottle. It is formulated with natural emollients and rich protein that penetrate deeply into the hair shaft to effectively condition and hydrate your child's hair. I dabbed on some after shampooing our kiddos hair. It has this green light emerald color and smells like apple. Mmmmm... let the conditioner stays for a while on your child's hair before rinsing off. Hair is smoother and looks healthier!

 

Peaches & Cream Natural Detangler

Pout Natural Hair Care

Oh this is good! I like this! The pout Care Peaches and Cream Natural Detangler contains beneficial Argan oil high in antioxidants, which promotes healthy hair growth and helps treat split ends. I just sprayed some on the palm of my hand and gently rubbed them onto my 4.5 year old girl's hair. It has an almost translucent peachy color. I didn't shampoo her prior to that, just apply straight to her messy tangly hair hahaha... and look at the before and after pictures shown below. Messy tangly hair turned to straight silky smooth hair which I just use my fingers to brush down (too lazy to look for her comb hahahaha) This is a very good and easy to use and bring along product that you can just easily spray some for immediate detangling! Awesome!

Pout Natural Hair Care

 

Huckleberry Sorbet Natural Hair Wax

Pout Natural Hair Care

The last item in my review list is the Huckleberry Sorbet Natural Hair Wax. It has a matte purplish pinkish color and feels sticky. Even a tiny little dab holds hair for a few hours. I know because I tried some on my hair heheheh... it lasted for about 4 hours on my hair, not to mention smelling good as well. I just don't quite like the sticky feeling of it on my hand which took a bit of a hard washing to wash off the stickiness on my hand.


In summary, the cool thing about the Pout Natural Hair Care range is these products contains no sulphates or parabens, safe for your kiddos to use! Do consider these Adventure Carousel theme products which will incite your kiddos curiousity and playfulness!

I'm a full-time mummy

pout Care is currently available in specialty stores in Singapore, such as 1010 Mother & Child, Mom Essentials, Ocean Paradise and Liferacer. 

The range is also available in family salons Scissors Paper Stone, Little Red Dot and Back to Basic. 

Alternatively, parents can shop at pout’s online store pout.com.sg

For more information about pout Care, please visit: http://poutcare.com/

I'm a full-time mummy

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.


** 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.