I'm a full-time mummy

I received an email pitch to review this parenting book over 2 months ago, and finally able to read through everything! I have always been interested and keen to read books on parenting, teaching children and so on, hence I requested for a PDF copy (since I read books on my iPad most often nowadays and it is so convenient for me to bookmarks certain important points and tips in the book) Here goes my review...

Title: Parenting for Education
Author: Vivian W. Owens
Publisher: Eschar Publications, LLC (2013)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-1929221011 / 1929221010
Paperback:  233 pages

Description from the product page:
"Simple educational how-to, why-to, and what-to-do book. Practical guidelines assist parents with helping their children at home to build basic learning foundations. Motivational and inspiring.  Many topics will lead you to help your children raise academic performance in math or reading. Particularly useful to parents of children aged six months to fourteen years old."

The book comes in 10 chapters touching on topics like guidelines to start off our young ones to learning, examining the root causes of learning and the solutions, how to raise academic performances and deal with underachievers, setting goals for future and using your home as a learning environment.

In Page 19, I agree with the statement of "Think not of grades and test scores as the school year begins. Instead, think of individuals. Your child is a unique human being with feelings and needs unlike another. He needs your love, guidance, and support in order to rise to his best potential. You are the over-seer of his education, and good things happen when you take that responsibility seriously." Each child is different and we progress in our own pace and it is because of this factor that I am looking after our kiddos at the moment.

While we are still on page 19, I also try to implement one of the tips which is "Children need to hear parents say, “I know you can do it!” ". Whenever I see our 4.5 years old boy struggling to do something, I quickly assure and calm him down before he erupts into a tantrum believeing he is a failure and everything is going against him. And when our boy is finally able to do a task, I also make sure and gently reminded him 'See, mummy knows you can do it!'

I also agree with the statement of "Celebrate your child’s unique personality. Compliment him for the strengths that enable him to be a productive human being, and you increase his sense of self worth." also on page 19. I mean, not just our child, even us adults would appreciate some words of compliments every now and then.

I find myself nodding with the tips on page 39 'Look for your child’s good actions. Catch him in the act of controlling his temper, doing homework without needing to be reminded, talking less while working, cleaning his room'. I try to make sure our kiddos know mummy is watching him and knows he is doing good things and behaving well, not just scrutinising and scolding / nagging when he's not behaving well.

On page 55, "Playtime is very important to young minds. It allows creative, intellectual expression as well as motor development. And, we, parents should not intrude on playtime with our suggestions and our ways of doing—most of the time. Playtime without intrusion is called “Free Play.”" I have recently registered both my kiddos to a playgroup sessions (twice a week, each session 2 hours and parent must be around to accompany their children, which is what I like) and the playgroup sessions incorporate freeplay time as well so I really appreciate and thank God we managed to find this playgroup sessions!

I learned a new thing from this book, on page 65, something about Underachievers, according to the book, "a category of underachievers who are generally highly creative and intellectually inclined. Students such as they quite often do poorly on tests because test masters expect you to choose one best answer, and these children have insight into several correct answers." Wow! I've never thought of this. So this statement is an eye opener for me!

However, I personally do not agree with the statement on the same page "Additionally, parents should assist their child by seeing to it that they prepare for quizzes, tests, and exams. Carefully review questions with them, showing them how to arrive at conventional answer" as I believe if we are trying to coerce child into conventional answers, it would stifle their creativity and confidence.

In page 80 "Help For Dyslexia", I also need to pay more attention and observe our boy as he had some signs of this, for example writing in mirror image and he occassionally has trouble with left-right coordination.

In summary, this is a helpful book that opens up my eyes towards understanding our child more, that each child matures at a different rate; and there are many other factors that affect that maturity and we should not gauge a child's development and progress based on their age as it does not confer readiness.

You can get this book from Amazon and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author 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"

I always believed God is watching over us! A while ago, I was telling myself as I rummaged through my worn out diaper bag (it's already 2 years old) and telling myself it is high time to get a new diaper bag, and few weeks back while discussing with my hubby what to get for our ninja girl's coming 2 years old birthday and hubby suggested we get a Duplo set for Alyson's birthday (as it can easily merged with her brother's Lego sets and we are really strong believer in Lego stuff which helps foster creativity and motor skills in our kiddos) and then a few weeks back also, one of our kiddos got a bit of a fever and I used our digital thermometer and I noticed the flashing battery low indicator and I was like thinking 'Argh... not this... how to change battery?' and God comes to our rescue and answered our prayers!

To cut a long story short, I was approached by Lazada Malaysia to collaborate with them and despite my announcement that I am stopping all product reviews to focus on our coming 3rd child in October and also taking care of our 2 kiddos now, I just had to accept this pitch as the products sent for my review are what I have been asking for!!! So here goes my review for the products we received from Lazada Malaysia:

About the company:
"Lazada Malaysia is poised to be the single largest online mall that is part of a global cyber chain already established in Europe. We have similar sites in China, India, Singapore and the Philippines with plans to move into other parts of the world. Lazada Malaysia will change the face of shopping by offering a user-friendly, convenient and trusted e-commerce platform. "

 I received a total of 3 products for my review which I will break it down for easier reading:

# 1 : Bubbles Ashley Diaper Sling Bag (Black color)

A new diaper bag with a detachable bottle holder! Yay! I would've preferred a red color bag (easier to notice) but black will do as well as it masks off dirt and mess easily too hahahah... I particularly love the spacious pockets all over the bag, and boy, this bag does have lots more pockets than my current worn out diaper bag! More places for me to stuff my kiddos things and snacks!

I also like that this bag comes with 2 handles which can be easily hold up together with a Velcro strap and I would definitely prefer the sling strap as I find it more comfortable to carry a sling diaper bag. I also like that the bag has 2 cute zipper tabs (I get annoyed when there's only one zip tab), I mean, 2 zip tabs are cool as I can open it from either sides!

A look at the insides of the diaper bag, whoaaaa... spacious... the width of the bag is about 6 inches, lots of stuff I can put in, enough for 3 kiddos' stuff later! Btw, the diaper bag also comes with a changing pad which you can use in the event you need to change your kiddo's diaper anywhere, anytime!

One thing that I'm still trying to get used to is the way the sling strap is being hooked/attached to the diaper bag. The metal hooks are not located on the sides of the diaper bag (like how my worn out diaper bag is) but are located at the top, zig-zag across each ends. You don't really noticed the difference when you sling the diaper bag, just that I feel weird and need to get used to this new settings.

So I took out everything from my worn out diaper bag and transferred them over to the Bubbles Ashley Diaper Sling Bag. There's a whole lot more space left in the diaper bag and I love how I can organised the things better now. More pockets for me to put things in different places rather than stuffing everything into a small space like how I previously did.

This Bubbles Ashley Diaper Sling Bag will come in handy when our 3rd child comes along as I will be able to pack all 3 kiddos' stuff into this bag! Yay! For more information on this bag, go to: http://www.lazada.com.my/Bubbles-Ashley-Diaper-Sling-Bag-Black-452657.html

# 2 : Bremed BD1130 Digital Baby Thermometer (Koala Bear design)

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, a few weeks back, one of our kiddos got a bit of a fever and I noticed the flashing battery low indicator when I was using our digital thermometer and I was worried about the prospect of not having any digital thermometer to measure our kiddos' temperatures in the future. And look at what we have here! The Bremed BD1130 Digital Baby Thermometer!! Yay, and it comes with 4 cute designs, which are frog, koala, panda and bear. We got the koala bear design and I love it! Really cute!

What impressed me about this Bremed BD1130 Digital Baby Thermometer is it has a flexible tip, you can really bend the tip back and forth. Very good when you have wriggly little ones trying to escape from being forced to have their temperatures taken hahahaha... This thermometer also has a fever alarm and is waterproof as well. Nice!

Of course I immediately got down to testing the Bremed BD1130 Digital Baby Thermometer with our current low battery digital thermometer on both my kiddos. The temperature shown for my boy is same for both devices whereas we are off by 0.1C reading for my girl.

The only thing I would prefer is a bigger screen for the thermometer as the screen for our current one is quite big. For more information on this thermometer, go to: http://www.lazada.com.my/Bremed-BD1130-Digital-Baby-Thermometer-445805.html

# 3 : Lego Duplo Luigi’s Italian Place (5818)

What a cute Lego Duplo Luigi’s Italian Place set we got here! This was initially meant for our 4.5 years old boy but we have decided to give it to our going to be 2 years old ninja girl soon as hubby and I were planning to get her a Duplo set for her birthday.

Unfortunately, this is the only Duplo set available for our review and we are really a big fan of Lego products and thought this would still make an awesome gift although it might be more geared towards boy type of games. Anyway, our ninja girl is not into dolls or girly cookery toys anyway, so yeah, we decided to go ahead with the Lego Duplo Luigi’s Italian Place!

Btw, why we love Duplo products? For your info, DUPLO products are fun and safe for younger hands, the blocks are big enough for them to play with and we can testify how awesome Lego products is for our 4.5 years old boy as we can see how creative he got as he plays with his Lego and we hope to repeat the same with our soon to-be 2 years old girl later.

I would really love to open this Duplo set up but like I mentioned earlier, we wanted to get this as a birthday gift for our going to be 2 years old ninja girl (her birthday is on 2nd Sept by the way) so I will have to revisit and update this post with more pictures of our girl playing with this Duplo set after her birthday passed okay?

If you are planning to look for Lego or Duplo products, you can browse for more designs at: http://www.lazada.com.my/shop-blocks-building-toys/

You can browse for more products at http://www.lazada.com.my/

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

Sometime in July this year, I received an email invitation for me to bring our kiddos to this centre to try out a developmental play session where children will learn to use their hands to explore, refining their sense of touch, and developing their co-ordination and fine motor control. The place was a bit too far from our house and being heavily pregnant at 8 months now and with 2 very clingy kiddos at this stage, I politely declined the offer but was then offered to try out their playbox kit at home since it is not convenient for me to go out and about. So yes, anything that I can try out with my kiddos at home, I said yes of course!

Description from the product page:
"WeePLAY is established by three sisters who are mummies (well, one will be in October 2013). We believe that kids should be given opportunities for healthy play that develop all of their senses.

The Messy Play Boxes are an extension of our messy play sessions. The reasons why we introduced the play boxes are for parents who love the idea of messy play and would have loved to come to our play sessions but for one reason or another (time, location, etc), cannot do so."

** Feedback on packaging and product features: I received the WeePLAY Messy Play Box which contains 3 tubes of WeePLAY Non-toxic Paint (colors: Neon pink, green and yellow), 3 tubs of WeePLAY Dough (colors: red, yellow and green), a paint palette and 2 paint brushes.

 I immediately opened up one of the dough containers and did a smell test. I don't know why but somehow I always associate dough with yucky smells (like ermm... sweat?) so that was my 1st test on the product. And guess what? It smells goooooooodd... so fragrant as if they dumped a bottle of perfume into the dough!

Next test was taste. Yes, I did taste the dough. Why? I was afraid my kiddos will put it into their mouth (since they smell so good) and what does the dough taste like? Salty! It turned me off and I guess my kiddos won't be attempting to put the dough into their mouth hahahah...

Third test was texture. I pressed my finger onto the dough and it left my finger imprints there. It is easy to roll the dough though one of the colors (the green one) is a bit sticky and wet still. I have clarified with the company on this feedback and received this reply:
"As to your question about the green dough, here's an honest answer. As you know, we make this all in our kitchen and therefore, no ISO! The good thing about it though, is that it's all safe with no chemical whatsoever. The stickiness can sometimes be caused from either a wee bit much water (when we were making it) or from being in the fridge not kneaded or played - we suspect the latter in your case. The stickiness will lessen the more your wee ones play with it." So there you go, case solved!

Next up, the paint. I took the container with the cutest color of all... neon pink! Love it! Our 2 years old ninja girl seems to be attracted to this color as well :) I rolled the container around my hand and the paint move slowly, shows it is not too diluted or watery. The colors are even and you don't see any lumps or anything. I proceeded to pour out some on the paint palette for my kiddos to try on.

** Feedback on the usage: I let my kiddos try out the dough. I think my kiddos have some sort of OCD problem. They don't really like sticky things on their hands. Look at our ninja girl, not even touching the dough much! I tried coaxing her to have a feel of the dough but she keeps on shaking her head and insisted on using a plastic toy spoon to poke and prod the dough.

Our 4 years old boy on the other hand is a bit more adventurous. I think he thought it is the same Play-doh material we have and he uses one of his Play-doh toy to play along with the WeePLAY dough. My boy smacked the dough onto his play table and was busy cutting his imaginary food and feeding Cookie Monster.

After sometime, they got restless and I decided time to let them try the paint at our balcony. So I poured out a dollop each from the paint container onto each side of the paint palette, gave our kiddos a paint brush each, smaller brush for our girl and bigger brush for our boy. Our girl immediately scooped the neon pink paint while our boy got onto mixing the green and yellow paint. He then practised his number writing and also drew a Truffula tree on our balcony floor.

A few days later, I let my kiddos play with the paint at our balcony again. This time, I told our boy to color some of the sea shells we brought back from Penang last year during our family trip.

** Feedback on the mess and cleaning up: I was initially quite fretful at the thought of cleaning up the mess... the paint and everything! But amazingly, the paint washes off easily the moment you sprayed water on it. During the play, our girl got some paint on her legs and it doesn't make her uncomfortable or itchy or anything. In fact, she continued playing and even happily swabbed some paint on me! Our boy got so excited he painted all over the balcony floor and walls!

Cleaning up the paint is very easy. Just wash it off with water and it comes off easily. Maybe it is our balcony floor tiles but I realised the floor is very slippery while we were washing the paint off so I had to be extra cautious and keep watching our kiddos in case they slipped and fell.

** Overall Feedback: I like the Messy Play Box, especially the paint ones as I can see my kiddos enjoying themselves, coloring and doodling happily and not worried about the mess being permanently left on the floor/walls.

I also think the idea of this playbox is cool! I have seen this type of products being sold overseas (online too) where parents can subscribe and pay monthly for the crafts and playbox which will be compiled and delivered straight to their doorstep every month so that parents can use and let their kiddos play with the kit. I hope to see more products being offered by the company and that more parents are open to this concept to allow their children go crazy with messy playing (and all the time learning as well) !

The Messy Play Box (retailed at RM50 for members and RM55 for non-members) is one of the bestsellers alongside the Wee Box (RM23 for members and RM26 for non-members) which contains 5 of those WeePLAY non-toxic Paints. The other 3 Play Boxes currently available at the moment are The Sensory Dough Play Box, The Messy Marble Play Box and The Messy Slime Play Box (all 3 are RM29 for members and RM33 for non-members).  All 5 play boxes are available for sale through www.weeplaymalaysia.com.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by WeePLAY 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.