I'm a full-time mummy

We have a couple of Dr. Seuss apps on my iPad and the latest one that my 3.5 years old boy still loves to listen to is of course the "What Was I Scared Of?" app. So when I received an email pitch on this app, I immediately requested to review it. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Nov 28, 2012
* Version: 1.09
* Size: 36.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Dr. Seuss reminds children that no matter what their struggles may be, they should always be thankful. This wildly imaginative collection of rhymes and illustrations will bring laughter and gratitude to the whole family."

* 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 the storyline where it teaches us to always be thankful for what we have and never ever compare our struggles and hardships when we don't even know others who are facing much much worse difficulties and hardships compared to ours.

* There are some pages which I used the opportunity to teach my 3.5 years old boy such as the one below. I asked him to identify what is wrong with the person (no shadow):

* I also found myself chuckling along when I saw the page below... crossing the t's and dotting the i's.. oh boy... it is so funny!

* My boy's favorite page has got to be the bridge being built. He spent quite sometime looking over this particular page and asking me what are the parts and objects name and then he decided to tap himself since I was trying to answer him (whoopsss... hahaha... )

You can purchase the "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? " 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"

(** Article first published as Book Review: How To Be A Great Dad: It's In Your Hands by Carmen Elefante on Blogcritics.)

Although I am a mum of 2 kids and kinda concerned with the title of this book (How to be a great dad), I told myself maybe I should read this and then give some pointers to my hubby hehehe... so here goes my humble read of this book:

Title: How To Be A Great Dad: It's In Your Hands
Author: Carmen Elefante
Publisher: Carmen Sense Inc.; 1st edition (2012)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0987984104 / 0987984101
Paperback: 128 pages

Description from the product page:
"It's much easier to become a father than to be one. How to Be A Great Dad is a revolutionary new book on fatherhood and what it means to be a loving and giving parent. With this fascinating collection of stories, suggestions, and gentle tips on active parenting, author and inspirational speaker Carmen Elefante has created a blueprint that will help fathers realize how important it is to be truly present in their children's lives. How To Be A Great Dad is a call to action and a book for fathers of all ages. It's never too late to work on being a great dad, and children are never too old to have a better father."

You know what caught my interest to review this book? It's the sentence "Do good and forget about it." at the end of Carmen's email to me. Btw, Carmen is the author of this book. I got his email in the middle of September this year and was about to be caught up really really busy with reviewing the Nissan LEAF (fully electric car) for 6 weeks and replied to him that if he doesn't mind waiting for 1-8 weeks for my review, I'd be happy to read his book.

Now back to his "Do good and forget about it." statement. Yeah, it totally reminded me of what my dad would be like. Just do something, don't questions so much, don't be calculative, just do it and make sure you finish it. No half-ar$e job. Do it and be done with it.

Back to the book. This book is not thick at all, about 128 pages in total with hardcover and glossy papers which I like. It is about 6 inch by 8 inch in dimension. There are a total of 9 chapters in this book, touching from stepping up to fatherhood, what to do to earn respect and trust and building everlasting memories with your family and children, the importance of commitment and being involve in your family and childrens' lives and activities you can do with your kids.

I like the way this book is written, there are inspiring quotes with accompanying pictures in each chapter, tips and advice to other men and hey, even a couple of recipes which you can try out with your kids!

Look at the picture below taken from one of the pages in the book which I totally love! I even highlighted the important points for you to read!

I've mentioned to my hubby before that he must not scold or reprimand my actions right in front of our kids no matter how wrong I was or how silly a decision I made or not made. Yes, I understood my actions and its consequences and no matter what, he should never ever react in front of our kids. No matter what heat of the moment or his flare of anger might caused him to behave that way, it is never a right thing to do in front of our kids. I do hope he takes note of this.

In summary, this is really an awesome book that you should have. Whether you plan to buy it for your hubby, a male relative or family member or friend, just get it. Heck, even if they are not male, just get one. Totally recommended it!

You can get this book from Amazon.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book 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 received a pitch to review this app few days ago and after checking out the Lite version of the app, I decided to review it as I can foresee my 3.5 years old boy benefiting from using this app. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Sight Words for Kids
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Education
* Updated: Nov 11, 2012
* Version: 2.0
* Size: 20.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Talal Baweja © Nimble Minds Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"This app is the real deal when it comes to teaching sight words. It's highly educational, effectively contextualizes words by organizing them by location (e.g. "bathroom," "bedroom," or "park"), and makes excellent use of audio learning cues. It' also provides lots of positive reinforcement when the user succeeds."

* It is engaging and interactive and I love the beautiful illustrations!

* This is an easy to use app which my 3.5 years old boy has no problem using without my guidance. He just touch and touch whatever objects on the page and learns what is the name of the objects and we have great fun playing the game too!

* There are a total of 12 scenes that you can choose to learn or play with.

* In the learn mode, the items that you can learn has a question mark above it, once you touched it, the word will pop out followed by the narrator saying out the name of the object and the question mark will be removed then. Once you finished tapping all the question marks items, you will finish the scene and can choose to play again or go to the next scene.

* In the play mode, the narrator will ask you where are certain objects and you need to tap the screen to solve the question. My boy enjoyed the games as I pretended to race with him to solve the questions (of course I had to purposely delayed my response in order to let him solve on his own hahaha...)

* There are some objects which my 3.5 years old boy is not able to solve as we use different terms for it, such as mailbox (we use letterbox), gift (we use present) so these are some of the items that I am skipping for now as I do not want to confuse my boy with too many versions of an object at the moment.

* Other than the above feedback, I have also highlighted to the developer on the price of the app which to me is a bit pricey as I have reviewed similar type of apps like this one with cheaper range. Anyway, the developer has taken note on this and has already restructured the price for this app.

You can purchase the "Sight Words for Kids" 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"