I'm a full-time mummy

A couple of months ago, I reviewed TwinkleTup, Tupperware's latest range of innovative products for children and toddlers and recently, I had the opportunity to review a new product from Tupperware again, and since I'm into reviewing educational products for my kiddos, of course I say yes!

Description from the product page:
"Here's a toy that grows with a child, from infants to pre-schoolers. Not only is it fun and colorful, the Shape-O-Toy is a classic shape-sorter, rattle and counting toy which helps toddlers to identify shapes, develop coordination and dexterity, as well as counting and number recognition."

The moment I took the Shape-O-Toy out of its box, I was reminded of a similar childhood toy I used to play with. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to take out the shapes inside the Shape-O-Toy as I didn't see any instructions on this. Of course, not wanting to appear like a klutz to our kiddos, I examine it all over and finally figured out that I need to pull apart the two handles on both opposites sides and it will open up in the middle and the shapes inside will drop out. Ahhhh.... easy peasy! What a creative idea!

Next, I tried getting our kiddos to play with the Shape-O-Toy WITHOUT even telling them what to do! Heh, evil mummy right? Just testing our kiddos to see whether they are smart enough or not hahaha...

Our 4.5 years old boy did not show much interest in the toy initially and went off to continue playing his Legos. Only after seeing his sister playing happily with the Shape-O-Toy that he jumped in and played with it too!

Our 2 years old girl showed interests and soon began to take one of the shape block and tried to stuff it into the Shape-O-Toy. Remember, I did not even tell her what to do! You can click at this link to view a video clip of our 2 years old Alyson playing with Tupperware's Shape-O-Toy game.

It doesn't take long for Benjamin to match all the shapes correctly though I will test him again in future to see whether he can solve it again faster and faster hehehe... as for Alyson, it is fun seeing her happy face as she matches the shapes correctly and though she takes time to match the shapes, I definitely think the Shape O Toy has great potential as a teaching tool and also as a play toy for her.

What I like with the Shape-O-Toy is it allows our kiddos to sharpen their problem solving skills. I like that our kiddos have to use their own mind to determine how to slot the puzzle blocks according to its matching shapes.

I especially like the vibrant colors used and upon closer inspection on the shape blocks, you can notice one side of the shape has a number of dots and if you see the opposite sides of the shapes, you can see the number representing the dots. Nice! I can use this to teach our kiddos counting and number recognition on top of teaching them about the different shapes.

Last but not least, I feel at ease knowing our kiddos are playing with toys made from safe, non-toxic, Tupperware food grade materials.

In summary, the Shape-O-Toy is a fun and yet educational toy.

For more information, visit tupperwarebrands.com.my or http://www.facebook.com/Tupperware.Brands.Malaysia.Singapore

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

As an individual, I would say I am pretty gullible and easy to trust others - especially when they are older and seems wise. I would say this pretty much applies to most topics except those that I'm passionate in, like matters relating to breastfeeding and perhaps blogging and doing product reviews.

Anyway, the other day, my hubby was telling me to be careful and be wise to discern the advice dispensed by other people especially when it comes to parenting and children topics. He said learn to identify whether these people truly care and wants to help and share their tips or they just want to boast and brag about their accomplishments.

To be honest, when hubby told me some of the things to look out for in order to identify 'well-meaning' people like this, I was gobsmacked. It kinda hit me because some time back, I was nodding and agreeing while looking at my kiddos as I listened to some of these 'well-meaning' people telling me that my kiddo is displaying rude manners and etc.

Yes, we should not give excuses for our children for their rude behaviour. But hubby's point was there are people who easily dispenses their thoughts and judgment based on a few minutes observation alone, and did not see the clear picture of why our boy acted that way.

Hubby said that people who truly care and really wants to help will try to understand the situation at home, how was our kiddos like at home, and then monitor and analyse from there onwards. Rather than just seeing what is going on in less than 5 minutes and immediately concluded that our kiddos are rude and misbehaved. He also said there are other 'well-meaning' people who instead of helping, they just want to brag about their kiddos' or their accomplishments.

In summary, again hubby said, we must not just listen totally and believed others opinions are right. We as parents should learn to identify these people and see for ourselves whether it is really as what other people observe.

What about you?

Do you know how to identify 'well-meaning' people and how do you handle people like this?

Almost to the middle of October this year, I received an email from Miss Karen of Whimsical Articles asking whether I would be interested in reviewing the products in their online store. I was still in the midst of settling down with baby Carolyn (barely half month old then) and hence decided to keep in view for the time being.

A few weeks later, I emailed them again asking whether I can review two of their products which I think our 2 kiddos would be using and enjoying and here is the review for the 1st product.

Description about the sponsor:
"At Whimsical Articles, we also wanted our children to have fun too! And so we lovingly handpicked every item for the kid’s crafts - to help encourage our little ones to develop creatively and have endless hours of fun! From products that one child can do at home; to the products that can be done as a group and not forgetting crafts which can be made during parties. Your child will have loads of fun! These crafts will help your child to create masterpieces and keep as keepsakes for years to come!"

Firstly, my initial impression as I browsed through the products in Whimsical Articles website is their products seem interesting, in fact I have been searching for similar things – art/crafts supplies that we parents can get for our children, something that we can just buy over the Internet and get our kiddos started. No need to crack head to think what crafts to make etc etc. 

The reason why I requested to review the Melissa & Doug Wooden Bead Set - Sweet Hearts is so that I can let both my older 2 kiddos try it out. I have similar beads which I bought a year ago (China brand) for our boy but those beads are bigger, made up of alphabets, numbers, animals and shapes. I thought this brand we are reviewing should be very good since it is quite a popular brand and I like that the colors are not too overly girlish or too gender confined. I mean, I can picture myself using the beads to teach our kiddos about shapes, colors as well.

My feedback on the product's packaging: The beads are packed in a handy wooden tray and there is over 120 beads and 5 cords and they come in heart shape theme and lovely pastel colours such as purple, lilac, pink, baby blue, peach and so on. The beads are placed in its respective slots in a transparent plastic compartment layer which I promptly threw away as seriously, being a mother of 3 kiddos now, I really have neither time nor patience to arrange and keep back the beads into their own slots accordingly. I would really appreciate a proper container or cover for the beads but then, again, this is because I threw away the plastic compartment layer.

My feedback on the product: The quality of the beads is very good, unlike the China brand beads that I got for our boy a year ago. The colors are striking and eye catching and there are no jagged edges on the bead, all smooth to the touch which is good for little kiddos' fingers.

The cords are quite thin and both ends are covered with plastic, kinda like shoelace string you know? I was hoping the string would be bigger but then these beads are meant for children 4 years old and above.

My feedback on kiddos using the product: The moment I opened the packaging, I poured all the beads into the wooden tray and told our kiddos to go crazy and make mummy something! Our 4.5 years old boy immediately started hogging all the cute beads and taking them out by batches and put them nearer to him on the table. I took back all his beads and poured them back into the wooden tray and used this opportunity to teach him that he must only take the beads from the wooden tray and to string the beads one at a time and not be greedy.

As for our 2 years old girl, I gently guide her through the process to string the beads. Yes, I know this product is meant for children 4 years old and above, but trust me, I am sitting right next to her and monitoring her as well, so I know the risks associated if this product is being played by younger children. Anyway, I slowly guided our girl to hold one end of the cord, then I get the bigger heart shaped bead and teach her to look out for the holes in the bead, and to slowly string the bead through the cord. She took a few attempts to get it right but the beads she strings did not go through completely so I guessed we need more practises on that.

Summary: Of course at this point in time, it is still too early to expect our girl to be stringing up a bracelet or necklace for me to see and as for our 4.5 years old boy, oh well, being a boy, even when I asked him to make me a necklace, he ended up making me a rattle snake! On the other hand, we do enjoy the time we spent playing with this product!

I definitely see the potential of this product being played with over and over again in future as you can also use it as educational purposes, for example: stringing beads of the shape sizes, or colors or patterns and so on. This definitely could make a great gift option as well :)

You can get this at http://www.whimsicalarticles.com/kids-crafts/melissa-doug-wooden-bead-set-sweet-hearts.html

Whimsical Articles has also offered a special discount for my blog followers. Below are the details of the discount:

Purchase RM180.00 or more and get additional RM15 off on top of the already discounted products.
Customer can use this voucher as many time as possible. Valid from now until 31st December 2013.

Steps to get the discount:
1) Log in / Register as a member at www.whimsicalarticles.com
2) Add in the products to purchase into cart.
3) At Check-out, place in Coupon Code : IFM2013
4) Please check that products total is more than RM180 before code can be used.

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