I'm a full-time mummy

This is the final month of the year!!!

So let's make December a month to remember!

For today, I'm giving away an eDiaperCakes gift certificate worth USD25!

That means 1 lucky US winner will get to win this!

The giveaway will be open for entries from 11th Dec 2012 until 10th Jan 2013.

This giveaway is sponsored by:

"What makes eDiaperCakes unique from the other companies out there is that they make them from popular children’s book we’ve all know and love. Some examples are Pat the Bunny, the Hungry Caterpillar, Guess How Much I Love You, Peter Rabbit and Spot the Dog. They also make them using popular Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and the Lion King. The brands eDiaperCakes use are Gund, Kid’s Preferred, and TY. So when you buy from them, you know that you’re getting a high quality diaper cake. In addition to that, they put around 5 different baby goodies in the cake."

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

In the middle of Sept this year, I have started teaching my 3.5 years old boy unofficially. Unofficially in the sense that we do not follow any curriculum or schedule. I have tried introducing phonic word families to my boy but our progress is still at a very slow pace, hence this review is based on my sole opinion as I did not involve my boy's participation in this app. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: ABC Phonics Word Family
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Updated: Nov 29, 2012
* Version: 2.02
* Size: 36.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Abitalk Incorporated
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"The Phonics Word Family provides the word phonics spelling, beginning sound, word family phonics, short vowel sound, and images with a lot of animations and interactions for each word. There are a total of fifty six word family groups which focus on the short vowel, long vowel, two vowel, and combination vowel word family phonics learning. After children complete the phonics spelling in each group, the matching game follows and children can review what they learned. Word Family Phonics Basics includes 56 different phonics word family groups."

* I like the simplicity of this app where you choose the word family to try on and then guess the missing letter which should complete the word given.

* I also appreciate the image of the object which is also shown so that you can visualise better.

* You can hear the phonics pronounciation of the letters when you tap on it so you can try guessing which is the correct letter to drag to solve the question.

* My boy is not at the recognising so many alphabets and phonics yet so I can't really feedback on this app at the moment but I will definitely revisit this app when the time comes (I always do that for all my products and apps!).

In summary, I think this app is a great app and would benefit my boy when the time comes since I'm currently teaching him.

You can purchase the "ABC Phonics Word Family" 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"

Oh boy, it's been more than 6 months since I last blogged about my boy's potty training progress! Let's see, I blogged about starting Ben back on his potty training in February after months of delaying it (Alyson came along in September and I had to pause Ben's potty training since then) and even listed down some short, medium and long terms goals that I looked forward to accomplishing with Ben. Then I also blogged about the precious sight I get to see - Ben finally pooping in his potty! (instead of diapers which he always insisted on), and revisiting those goals I set in February against the progress in early May this year and checking off the ones we achieved 3 weeks later, and now...

As for my 15 months old girl, she is learning fast by observing her big brother! So much so that when I can see her obvious signs she wants to poo, I will immediately take off her diaper and put her on her brother's potty (which surprisingly, is the one property of Ben's that he gladly shares!!!)

Of course, I do need to sit around my girl to ensure she does not get up by herself before she finished her business, but I'm glad to share that she's receptive with the potty when it comes to pooping. So that's one potty training milestones for her off the list I guess! ;)

So there you go, looks like we are getting almost all of the goals soon for Benjamin! Thank God for this and for my dear boy to be so good in following through his potty training!

We are all so proud of you both, Benjamin & Alyson!