I'm a full-time mummy

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews towards the last quarter of year 2016 to prepare for our coming 4th kiddo who was born in early November 2016 and I am now slowly resuming doing product reviews but prioritizing those that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or educational stuff, family products, something along those genre)

However, as busy as I am with 4 kiddos, 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 products that either myself and/or my family can use, what more reviewing a well-known stationery products' brand like Faber-Castell, I would be mad to say no, right?!

About the company/products:

"Faber-Castell is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of high-quality products for writing, drawing and creative design. Founded as a pencil factory in 1761 in Stein, near Nuremberg, today the firm is one of the oldest industrial companies in the world and remains a family-owned business even after more than eight generations of family ownership. Faber-Castell is represented in over 120 countries, with production sites in nine countries and sales companies in 23 countries. Its product range includes more than 2,000 items divided into the areas of “Playing & Learning”, “Art & Graphic”, “Premium”, “General Writing” and “Marking”.

Faber-Castell is delighted to present its latest innovation in colouring tools with the new Watercolour Soft Pastels. The Watercolour Soft Pastels is able to provide different finishing to the users – they are able to use it as it is which gives a silky smooth and pigmented crayon to an oil pastel finishing or add an additional step by lightly brushing it with water to achieve a watercolour effect. There is no sharpening required on the Watercolour Soft Pastels, making it a very convenient colouring tool for school-going children."

We received a box of Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels with 11 colours which also comes with a paintbrush as well. I breathed a sigh of relief as our older 3 kiddos take turn and not fight over one another to use the Watercolour Soft Pastels. 

To open the Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels packaging box, you just need to flip open the 2 small tabs on the sides like how you do for briefcases. The watercolour soft pastels are securely placed in a structured case that allows easy packing and carrying about without the fear of the pastels falling out.

The Watercolour Soft Pastels' length is just nice and its size is also just right for children's fingers to grasp on to. You just need to gently turn the top cap clockwise to extend the pastels and continue using it. There's no need to sharpen anything!

I made some photocopies of a printable colouring sheet for them to colour in and get themselves busy. I just told them to go crazy in colouring the paper given and they went on their own creative ways to colour their paper. One studiously coloured within the lines, one tried to blend and mix the colours while one tried to use different methods in colouring.

Results of their first colouring using Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels:

First one was by our 8-year-old boy, who studiously coloured within the lines and tried to match as close as possible to the objects' colours.

Second one was by our 5.5-year-old girl, who tried to blend and mix the colours and every now and then announces the new colours she created. "Blue and yellow makes GREEN!", "Blue and red makes PURPLE!!!" Whoaa... learning opportunities everywhere!

Last one was by our 3.5-year-old girl, who tried to use different methods in colouring. After her initial colouring, she excitedly took a brush and dipped it into a container of water that I prepared and happily blend in the colours on her paper. 

There are several techniques that you can try with Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels such as:

• Blending & Watercolour Techniques - where you can easily smudged the colours using fingertips, cotton buds or tissue paper and a touch of water to create a watercolour effect.

• Scratching Technique - where you apply bright vibrant colours as the base and then overlaps it with a darker shade. You can use the tip of a ruler to scratch the dark surface to reveal the colours beneath.

• Water Colour Technique with Mirror Image Effect - where you leave some space where the image is meant to be transferred to and apply the colours on the actual artwork.

  

The Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels is a wonderful product for children and I'm happy that our kiddos have the opportunity to try out this product.  

Faber-Castell Watercolour Soft Pastels are available at all major bookstores and stationery shops in Malaysia.

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 every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

We recently went to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Memorial and had an enjoyable experience there. We were first greeted with the sight of 2 antique cars. Picture below was one of the cars. A black Cadillac if I'm correct.

The entry was free of charge, however there were only a few staff working on the Saturday we were there. The building were cleanly kept and nicely maintained. Only our family of 6 were there throughout most of our time there, which was nice as we get to slowly read and enjoy the exhibits. Here are some of the pictures I snapped during our visit there...

This is the ceremonial attire worn by Tunku for the Merdeka ceremony in 1957. This unique ‘Muscat Dress’ consists of a black taffeta silk open-jacket with epaulettes, a white shirt, pants and headgear. I personally felt that it is like a mixture of tuxedo with our local Malay costume.

Imagine the exhilaration of reading the newspapers announcing your very own country has achieved her independence!

There are pictures and exhibits where you can read out more about Tunku's personal life, his family members, his involvement in the political scene, his passions, his foray into the movie scenes and lots more.

You can also check out his residence and office which was built in 1956 in Jalan Brockman (now known as Jalan Dato Onn). The office building was shifted here - very cool as we thought it was a replica of his office building. A staff was very helpful to explain to us as we walked down the aisle and peeped through to see how the administration would have been like in the past.

Below is the visiting hours for your easier reference. You can also find out more info at http://www.arkib.gov.my/en/web/guest/memorial-tunku-abdul-rahman-putra2.

In summary, it was an enjoyable visit where we get to explain and expose our kiddos to the history of our beloved country, hopefully they will cherish and appreciate the hardwork and sacrifices made by our fellow countrymen towards achieving independence status for our country.

** 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 every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews towards the last quarter of year 2016 to prepare for our coming 4th kiddo who was born in early November 2016 and I am now slowly resuming doing product reviews but prioritizing those that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre)

However, as busy as I am with 4 kiddos, 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 products that either myself and/or my family can use, so of course I gotta give this product a try! When I first read about Robi, I was intrigued. I mean, how cool is it that you can build your very own robot? As I've got an 8-year-old boy who is VERY into robotics stuff, I just can't say no to reviewing this. So here goes, my first review...

About the company/brand:

"Robi is a fusion of sophisticated design and advanced Japanese technology that was designed to provide interactive bonding experience for the entire family.  More than 130,000 Robi robots has been assembled by fans around the world, making Robi the world’s bestselling humanoid robot from Japan.

Apart from having an extensive vocabulary of more than 250 English and Mandarin phrases, Robi can also sing, dance and control your TV. Most importantly, Robi has been exclusively re-programmed to speak several phrases in Bahasa Malaysia, only available in Malaysia."

We received issues 1 to 8 for our initial review prior to the Malaysia launch on 10th March 2017. Some issues are box type while some are thinner but all of them has a magazine packed with educational articles related to electronics and robotics theme.

For this review post, I will touch more on the magazines' features as well as the assembly of Robi. So far, in the 8 issues we have, there are different robots being featured in each issue. You get to learn more on the concept and functionalities of the robots as well as what is the inspirations on its creation.

I used this opportunity sometimes to get our 8-year-old boy to read out loud the articles to me so that he can practise his reading as well as pronunciation skills or sometimes I will read it to him so he can sharpens his listening skills. It is a great bonding moment as we browse through the issues!

In each issue, you will read on the easy to follow instructions to assemble Robi. The clear step-by-step pictures makes it so much easier for even a young child to follow. There are certain parts which I will take over to assemble such as those that require delicate setup like the circuit board or Servo cables. But mostly I'd say both our boy and myself take turns assembling Robi.

Once you have completed the magazine, you will see the parts to be assembled that comes with the issue. Some of the parts may be kept for future issues and may not be assembled in the current issue, so you really need to keep it safe and not lose them.

I really appreciate that there are some parts which has extra pieces (screws for example) as some of these small items are easy to lose or misplaced. I do however get nervous especially when it comes to the part where it involves circuitry board and the delicate Servo cables. It does train you up to be extremely patient and careful in assembling this robot for sure!

What can I sum up in this first review of mine on Robi? I'd say that it is cool to be able to assemble your very own humanoid robot with ease and using a screwdriver and not any fancy-smancy high-tech gadgets.

Some might dread the wait for each issues (weekly) though I think it can train us to be patient and the wait might be necessary as some people might take their own sweet time to slowly read through the magazine part first before going ahead with the assembly part.

For parents, I think this might be a good way to bond with your child, to work together by instilling teamwork spirit and complete the assembling and enjoying the fruits of labor after that.

Robi will be sold at a wide range of Malaysian retailers via a weekly DeAgostini magazine which will feature the latest Robi parts, simple and easy to follow assembly instructions and educational articles focused on electronics and robotics. Robi is also available via online subscription at https://www.deagostini.my/RB/order_series.aspx

Btw, the launch event and roadshow will take place in One Utama Shopping Centre on March 10 - 12, 2017. The event will be attended by Robi’s creator, Professor Tomotaka Takahashi and Hajime ‘Jimmy’ Murano, the CEO & President of DeAgostini Japan.

For more information, please visit http://www.myrobi.my/ and https://www.facebook.com/robimykl/

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 every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.