Educational toys – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Nancy B’s Science Club Aquascope and Underwater Wonders Activity Journal

At a gathering with our close friends last Saturday night, we discussed about our next holiday destination. If all goes well, the kids will be heading to the East Coast of Malaysia to watch turtle lay eggs during the mid term school holiday!! When I told the girls about it, gawd, they pestered me non-stop about making the trip happen. See, I should have kept this news wrapped up and only break the news once the trip is 99.9% confirmed!

Should our holiday to the East Coast be confirmed, the girls can use their new AquaScope magnifier to explore the wonders of life underwater, thanks to Applecrumby & Fish again!

The Nancy B AquaScope that the girls received from Applecrumby & Fish magnifies finds up to 5x larger — you can even light up your subject thanks to built-in LED lights. Then use the attached thermometer strip to gauge and document the water temperature. This underwater telescope for kids comes with an activity journal that’s packed with fun science experiments.

Thank you very much Applecrumby & Fish for this fantastic educational toy. I hope that the girls get to use it in the sea water soon! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 207

Mega Lego Holiday Project – Phase 2 Completed

Finally two of the three shophouses are completed after 10 days – tadaaa…..

The girls stopped work for 2 days, resumed construction again today and completed the second 3-storey shophouse just a few hours ago. Now, with just 1 day left before their long 3 weeks break, I wonder if they can promise their grandma a 100% completion by tomorrow.

I still am amazed that my girls are able to put up the two 3-storey shophouses though this Lego set is meant for 16-year olds and above!

On a sidenote, today is the eve of the eve of my precious baby’s 11th birthday! And I am going to say it again – HOW TIME FLIES!! 11 years ago today, I was anxiously and nervously awaiting her birth via elective C-Section. Everyone in our family was feeling just as anxious, awaiting the birth of the much wanted baby. And her birthday was and still is the happiest day of my life 🙂

** Precious baby was coined to refer to babies conceived via assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

No. of times viewed = 232

Mega Lego Project – First Phase Completed!

There… finally the girls have erected the first of three Lego houses! I am so mighty proud of them coz you know why?

This is the reason why…

This Lego with 2,032 pieces is meant for 16-year olds and above but my girls – aged 6, 9 and 10 managed to co-build this! They take turns sitting at the table, spending an hour to two each time per person working on this project. For Cass, I have to teach her some Maths as some of the pieces that look similar measure differently in size. I really have to applaud their patience and I am amazed that Cass can read the Lego legend so well. She is the one who completed the third floor of this house last night! My girls are definitely better than me in the department of patience, critical thinking and three-dimension interpretation!

Here is the backyard of the house…

This Lego project is an excellent way for my girls to kill time during the school holidays. It helps with building their problem-solving, organization and planning skill, teaches them to think in three dimensions and enhances critical thinking.

Now, I sure hope someone from Lego reads this and rewards my girls with some mega Lego sets for them to work on during their next school holiday! 😀

No. of times viewed = 294

Cute Wooden Animal Alphabets

Another surprise parcel awaited Cass when she got home from school yesterday!

When she ripped the parcel bag apart, she found three stacks of wooden alphabets. I helped her to unwrap the stacks of alphabets. While doing it, we were both guessing wildly what to do with the wooden alphabets. They are similar to those wooden alphabets that are stuck on Alycia’s bedroom door, making out the word “WELCOME”. But there was no instruction with our gift this time. We were even more baffled when we found out that there were 3 pieces of the letter ‘S’, 5 pieces of letter ‘A’ and the other letters were also redundant. It was not a complete set of 26 letters of the alphabet. Hmmm, what could it be? Santarina must have wanted us to work out brains hard to solve the mystery of the mysterious gift, ha!

No mysterious is ever left unresolved for us. Very soon, I figured that the set of wooden alphabets were actually for the names of Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra! Jeng jeng jeng…. mysterious solved!!

Cass used her blue tac to stick behind the wooden alphabets and plastered up the 3 names onto the wall. See how pretty and vivacious Cass’ little play corner is now!

Cute, bright and happy colored wooden animal alphabets to liven up your walls. Perfect for toddlers to learn their ABCs too! Thank you Apple Crumby & Fish once again! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 356

Hidden Hints Game

A few days ago, another surprise awaited the girls at home. It was a box of mystery word game called Hidden Hints by Learning Resources. The girls’ angel had sent them another mystery gift woohoo!

Hidden Hints Game Box

Since it was the last day of Alycia and Sherilyn’s final exam, they could start playing this game, yay!!

Hidden Hints is a game that develops reading comprehension and vocabulary using context clues.

Targeting ages 7-12, players practice making inferences and drawing conclusions based upon context clue question cards. While proving their word-sleuthing skills, players earn chances to solve a mystery.

The publisher, Learning Resources, describes the game this way:
“Wrangle your way through word-sleuthing challenges to earn a shot at solving a mystery. Figure out what words mean by clues in the text around them. “
Basically, the game reinforces vocabulary a player might already know and challenges them to learn new vocabulary. Reading comprehension cards are also a part of stretching the player’s contextual understanding.

Hidden Hints can be played by 2-4 players and includes:
43 double-sided context clue question cards
7 double-sided game play cards (take an extra piece, lose a turn, etc.)
40 self-checking hint cards
16 game pieces
1 activity Guide with answer key
1 durable cardboard briefcase with handle and latch

This game is just perfect for my girls – aged 6 1/2, 9 1/2 and almost 11.

They spent their night yesterday playing with this game. I was really surprised that Cass being the youngest could answer most of the question cards, except for some synonym cards that contain pretty hard vocabulary like defunct, insidious, etc.

Hidden Hints™ Mystery Word Game
Overall, I think this is an excellent learning game for kids. It is fast moving, interesting, and challenging. The girls’ vocabulary bank has grown a little by picking up a few new words from this game 🙂

Thank you very much Applecrumby And Fish once again for this wonderful game 🙂

No. of times viewed = 328

Mind-Sharpening Cube Toy

Does this cube game look familliar to you? This decades-old mind-sharpening toy was once my favorite, my elder brother’s too. My elder brother and I could solve the entire ‘puzzle’ in just days, where we could twist and turn and place the same color / fruit (we used to have one cube with pictures of fruits on it) on all the sides of the cube. We were smart eh? Hehehe! I don’t know how we did it then but now, I have lost my mojo.

I saw this toy at Babyland and bought the cheapest for my 2 brats, costing only RM8.90.

Rascal #2 trying to solve the puzzle…

Big rascal loved this toy. She spent hours twisting and turning the cube but was stuck here:

Baby also wanted to dabble with the toy. Notice her red eyes and red nose? She was crying and this toy managed to placate her.

Big rascal spent a lot of time trying to solve the cube puzzle. The next morning, she sheepishly told me this : “mummy, see…” and brought the cube out from her drawer. I was amazed. The blue side of the cube was complete. I asked her if she solved it herself and she just smiled. Moments later, rascal #2 ran out of the room and said this “mummy, cheh cheh didn’t do it. She only put the sticker there!” Aha, I guessed it, how can a not-even 6yo be that smart to solve the cube puzzle. But she’s darn sneaky and shrewd too! She could think out of the box by removing the blue stickers from other sides to re-stick them to complete the puzzle!

If you want to buy this cube for your kids, my advise is buy one that does not have stickers. Buy them one that is painted and of course costlier too.

No. of times viewed = 202

New Books and Jigsaw Puzzle

I got some cheap Bumblebee books, produced locally by Pelangi from MPH for the gals on Sunday. They only cost between RM1.90 to RM3.90 each. The words are huge and there are colourful illustrations on the pages. I also got Alycia a 48-piece jigsaw puzzle which only cost RM5.90. I saw some Dr Seuss books and I was so tempted to buy them but they are way out of my budget, costing RM30 and above. Well, I may buy them if I get to earn more from paid posts.

No. of times viewed = 223

New Toy

This is the new toy that daddy bought Alycia and Sherilyn from Toys R Us last Friday. It’s a school tent, to complete the yellow school bus tent that daddy bought them one month ago. This school bus tent is both educational and fun to play with. Alycia and Sherilyn love to pour all their toys inside and sleep inside the tent and pretend they are camping.

One side of the school tent has an easle where the gals can affix a piece of paper to it and draw. There are also prints of the letters of the alphabet on the side of the tent.

The other side of the tent has a detachable clock with movable hour and minute hands. The tent also comes with alphabet and numbers pieces with velcro at the back that are attachable on straps of velcro on the tent. I can teach the gals mathematics and spelling on the walls of the tent.

No. of times viewed = 246