I'm a full-time mummy

After conducting a review and then hosting a giveaway for "Interactive Alphabet" app, I have been given the opportunities to review 2 more apps from this awesome company. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Counting Bees
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Education
* Released: Dec 09, 2011
* Current Version: 1.0
* Size: 19.3 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Pi'ikea St. LLC
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Kids will learn counting to 20 by guiding bees to the flowers! As they learn to count, they will fill four big honey bears. Learn to count in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, and Japanese! This game is relaxing and non-violent and provides a safe and fun environment for kids to learn to count. Features:
- Kids choose the path the bees fly to the flower by drawing it with their finger
- Counting ranges included: 1-5, 1-10, 1-15, 1-20
- Encouraging, non-violent environment
- Relaxing Ukulele music plays as your child is encouraged to help and learn.
- Completely optimized for kids: No way to 'lose' this game
- Special configuration option for parents to enable the languages they are most interested in their kids learning. Parents: Just touch the settings bubble in the top of the screen and then touch the flags of the languages you want to be available. Kids: Switch languages just by touching the flag that the bee is holding."

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive!

* This game is very cute as you get to direct the bees to the flowers and try to reach the number of bees required at the same time! You will then get to see how much honey gets poured out into a bear bottle.

* This is a relaxing game where you get to have fun and learn at the same time!

What's not so good?

*  There are a few occassions when I feel that the bees are not receptive to our touch. I had to keep pointing and dragging the bees to the flower when I realised Ben starts getting annoyed that the bee is not following the touch of his finger.

You can purchase the "Counting Bees" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor 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"

I received an email from April who is with the company who developed Koto Go Silence, an iPad app I reviewed last month (and Ben loves it still!) In my mind, I was thinking "What? Are you kidding me? You created an app which my boy still enjoys watching and you are now asking whether I want to review another app of your company?!" Of course YES!!!! Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Ann Can't Sleep
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Nov 11, 2011
* Current Version: 1.0
* Size: 52.3 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: April Peter
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Description from the product page:

"“Ann Can’t Sleep” is an animated book about companionship, friends, and a little girl who just can’t fall asleep. Which of her toys will help her get to slumberland? Have fun reading this book, at playtime or bedtime. Tap on the sentences to hear them read out loud, and then enjoy the colorful and funny animations. 

This App has been carefully designed, so that children of all ages can easily navigate through it and have a great experience on both iPhone and iPad."

This app book is about Ann, a little girl who tries to choose the right toy that can accompanies her to sleep.

What's good?

* Look at the picture below and tell me if you don't think it's cute! I totally love the illustrations on this book! So adorable and cute!

* I like how the words rhyme along as you read the story.

* There are some pages which got Ben's attention such as when Ann dreams and flies off in an airplane or when she gallops away on a horse.

* With this app, I get to explain to Ben the concept of dream as I realised Ben's curious and questioning look when he saw Ann picking up the ballerina doll and then trying to sleep and wonders why Ann suddenly dances with the doll! The moment he grasps the concept and realised it, his face goes 'Ahhhh... I see!' and from then on, he pays more attention to what happens to Ann in her dream! Cute!

Room for Improvement?

* I would love to see a longer storyline - somehow I felt the story is a bit short.

*  Would it be too much if I ask for an option to select a boy or girl character at the beginning of the app?

You can purchase the "Ann Can't Sleep" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor 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"

I am not a fan of going for dental check-up. Throughout my childhood years, I live in fear of dentist pulling each and every one of my tooth out. I only started to slowly overcome my fears over getting my dental check-ups when I started working.

Anyway, long story short, I just had my dental check-up last week - a long overdue check-up. And being a SAHM with 2 kids now, when mummy goes out, the whole family goes out. A high school friend of mine referred me to her dentist as I was also planning to slowly get Ben to go for his dental check up as well and wanted to find a child-friendly dentist and one that has experienced handling young patients.

We arrived at the clinic on time but I had to let another patient go first as my hubby had trouble finding car park! Yes, the clinic is located in a very busy area with little chance of good parking spots unless you park real far and walked all the way to the clinic - which is what my hubby did.

My impression of the clinic? Nice environment, cosy, they play those nice soothing music to calm you down, there's a mini garden outside where the washroom is and I like that there are some children books around and some cuddly pillows on the sofa too (I didn't use it though as I'm not sure how clean they are...)

Only found out what happened to my kids while I was in the room with the dentist getting my scaling and polishing. Whoaaa... hubby said our kids hogged the whole sofa - but anyway, there's only 1 more patient after me and there's like 2 more sofas around.

The dentist is gentle and soft-spoken, clearly explaining to me what causes my bleeding gums and taught me how to take care of my gums and teeth properly. Price wise, a bit on the high side, but then again, I did mentioned this check-up was long overdue and I don't know whether there has been any increase in this.

After we were done, I explained to the demtist that I wanted to get Ben warm up to the idea of dental check-up and try as we might, he refused to open his mouth and show his teeth to the dentist. She even make an Angry Bird balloon out of her spare dentist glove to cheer Ben up! Ben stopped to get the balloon (he likes balloon but have no idea what Angry Bird is - anyway we are not a fan of Angry Bird at all) but continued crying when we asked him to open his mouth.

Sigh, maybe next time then...

Question: At what age do you bring your child to his/her 1st dental check-up and how do you get them to be calm about the whole thing?