Book Review - Reading Success for Minecrafters: Grades 3-4

~ Posted on Friday, March 23, 2018 at 11:39 AM ~

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 currently only prioritizing reviewing products 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 good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes! 

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Reading Success for Minecrafters

Title: Reading Success for Minecrafters: Grades 3-4
Author: Sky Pony,‎ Brack Amanda (Illustrator)
Publisher: Sky Pony Press; Workbook edition (October 24, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1510730892
Paperback: 64 pages

Description from the product page:

"This kid-friendly workbook features well-loved video game characters and concepts to reinforce the development of third and fourth grade reading skills laid out in the national Common Core State Standards. Colorfully-illustrated and high-interest practice pages and reading comprehension passages use diamond swords, potions, skeletons, zombies, and creepers to add an element of excitement to reading time.

Skip to the pages that suit your child’s needs and learning style or start at the beginning and advance page by page—it’s up to you! As the workbook progresses, the activities become more challenging so that learners of all levels can enjoy an exciting, skill-building reading adventure. Perfect for Minecrafters who learn at all paces, Reading Success for Minecrafters is as fun as it is educational—and is just what a third or fourth grade learner needs to get ahead academically!This adventure series is created especially for readers who love the fight of good vs. evil, magical academies like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter saga, and games like Minecraft, Terraria, and Pokemon GO. " 

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We received the "Reading Success for Minecrafters: Grades 3-4" book which I had intended for our 9-year-old boy to use for his English reading materials. I have been giving him reading comprehension workbook to do everyday and this is something similar to what he has been doing so far, except, it is of his favourite Minecraft theme! Fun + learning = win-win!

The book covers topic like prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, reading comprehension where the child reads the short stories given and look for main ideas and details, identifying cause and effect, and sequencing and more!

There are also answer keys at the back of the pages for reference.

Reading Success for Minecrafters

Overall, this is a fun and educational book to own especially if your child is an avid Minecraft fans.

I totally recommend this book!

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The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

** 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.
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Book Review - Lucie Goose

~ Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 8:12 PM ~

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 currently only prioritizing reviewing products 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 good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes! 

Extreme Colouring- Amazing World

Lucie Goose

Title: Lucie Goose
Author: Danny Baker,‎ Pippa Curnick (Illustrator)
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books; 01 edition (October 5, 2017)
ISBN: 1444937391
Paperback: 18 pages

Description from the product page:

"Lucie Goose lives all alone in a house at the edge of the woods. She has never met or spoken to another animal of any sort until... a wolf, bear and lion turn up on her doorstep and go Rraaaarrrrrr! She should start screaming. She should run away. But Lucie Goose isn't very good at being scared. What will she do?" 

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We received the "Lucie Goose" book which I had intended for our 4.5-year-old girl to read. She is an emerging reader at this point, still need to be read to and can understand simple words. So far, she has been regularly insisting I read this book to her before she takes her afternoon naps. I read to her from front to end and we enjoy the storyline.

This is a funny and entertaining book about making friends and how all things work out well in the end. I like that Lucie Goose is not afraid of the things unseen / unknown and I reminded our girl that just because we have never seen or know something does not mean we have to fear it. I also taught our girl to be friendly like Lucie Goose and to always be polite and maintain good manners.

Lucie Goose

Overall, this is a really nice book to own.

A funny and quirky book about friendships and having good manners!

I totally recommend this book!

I'm a full-time mummy

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

** 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.
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Hotel Review - The Straits Hotel & Suites

~ Posted on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 8:08 AM ~

As a busy mum with 4 kiddos between 11 months old to 8.5 years old, I have started cutting down on doing product reviews to focus on our childcare and family life, home cooking, teaching kiddos, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and sharing informational articles on my FB fan page so of lately, I am only accepting and prioritizing products that can fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or educational stuff, family products, something along those genre)!

Today's post however is my first milestone in my years of doing product reviews! This ladies and gentlemen, is my first ever hotel review whoaa...

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About the hotel:

"The Straits Hotel & Suites conveniently located in the heart of Historical City of Malacca and UNESCO World Heritage site. It is just 2 mins’ walk adjacent to shopping belt of Melaka where guest will enjoy easy access to shopping, entertainment, and dining destinations.

This new Melaka Hotel offers 352 spacious of deluxe guest rooms and luxurious suites which feature contemporary design facilities to meet today’s modern lifestyle. Each deluxe and suites are fitted with large windows offering ample natural lighting with balcony and offers spectacular view of the ocean and town views, and distinctively equipped with complimentary WIFI access and in room safe."

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I received the invitation to review the hotel a few months earlier but we were only able to make our visit in early October 2017 as we have to wait for our older 2 kiddos to finish off their major extracurricular programme for the year as well as co-ordinate with our niece and nephew whom we brought along with our family to enjoy the hotel stay as well.

It has been a couple of years since our family has last visited Melaka and it was a first trip to Melaka for our nephew and niece. We arrived at Melaka in time for lunch which we had in the town followed by a visit to the Taming Sari Tower as well as the Melaka Maritime Museum which is a replica of the Flor de la Mar, a Portuguese ship said to have been carrying loot plundered from Malacca when it sank off the coast of Malacca on its way back to Portugal. Weather was hot on the day we arrived, a change from the past few rainy days as I was told by one of the Taming Sari tower staff. We then proceeded to Waze our way to the hotel which surprisingly was near to where we were.

We reached the hotel around 4.30pm. The hotel was just a few minutes' walk adjacent to the shopping belt of Melaka. Lots of eatery area nearby, 24-hour convenience stores can be seen as well. In fact, on the first night at the hotel, we walked about 100m behind the hotel to one of the many restaurants nearby - our favourite is Nyonya Makko which we always try to go to every time we come to Melaka.

The Straits Hotel & Suites

Reception staff were courteous and helpful to explain the terms and conditions of the hotel stay. We were given our room access cards and quickly made our way to our respective rooms. The access cards allow the guests to go to their respective floors only. You can also go to level 23 (where the infinity swimming pool, sky bar and lounge are located) and level 3 (restaurant)

The Straits Hotel & Suites

Pictures below are some of the rooms and facilities highlighted for your pleasure viewing. Our king-sized bed shown in picture below is clean and neat, mattress and pillows are comfy, I like the floor actually. A bit of a nice positive change compared to other hotels I've stayed in which are mostly carpeted. I am not really fond of carpeted floors in hotels as I feel they are not so clean and also hot as well as we encountered some negative experiences where we found broken glass pieces in some hotels at Port Dickson a while back. Anyway, I love the floors in our hotel rooms. Smooth, clean, cooling and easy on the eyes.

The Straits Hotel & Suites

Bathrooms - one of our rooms have bath tub while the rest have shower heads. Toilets are clean and dry. Towels and toiletries are neatly arranged in the bathrooms. There is dustbin, hair dryer and an electrical socket in case you need to use. I did feedback to the hotel management on my concerns of the toilet curtains being outside the bathroom - maybe instead of using the curtain blinds, the bathroom wall to be frosted or covered up for privacy?

The Straits Hotel & Suites

The closets are right outside the bathroom, there's cloth slippers for hotel guests to use. We didn't use the hotel safe though it is provided in the room. One cool thing to note is our Suite comes with a large bathroom with bathtub and standing rain shower, sofa set and dining area. There is a dining table with 4 dining chairs, a TV, comfy sofa and TV table. There is an electric kettle, cups and mini fridge provided. I love the deep sink as well, easy to wash your hands and stuff without water splashing everywhere.

The view from the balcony is wonderful as well. Pictures below are taken from the Infinity pool located in level 23. What a beautiful sight to savour the panoramic view of the City of Malacca and The Straits of Malacca! Love love love it! I also love that the swimming pool area is sheltered, you can swim to your hearts content while being shaded and you can feast your eyes to the wonderful view all around the pool!

The Straits Hotel & Suites

On our 2nd night in the hotel, we were invited to sample the hotel's current set dinner promotion:

The Straits Hotel & Suites

Actual pictures taken of our dishes from the dinner promotion set. Delicious! Portions are nice considering we have 2 adults, 2 pre-teens and 4 younger children below 9 years old! I'm not a vegetable fan but oh my, the kangkung dish is really good! My husband continuously complimented the dishes in the set.

The Straits Hotel & Suites

To sum up my review, this is a wonderful hotel to go to if you are planning to stay in Melaka.

Near to shopping malls and local attractions, awesome facilities and amenities, courteous and friendly staff.

Really must consider!

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You may find more info at https://www.straitshotelsuites.com/melaka/

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Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a complimentary hotel stay and a dinner promotion 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.
I'm a full-time mummy