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 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! 

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?" 

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.

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!

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

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.

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)

Nowadays, as busy as I am with 4 kiddos, home cooking, helping with hubby's administration site of the business and managing my FB fan page and blog, I started to slow myself down to just reviewing products that either myself and/or my family can use and benefit from.

About the company/brand:

"Fundels card games: “Play&Learn” and “Flashcards”

With Fundels Play&Learn card games, you can quickly learn new things through play. These games teach you how to combine colours and shapes, how to write letters and how to play with numbers. What’s more, the fun plastic case means that you really can play these games anywhere! With Fundels FlashCards you can quickly and easily practise counting, language and conceptual thinking too. The upbeat design and fun colours make learning super fun!"

Since I've got 4 kiddos age ranging from 6 months old to 8 years old, we were sent several items from the new Fundels educational range for our review so that we can cover as much of them with our 4 kiddos hahaha... FYI, there are 2 range of Fundel products:

• Premium Play&Learn box (Drawing with Numbers, Writing Letters, Colours & Shapes and Playing with Numbers)
  

• Standard Flashcards (Multiplications, Learn to Draw and Learn English)
  

Play&Learn (Colours & Shapes)

This is one of my favourite games! Yes, yes, an adult saying this, I know... but hey, I am reviewing the products with my kiddos, so yes, I have the right to say that this is one of my favourite games! Now what do I like about them? With this game, you’ll develop your spatial awareness. How you play the game is you select one of the examples and try to replicate them out again. The tricky part is to ensure the cards' (some are transparent while some are translucent) positions, layouts, colours and shapes are as close as you can match them to be.

I find this game very easy for my kiddos age 3.5-years-old to 8-years-old to understand and follow. Just take one sample card and show them how it is done and then let my kiddos go crazy and creative on their own. The cards' quality is good and durable as well, nifty size which is good for them to hold onto and stack or adjust on top of other cards as they try to replicate the sample card. Lots of educational moments here as I get to teach our kiddos positioning (front, behind, left, right, over, under) as well as colour mixture and shapes combination in certain cases.

Play&Learn (Writing Letters)

This has got to be my next favourite game. My 3.5-year-old girl is particularly enjoying this game so much! She has started to learn alphabets in her preschool and to be able to practice tracing the letters on the colourful and cute little cards are much more enjoyable for her. I don't think she even realises that she is learning at the same time of her 'doodling' and tracing the letters! Win-win!

Play&Learn (Playing with Numbers)

I changed the rules of this game to suit myself and my 8-year-old hahaha. What we did was dividing a stack of numbered cards (I shuffled them first to randomise them) between us and using the dice, we took turns to roll the dice. If we get the + sign, we will choose 3 of our cards (we are playing 3 place values: ones, tens and hundreds) and whoever get the highest values, wins! If we get the - sign, whoever gets the lowest values wins. 

FlashCards (Learn English)

This is a very convenient and easy game to play with my kiddos. I have a few ways to play with these flashcards.

One way is I flashed the cards (image portion) to each of my kiddos in about 3 seconds' time and if they can guess the name of the objects correctly, they get a mini candy treat. Another way I played with these cards was I shuffled the cards, then looked at the image portion and each kiddo take turns to guess the objects on the cards I'm holding. I will slowly give them hints to the cards, such as it is a food item, you can eat it raw or you need to cook it first, or it is a household items etc. Whoever guessed the objects correctly gets a treat!

FlashCards (Multiplications)

These flashcards currently can only be used for my 8-year-old since he is learning multiplications.

If only I have this cards earlier, it would've saved me so much time and energy as I recently DIY-ed some mini flashcards for the exact purposes to teach my kiddo multiplications. Below picture is my humble little DIY flashcards which surprisingly is quite similar style to Fundels' version. I like Fundels' flashcards as the quality is better (of course!) and the numbers are big and bold enough to be seen from a distance. We have an enjoyable time with the flashcards!

FlashCards (Learn to Draw)

These flashcards we got for our review has got to be one of my favourites, which is the "Learn to Draw" flashcards. Each card has 4 simple steps to follow to draw them. The steps to follow in drawing are highlighted in red colour for easier understanding and final design of the object is shown at the bottom of the cards. The cards' drawings go from easy to medium to hard level from what I see, which is just suitable for my 3 kiddos!

I personally think there are many ways to use these flashcards and it has lots of learning opportunities! I started off by getting my kiddos ready with their own scrapbooks and colour pencils. Then I flashed them an example and they get to drawing as close as they can to the sample cards.

I choose the harder drawings for our 8-year-old to practice on, such as the helicopter, robot and dinosaurs drawing. He enjoyed the challenges and even came up with his own drawings to complement the flashcards designs hahah...

Instead of getting my kiddos to draw out the objects, another way I use these flashcards is to select some and get them to build it using Lego bricks hahaha. Look at how creative they get in trying to build their Lego creations as close as possible to the drawings on the flashcards.

A cute and fun way to get our kiddos to learn about mathematics, language and conceptual thinking in an easy way.

A must get products for your kiddos, really! 

Fundels are currently for sale at Parkson at Pavilion KL and Hamleys at One Utama. More stores will follow!

For more info on Fundels, check out: http://www.fundels.com, https://www.facebook.com/fundels/ and https://www.facebook.com/CartamundiAsiaPacific/

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.

I saw this article and yes, I agree with it. As parents, we are judged in whatever things we do.

"To the mom who's breastfeeding: Way to go! It really is an amazing gift to give your baby, for any amount of time that you can manage! You're a good mom.

To the mom who's formula feeding: Isn't science amazing? To think there was a time when a baby with a mother who couldn't produce enough would suffer, but now? Better living through chemistry! You're a good mom.

To the cloth diapering mom: Fluffy bums are the cutest, and so friendly on the bank account. You're a good mom.

To the disposable diapering mom: Wow those things hold a lot, and it's excellent to not worry about leakage and laundry! You're a good mom.

To the mom who stays home: I can imagine it isn't easy doing what you do, but to spend those precious years with your babies must be amazing. You're a good mom.

To the mom who works: It's wonderful that you're sticking to your career, you're a positive role model for your children in so many ways, it's fantastic. You're a good mom.

To the mom who had to feed her kids from the drive thru all week because you're too worn out to cook or go grocery shopping: You're feeding your kids, and hey, I bet they aren't complaining! Sometimes sanity can indeed be found in a white bag with a big red chick on it. You're a good mom.

To the mom who gave her kids a homecooked breakfast lunch and dinner for the past week: Excellent! Good nutrition is important, and they're learning to enjoy healthy foods at an early age, a boon for the rest of their lives. You're a good mom.

To the mom with the kids who are sitting quietly and using their manners in the fancy restaurant: Kudos, it takes a lot to maintain order with children in a place where they can't run around. You're a good mom.

To the mom with the toddler having a meltdown in the cereal aisle: they always seem to pick the most embarrassing places to lose their minds don't they? We've all been through it. You're a good mom.

To the moms who judge other moms for ANY of the above?

Glass houses, friend. Glass houses."

** 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.