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 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.

I have this vocabulary power flip book which was bought a couple of years back. I put it in our study room, just regularly flip to new words whenever we were in the study room.

Once in a while, I will point out the word and asked our eldest kiddo to pronounce it and then I will explain to the rest of our kiddos what the word meant. My plan is to leave it there, subtly mentioned to kiddos whenever we are in the study room. Once, I forgot all about the flip book and our eldest kiddo suddenly asked me what the word on the flip book meant. Oh wow, paying attention huh?

So I continued as per normal, teaching when the opportunity presents itself, no pressure, not too subtle hahaha...

** 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 everyday) 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 good books, what more one as unique as this! 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: Rasa Sayang Sing-and-Record Fun Book
Publisher: Peyron Singapore Pte Ltd
ISBN: 978-981-09-8706-0
Paperback: 16 pages (hardboard)

Description from the product page:

"Rasa Sayang Sing-and-Record Fun Book is the first-ever push-button Malay folksong book. Realising the importance of preserving and protecting the local cultural heritage, Lok Leejiun curated the book to reconnect the younger generation to their roots. The book introduces an ensemble of traditional Malay folksongs, featuring seven (7) Nusantara folksongs namely Rasa Sayang, Chan Mali Chan, Burung Kakak Tua, Anak Itik Tok Wi, Lenggang Kangkung, Bengawan Solo, and Gelang Sipaku Gelang for the kids.

The book incorporates interactive elements to enhance and create a more memorable learning experience for children. Besides the conventional push-and-play button for pre-recorded songs, the book also features a ‘record’ button to record parents’ singing, and a ‘playback’ button to listen to the recording – allowing for parent-child interaction even when parents are occupied. English translations of the Malay lyrics are also available to benefit children’s learning process further."

We received the Rasa Sayang: Song Book + Plush Toy Gift Set for our review. My first thought was "What a lovely gift box set!" Perfect to give on any occasion! And look at that cute plushie! When you press the toy, you can hear the 'Rasa Sayang' tune! Lovely! Sometimes either myself or our kiddos will press the plushie and let our almost 3 months old boy hear it, sort of like a lullaby song hahaha...

We immediately open up the box and flip through the book as well as check out the push-buttons ahahah... The book includes a ‘play’ button for pre-recorded songs, a ‘record’ button for interactive play and a ‘playback’ button to playback our singing.

I want to confess that I really did not read any instructions on how to record our singing and how to playback etc. Well, we were over excited with the new book and the push-button gadget hahah... but fret not, it is very easy to understand and operate the push-buttons, really, even for me who skipped following the tutorial (located on the 1st page of the book)

I got our girls to press the corresponding button pictures to the songs in the book and let them hear the songs over and over again. For ehem ehem, mature people like me, these songs really do bring back memories! I remember learning to sing them during my primary school time. Oh, how fun! I guess children these days will miss out on these lovely songs if they are not exposed to it anymore.

What I like about this book is it comes with the English translated lyrics as well (in case you can't sing in Bahasa, you can sing in English). The illustrations are cute and the fonts used in the book are easy on the eye, easy and big enough to read.

There is also a mini game you can play as you go through this book with your child(ren). You can try to find the mischievous baba (the company mascot) that is hiding in the pages of the book. Enjoying music as well as playing hide and seek at the same time, hahaha, nice nice!

At one point, our girls even danced along to the songs. Our almost 8-year-old boy told me he remembered learning some of the songs during his kindy time.

Our 3-year-old girl also quietly browsed through and repeatedly play some songs - I guessed she found some favorite new tunes. Days after we first used the book, I can hear her humming along to a few words from some songs. Precious, precious memories to pass on to our younger generation.

Overall, this is a really nice book to own. What a nice way to preserve a cultural gem!

I totally recommend this book!

Giant thumbs up!

You can purchase the book or the gift set at http://www.bababaa.com/shop-baba-baa/

For more information on baba baa, please visit their website at www.bababaa.com and https://www.facebook.com/bababaafamily/

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.