No-Sew Quilt

I did some early Christmas shopping this year and spotted this:

Alex Knot-a-Quilt Fleece No-Sew Quilt Kit

It said on the bag that it was 6+. There are no 6+ little girls in my life right now, but I got it anyway. Because I thought Josh and Zoë would love the colors… and to be honest, I thought it would be fun to make my own quilt. Heh. Yes, I got myself a present designed for 6-year olds.

It took me weeks to finish the whole thing, but I’m pretty happy with the result. See?

There are 48 pieces of squares in six bold colors and all I had to do was to knot the fringes on the squares together. I did have to undo some knots a few times to redo, because I’d missed a fringe. That? Not so fun. Totally my fault, though, for not paying attention.

It makes for a nice throw or a blanket for a pretend picnic. Josh and Zoë are having fun with it and I’m having fun watching them having fun.

Brain Quest®

When we were going away for the summer, I had meticulously packed a whole Trunki full of activity books, stickers, simple games, snacks, puzzles, coloring pens, crayons… well, basically anything that I thought would make the long-haul trip more fun (for the kids) and bearable (for us!).

Included in the stash was a set of Brain Quest® cards that I had bought. I was actually very pleased with myself for finding that at Dymocks, knowing that this alone would keep both Josh and Zoë occupied for at the very least 30 minutes or more.

Image: Brain Quest®

I never really got to test it on the plane, because we forgot the entire Trunki in our mad rush to the airport.

BUT, I finally opened the Trunki last week and dug out the little treasures stashed in there. It was a lazy afternoon and I decided to give Brain Quest® a try with both Josh and Zoë. See, I had bought the Ages 3-4 one, because I thought the Ages 2-3 one would be a bit too easy for Zoë. I was right, as Zoë was able to answer about 90% of the questions asked in the cards that I’d shown her so far –and she’s not even 2-1/2 yet (just had to mention that)! Josh, of course, zoomed through pretty much all of them. Okay, bragging moment over.

What I really liked about these cards, though, is how much fun we all had while going through them. The cards are colorful, of high quality, AND are all attached together at the bottom with a grommet so that you’ll never have to worry about misplacing any one of them. We had moments of intense concentration (from Zoë), giggles and squeals as they try to beat each other to giving the right answer. While you can just read the questions straight out and move on to the next as soon as it’s answered, you can also ask follow-up questions to the original questions and engage your children in a mini-discussion.

The questions in the Ages 3-4 pack cover a range of topics, from letter recognition to math concepts to general knowledge –all designed in a fun, age-appropriate manner, with colorful illustrations.

I am off to get the next pack –Ages 5-6, –for Josh.

You can get them here in Hong Kong at Dymocks for HK$110.

Time’s Up!

I don’t know how I am going to get through the day without this. This timer here is the voice of authority around here. When it buzzes, my children know that it is time. Time to turn off the TV. Time to stop playing and (get dressed, eat dinner, etc.).

It’s amazing how a little inexpensive digital timer like this can help so much with setting limits. I can tell Josh and Zoë to stop doing something, but sometimes they’d negotiate or whine. But when I set the timer and tell them that they have stop whatever it is that they’re doing when the timer buzzes, they stop. With nary a whine or “but, Mommy…”

What does a timer have that I don’t?! Hmmph.

Mighty Mind® / Super Mind®

Sorry for the long period of silence. I’ve just been busy with other stuff. I’ll try to do a post at least once a month (or more!), starting again in September, as July/August will be busy months for moi. Thanks for visiting!

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I remember having fun with tangrams when I was growing up. Only seven pieces of flat shapes, but endless possibilities. Very challenging, although at times frustrating, but always lots of fun.

When I saw these games at a toy sale, I immediately grabbed them. This was when Josh was only 2 years old. Yes, I’m a hoarder. Guilty as charged.

Anyway, one lazy afternoon, when we were bored with the usual games and I didn’t want him watching TV or playing on the computer, I remembered about the Mighty Mind® game and brought it out.

Here is Josh, working on the first few puzzles:

The pack came with 30 image cards and 32 geometric shapes. Each of the cards are numbered and follow a logical sequence of patterns starting with two half circles that the child manipulates to form a full circle. Each card “guides” the child through different shape combinations and increases in complexity.

It was wonderful seeing Josh’s “Aha!” moments when he realized that X plus X shape makes a Y shape. You could almost see his increasing confidence as he moved on to each card. After sitting down and explaining to him how the game works, I pretty much left him to his own devices and he would just call out to me to go and see each time he completed an image. He kept at it for quite a while –at least an hour, --which was awesome and allowed me a little bit of peace and quiet to do my stuff.

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Once you are done with Mighty Mind® (Ages 3-8), you can move on the Super Mind® (Ages 5-9). Super Mind® follows the same concept, except that the images are more complex and more challenging.

Josh is pretty self-motivating most of the time, but sometimes he’d take a look and would go, “Aw, Mommy! It’s so tough!” Because of this, I was a bit wary about introducing Super Mind® to him now, lest he finds the complexity of the patterns too overwhelming and be turned off and not enjoy the game anymore. But we’d pretty much gone through all the cards in Mighty Mind® and he wanted a “surprise” from me for finishing his Math worksheets yesterday.

To my surprise and delight, he eagerly tackled the new patterns and actually completed the first five (photo of Pattern #36 above) before deciding to “save it for another day.” I think he surprised himself, too, because as he progressed, his excitement at completing each one grew. Look at this, Mommy –all done! I did it!

Great game for the preschoolers. Even Zoë was doing the first few patterns on the Mighty Mind® set. Zoë did it, Mommy!

Upon further research, I found that this game is apparently a winner of the Parent's Choice Toy of the Year award and has been nominated four times by Parenting Magazine to the Toy Hall of Fame, among other accolades and citations.

I got these two sets from Toys ‘R’ Us, but I do believe that these are also available at Apita and possibly Wing On, too. I can’t remember the exact cost, but for sure, each one was under HK$200. If you can’t find them anywhere here in Hong Kong, I’m pretty sure that you can order the games through Amazon.com.

Help-Yourself Book Boxes

For the longest time, the books in the children's room were held together by bookends. But I had to constantly put books back and rearrange them, forever tightening the bookends so that books stay upright. Because the kids could only see the spine of the book, sometimes they would pull down several books before getting to the one that they want. And then I'm left with books strewn all over the place. It's partly my fault, though. I have tried encouraging them to put the books back, but it's not easy for them to insert the books back upright; well, at least not as neatly upright as I'd want them to be and not without somehow mangling the pages (travesty!) when they try to force the books back into place.

When I saw the Help-Yourself Book Boxes in the Lakeshore Learning catalogue, I just had to get them. I'm a Lakeshore Learning fan, if you don't already know. But I'd be an even bigger fan if I can get their products here in Hong Kong without paying the additional shipping cost and having to wait almost two months before the orders arrive.

Back to the book bins...

I ordered a set of six and ordered an additional two. When they finally came, I was a bit surprised to see that they appeared smaller than what I thought they would be. I thought that I would have enough for all the books in the children's room, with a couple to spare for the additional books they have in our room and in the living room. I ended up using all eight bins just for the books in their room. Either I misjudged the number of books they have or I misjudged the size of the book boxes.

After I organized all the books in the book bins, I knew I had to get more. They were so neat, figuratively and literally. What I like about them is that it allows for the tikesters to very easily flip through the books and pick out the ones they want, without having to pull different ones out to get a good look and then discarding them by the side.

Each book box is 14" x 7" x 5" high and is the just right size allowing the kids to be able to put the books back properly and neatly without me worrying about damage to the books. (I'm a bit anal that way.) I say it is "just right" size because when I found out that I didn't order enough book boxes, I went to Ikea and got a few of the Trofast storage boxes in different sizes to see if they would work just as well. For sure, the Ikea storage boxes would be cheaper and I could easily run down and get more without having to wait for two months. They were either too wide, not deep enough, not big enough, too deep, etc. See, if the box is too shallow, the books will not stand up well (or at all); if it's too deep, I'd have the same problem as when I was using bookends where the kids would have to pull out books to find the ones they want. The book boxes from Lakeshore Learning were designed for books, for the little ones to easily "help themselves" to the books they want.

Each of the boxes comes with labels, so if you are so inclined, you can categorize and group books into different bins. It's a pity they only come in blue. It would be nice to have them in other colors, too. Regardless, I LOVE the Help-Yourself Book Boxes.

A set of six costs HK$419 and each extra book box is HK$70.

To place an order --

• Go to the Lakeshore Learning website and look for the item that you want.
• Note down the Item Number (usually 2 letters followed by 3 numbers).
• Call or email (childplay@hutchcity.com) the local distributor and let them know which items you want; you will have to give them the item number.
• They will call you back with a quote and also let you know when you might expect your order.
• Payment is : 30% deposit, 70% by cash before delivery.

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Psst. If you know of where I can get something similar here in Hong Kong, please let me know. I could always use a few more and I'd rather not have to wait for two more months. You can contact me at buckeroomama@gmail.com. Thanks!