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Becks Kao Ben Kao Homelearning fun Learning fun!

Teaching the Kao Kids: Routines II

April 23, 2014

There’s a new wall the kids have to face these days.

Our humble five-room flat is already looking like a day care. Might as well maximise every empty space for learning.

In order to create a print rich environment, I’ve put up two charts which I bought from a spree with some other mothers (SGD$15 for 1 from Taobao) and used the pockets to put in word cards for Ben (we’re currently still blending word) and letter cards (uppercase and lowercase letters) for Becks.

Ben’s chart with Blends

Becks’ chart with Letters + her weekly word cards from Berries

I change the cards in the pockets frequently but before I do so, they would have had faced their charts for at least a week.

It’s no punishment at all here in this house. We just like to face the wall, that’s all.

—

Here’s what I wrote about Routines, Part 1

Check out the other posts in the series:

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Going Out! Invites & Tryouts The Kao Kids

A day out at Changi Naval Base, and dashing the kids’ dream of being bucaneers

April 11, 2014

Sometime ago, we were invited to a fun day out at Changi Naval Base and to attend the sending-off ceremony of the RSS Tenacious which would be deployed to the Gulf of Aden as part of Singapore’s commitment to international counter-piracy efforts.

Now I don’t know about you, but I am super eager to have my kids meet some real soldiers and learn about the mean stuff real pirates do and how our soldiers help protect us from them. I mean, every mother – and I say this with respect – with boys need to teach their kids that pirates ARE NOT GOOD GUYS and Jake, Cubby and Izzy in Jake and the Neverland Pirates will never ever be seen in real life.

So off we went to Changi Naval Base where I was really looking forward to burst that ‘Ahoy-Matey-Yo-Ho-Ho’ bubble.

We were first taken on a guided tour at the Navy Museum, and what an enlightening experience it was. We learned about the various missions in which the Navy provided relief and assistance for, the equipment and weapons the Navy use to safeguard maritime security, as well as how the Singapore Navy became the modern and integrated maritime fighting force we know today.

The kids were excited to be looking at big guns and model vessels…

As well as try on mini-sized Navy uniforms… (pity there was no extra extra small for Nat!)

I just had to get my children to learn how to salute after they put on those uniforms. Here’s a salute to all of you out there keeping our shores and seas safe. Thank you for doing a great job!

After staying a while at the Navy Museum, we headed to the Naval Base itself (we’ve gotten security clearance for that) where we witnessed the sending off ceremony of the RSS Tenacious. The RSS Tenacious (a formidable-class multi-role stealth frigate), together with a Republic of Singapore Air Force Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk naval helicopter and a 151-strong task force were off to counter piracy in the Gulf of Aden for three months.

These are men and women with families and loved ones, and they rock big time, putting their lives on the line. These are sons, fathers, brothers, daughters and sisters volunteering to go and rising beyond their call of duty so we can have safer seas, not pirate-infested ones. And while we waited to wave our goodbyes – and I knew it would be so much harder for that little girl who stood next to us waving goodbye to her daddy – I said a prayer thanking God for these men and women that are doing Singapore proud. I don’t know how these people do it; I had no one I knew onboard and yet my heart ached so much just to know that peace comes at such a sacrifice and these people are saying goodbye to the people they love who would be gone for three whole months on a potentially dangerous mission.

I also took the chance to tell Ben and Becks, who were piqued with so much curiosity as to why we have to say goodbye to these men in blue uniforms – that piracy is no joke, that there’s no such thing as a good pirate these days, and that we need brave people like them who would safeguard the seas so we can all sleep in peace. Even Captain Hook who is nice enough to sometimes return Jake and his friends their treasures isn’t a real representation of these baddies who would attack oil tankers and merchant vessels with big guns and sophisticated weapons.

“So pirates are not good guys, Mama?” Ben asked after I explained. “Awww…”

Yep, bubble’s burst. Not cartoon series, not movie here eh. We’re talking about real dangers, hello?

After the farewell, we proceeded with a windshield tour of the Naval Base to check out more vessels and submarines, which was way too cool for common folks like you and me to grasp. Unless you were with the Navy, you never would be seeing this…

A submarine!

And this…

A US Vessel docking at Changi Naval Base

And this…

The Swift Rescue, which was recently deployed to search for the missing MH370

Awesome much, don’t you think?

It was a really meaningful day out for our family, and we were so touched by the hospitality and friendliness of our hosts who are proud and passionate people who believe in what they do. We’re really privileged to get this opportunity, and I really have the good people from the Republic of Singapore Navy to thank.

Photo credit: Deborah from owlswellblog.wordpress.com

The Navy Museum at Changi Naval Base is open to the public and admission is free. It’s open from 9am to 5pm from Mondays to Fridays and 9am to 3pm on Saturdays. For more information, visit the Museum’s website. Guided tours are available for 10 people or more.

If you would like send your support to the 151 people onboard the RSS Tenacious and give them a virtual pat of their backs, you can leave messages of encouragement and love at the Singapore Navy’s Sea of Support page. Connect with the Republic of Singapore Navy on their facebook page for updates on their latest events and missions.

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Ben Kao Everyday fun! Family life as we know it Milestones and growing up The Kao Kids The real supermom

Of drawings and homework for Mom

April 9, 2014

My kids are finally drawing things that make sense.

And labelling them so that we know what they are, just in case we can’t make out what they are drawing.

I’m glad I was one of those parents that allowed them to draw and draw (on paper, that is) when they were ready to start and held my tongue when I could make no sense of what they did. And boy am I also glad I refrained from giving too much feedback and making too many adult comments because gone are the days of colour globs and splashes, human beings with no limbs and animals that look like extraterrestrial creatures.

I can’t get these days – and drawings – back anymore.

Ben’s drawings of animals at 4 years old

Becks’ art: I always wondered what they were

More things that leave me wondering

While those former days were cute, these days I’m seeing even cuter things.

Now Becks is drawing more recognisable stick people…

… Me on a bad day

… And me on a good day – ain’t I pretty?

Little Nat can also draw many basketballs (his favourite!)

And this is Ben’s version of me, which has evolved (the one above was drawn a year earlier)!

More recognisable zoo animals now, as compared to half a year ago

I even get homework from my eldest, who thinks it’s absolute fun to be designing worksheets for me to do. He leaves them on my desk with “instructions” by blending each word he cannot spell by heart and writing them on the worksheet. Since then, I’ve done a couple of Chinese characters, navigated through mazes he designed and even had to “grow” people in boxes.

He leaves me notes to read…

This is for me to guess. G for…?

So one day I came home and found that I needed to do 习字 !!!

Plus navigate these mazes to get animals out of trouble

And this is the one I’m supposed to grow people in boxes. Ben meant ‘draw’ actually!

So on top of doing school runs, enrichment runs, grocery runs and hospital runs, I come home now to a pile of worksheets needing to be completed. The day my little girl and the littlest follow their older brother (to give me worksheets, that is), I tell you, I’m so going to be one exhausted mother.

Am not complaining, actually, because these kids entertain me tremendously with what they are drawing. Motherhood just got better.

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Homelearning fun Learning fun! Milestones and growing up Nat Kao

Bill Martin Jr, Eric Carle and my two-year-old

March 22, 2014

After serving as excellent readers for Ben and Becks who can almost say them out by heart, these bear books are now keeping Nat company whenever Ben and Becks are in school when he has nothing to do.

Nat and I are reading the classic Bear Series from Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. They are:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

As well as this book titled From Head to Toe which we both enjoy as it invites both of us to imitate animal movements, like stomping our foot like an elephant and thumping our chest like a gorilla.

All these books have got a good rhythm to keep even a two-year-old engaged and gives Nat the wonderful opportunity to imitate sounds and actions of animals. Besides attending playgroup for 1.5 hours twice a week, these reading sessions with Mama during pockets of time on a weekday is all he’s got. I take for granted that he would know how to flip the pages of a book, hold it properly and start reading from front to back; after all, the older kids had learned them somewhat. But I forgot that the older kids were in infantcare and childcare since they were four months old, and that now that I’m staying home, I have to be the one teaching Nat these skills.

This boy is enjoying the bear stories and doing well flipping the pages properly now.

Thank God, no more torn pages! Looks like I now need to teach him to sit cross-legged every time he reads!

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Enrichment Invites & Tryouts Learning fun! Reviews The Kao Kids

Steady progress at Eye Level (+ trial passes giveaway!)

March 18, 2014

Ben and Becks have been learning at Eye Level Learning Center for three months now, and I’m really happy with the kids’ progress in Math.

Actually, I’m also happy to be outsourcing this to their patient and caring teachers and get some time to myself every Wednesday afternoon, even though it’s just sitting outside the centre to wait for them. At least I get to read kdrama recaps, snack on OCK and chill for a while. Ha.

But I digress. Yes, as I was saying, I’m really happy with the kids’ progress because I think they’ve gotten their foundation in the basics right these past three months. Before starting at Eye Level, I’ve taught Ben to count using his fingers and counters and by making him count out loud, but here at Eye Level, they’ve done something even better. Through the activities in the activity booklets he does every lesson (and one more weekly for homework), his teacher guides him to add and subtract mentally (no fingers! and I hear the finger-way is kinda wrong!) and has taught him to count up to 120, and even doing it backwards (to help him understand subtraction). Concepts are revised regularly, and new concepts are introduced with a lot of scaffolding and practice, and then revisited in different ways.

Here’s how Ben’s learned addition up to 2 numbers in a variety of ways:

The activity booklet is designed to cover each concept in a variety of ways to keep the child engaged

At Eye Level, they also provide regular progress reports to keep parents updated. I like that the teachers there care enough to work closely with the parents and even provide a paragraph worth of comments on how the child is learning in class:

I get frequent updates after class, as well as consolidated reports like these

The best part of all these is not that I have a 5-year-old who can count big and add or subtract. Really, if you know me, I’m not a mother who lives to brag of such things. The best part for me is that these are learned without any blood (boiling) on my part, and sweat and tears on Ben’s part, and that most importantly, Ben is enjoying Math stress-free.

Because sometimes I can demand so much from my own kids teaching them. And that actually stresses them out a lot.

Looking at Ben through another classroom’s window: see how much glee there is!

As for Becks, she’s learning to count up to 10 through activities like story telling, colouring, cutting and pasting and sticker fun at Eye Level’s Play Math Programme – and the little girl is enjoying herself much too. She’s learning to count objects properly and systematically (and in fun ways while at it), as compared to haphazardly – and that to me, is great news.

$Just look at how beautifully illustrated these counting activities can be from the Play Math Programme!$

Just look at how beautifully illustrated these counting activities can be from the Play Math Programme!

Prior to attending lessons at Eye Level, Becks would throw tantrums just because I corrected the way she counted (she would point at objects randomly and double count most of the time). There were two things that didn’t work in our favour back then a couple of months ago: she was temperamental (even after exiting her Terrible Twos, yes) and I’ve got a pretty short fuse. Now that she’s three-half, she’s a lot better with those tantrums and I’ve learned also to be gentler when it comes to correcting her. Plus, I’ve also got a win-win situation here whereby Becks attends lessons at Eye Level and gets undivided attention from a very patient teacher whom she likes a lot.

Which translates into her liking Math a lot more now than before.

Becks getting ready for class

We’ll be continuing our lessons here at Eye Level for a while more because I like their systematic curriculum, the way learning is paced to be progressive and the fact that there’s a lot of proactiveness on the teachers’ part. Most of all, I like the idea that Ben and Becks are learning in an environment that’s fun and stress-free, but at the same time developing so much confidence in their thinking ability.

Thank you, Eye Level, for inviting us to review your excellent programmes!

Here’s something special for Motherkao readers, courtesy of Eye Level!

If you’d like to have your child attend trial classes at Eye Level, I’ve got THREE one-month trial passes for ANY programme at any Eye Level Learning Center located in Singapore for three readers of this blog.

You can choose from one of these programmes: Play Math (suitable for ages 2.5 to 4), Math (for ages 4 to 14) and English (for ages 4 to 14) at any of their learning centres islandwide – check for a location near you here.

*Do note that your child would need to take a diagnostic test before the commencement of the trial because Eye Level’s curriculum is designed to be progressive by levels.*

To participate for the random draw, all you need to do is:

1) LIKE Eye Level’s Facebook Page

2) LIKE Motherkao’s Facebook Page (if you haven’t already done so)

3) Leave me a comment here telling me the age of your child, the programme you’d like him / her to attend and your preferred location

Don’t forget to leave your email address so we can get back to you. Giveaway closes on 31 March 2014.

We’ve randomly picked… AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THREE WINNERS!

Disclosure: Ben and Becks have been invited to attend Eye Level’s Math and Play Math for a term of three months (and now another three more months!). Motherkao has accepted sponsorship for her reviews of their programmes and endorsement of the centre. All opinions here are Motherkao’s own (with input from Ben and Becks).

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Going Out! Invites & Tryouts Learning fun! Product Reviews Reviews The Kao Kids

Washi-ful, AMAZING fun with 3M Scotch® Expressions Tapes

March 17, 2014

I’ve stayed away – and kept the kids away – from washi-tapes for a long time. You know, those cute Japanese masking tapes typically made from natural fibres from the bark of trees that are native to Japan, yea those. They are super expensive, and if you get one, you sort of have to get all in every design, pattern and colour, cos’ they are all too pretty not to have. Besides, being OCD kind of makes me hesitate getting the kids those tapes because I’d much prefer not to have my furniture and walls embellished, thank you very much.

So since the kids are so extremely deprived of crafting fun, thanks to their not-so-crafty-mother, when an opportunity to craft comes along, I usually don’t say no so the kids can experience making a mess and getting all inspired and creative in an environment that’s conducive and fun.

Just not in our house, is what I’m saying. Hurhurhur.

Two Saturdays ago, we were invited by 3M’s ‘Make Amazing with 3M™ Scotch® Expression Tapes’ Tea Party to put the fun in functional using their bright and colourful adhesive tapes.

At the Tea Party, there was a display of all things washified - from stationery and chairs to shoes!

At the Tea Party, there was a display of all things washified – from stationery and chairs to costume jewellery!

To celebrate the launch of 3M’s Scotch® Expression Tapes, we gathered at Food for Thought @8Q for a no-holds-barred, anything-goes crafting session. We were asked to bring to life a simple IKEA children’s chair with as many Expression Tapes as we wished and turn it into a Rocket Launcher that would take us to worlds beyond.

We were given a demo by the trainers from Artz Graine, a leading art studio that creates a platform for art cultivation

With more than 55 colours and patterns from Magic™, Washi and Masking Tapes, we were truly spoilt for choice!

Tapes Galore!

We started washifying the Rocket cardboard with all the tapes that Ben and Becks had “shopped” for…

Getting ready!

Decorating the rocket with Expressions Tapes!

And when that proved to be a little too challenging for the both of them (because of the corners and odd shaped bits), Ben and Becks went wild making their washi statements on the chair…

Sticking tapes all over the chair, tis’ fun!

Leaving me (who else!) to continue working on the rocket …

All by myself: the OCD Mom did it. I washified NEATLY.

All by myself: the OCD Mom did this too

It’s so easy to use these tapes. They are also easily removed or repositioned and yet sticks securely to most surfaces. And the best part about these tapes is – and check this out – they are 100% TEARABLE (read: no need for scissors!).

Even Nat could help, and didn’t hesitate to join his siblings.

Nat at work

These versatile tapes are available in various textures and sizes in a rainbow of solid colours, prints and patterns to mix and match in almost every possible way. Just look at our final creation, our very own dazzling Launcher Throne:

Ta Daa!

The kids had a really great time playing with tape and discovering how to brighten their world with them. I’m guessing they will be off to upcycle all the ho-hums at home to add some pop to them with all the Expression Tapes 3M got us to take home (and I will try my best not to be OCD) and I am going to be seeing lots of tape around for a long time.

Thank you, 3M, for an afternoon of fun, food and craft. And yes, plus the chair and all the tapes you allowed us to shop for and bring back!

Food, fun and tapes!

More details:

3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Scotch® Expressions Magic™, Washi and Masking Tapes are designed to stick on a wide variety of surfaces for both permanent and temporary applications and can be removed cleanly.
These tapes retail at SGD$3.90 to $9.90 and are available at selected Popular Bookstores and other leading retailers.
Get a headstart by visiting MyActivityRoom.com and have fun with various creative projects using 3M Scotch® Expression Tapes!

Disclosure: We were invited to 3M’s ‘Make Amazing with 3M™ Scotch® Expression Tapes’ Tea Party and received many rolls of tape (used and unused) to craft with. No monetary compensation was received for this post and all opinions here are our own.

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Homelearning fun Learning fun! Milestones and growing up Nat Kao The Kao Kids

Fun with plants

March 9, 2014

We’ve been learning all we can about plants these days and it’s been two months of planting-fun!

What I planned for our PLANTS theme homelearning

I’ve been making trips to the library to find books that would answer all our questions about plants. Our National Library is indeed a wonderful one-stop resource centre with plenty of materials for teaching preschoolers. Besides reading the reference books aloud, I also told the kids the story of The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, a beautiful tale about a flowering plant’s life cycle through the seasons.

These books were some of the many I borrowed the past 2 months

I also did a comprehension text with Ben and Becks using a text with an accompanying activity from this book which I found at the recent Popular Expo Sale (yes, yes, I frequent this place A LOT to get things cheap!):

Evan Moor's Read Write & Learn Preschoolers

I find this book very colourful and engaging

This text is about leaves and their usefulness:

Colour-xeroxed the text about LEAVES for the notice board

After reading the text together, I got Ben to read aloud each statement from the worksheet and circle the correct answer, and while he’s reading out loud, Becks would slap the answer with her flyswatter on her Yes-No board. It was fun for her, and she got to learn the sight words “yes” and “no”.

Comprehension Activity Sheet

Becks’ Yes-No Board

And then it was sight words and spelling time! We also picked up on the concept of singular-plural in English and that we don’t just always add an ‘s’ to every word to make the singular form plural, like in leaf and leaves.

The sight words for the theme

We also touched and felt the leaves we eat (the vegetables in our fridge!), and the kids got to draw and colour their favourite. We also revised the parts of a flowering plant using one of our Age 4 worksheets from our Hands On Homeschooling curriculum:

Drawing leaves and labelling parts of a plant

Last month we were at Port of Lost Wonder and there was a mini gardening activity station there which allowed us to plant our little potted plant and take it home. We took home three and the kids have been faithfully watering them ever since. I also managed to buy a pot of flowering plant from Ikea and my little gardeners are helping me tend to it.

We don’t have a balcony, so these potted plants are at our corridor

On one of the days, we also got our baskets and headed downstairs for some leaf collecting. I wanted the kids to observe the different shapes and sizes of leaves and describe them as we walked and picked. The sweepers in our estate would be mighty pleased to know we helped to do some cleaning up with our leaf-picking that afternoon!

The weather’s been cruelly hot these days but that’s not gonna stop the little fingers

The leaves were not picked just for fun – though it was fun – because we later used these leaves for our painting activity. I got the kids to ink the leaves with paint and then stamp them on drawing paper to create artwork to showcase the variety of leaves they picked.

The littlest was the happiest – first time painting!

Needless to say, they were very happy to be *finally* playing with paint (I have OCD, which you know, right?) and were mighty stoked to be using their hands and paintbrushes. The squealing and laughter was worth the cleaning up, and they now have masterpieces to brag about:

Pretty artwork by little hands

We’ll be visiting Oh Farms for a hydroponic farm tour during the March holidays, and that will pretty much wrap up the PLANTS theme for us. Can’t wait!

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Happy days Homelearning fun Learning fun! Nat Kao The Kao Kids

Birthday card making fun

March 8, 2014

Since the boys had their birthdays last month, one of our homelearning activities involved having them create generic birthday cards.

I started the lesson by getting the kids to read the reader from Scholastic’s First Little Readers Level A titled Birthday Surprise. It’s a simple story about a boy using glue, scissors, crayons, paper to make a card for grandma.

The story was simple and the activity of making birthday cards was one that was suitable for all three kids. Ben learned the various sight words and how to spell “Happy Birthday” by writing it several times on the cards he made. Becks learned to identify the beginning sounds of each sight word. All three of them got to practise peeling off stickers and strengthening their finger muscles by colouring, and we all had lots of art and craft fun.

I also took the opportunity to make Ben his birthday card which I demanded that he keep for a long, long time.

If you need handmade birthday cards for anyone special, the Kao kids are ready to be at your service!

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Invites & Tryouts Reading fun Reviews

This Giraffe’s too Groovy – Singapore’s first online remainder bookstore

February 19, 2014

Growing up, I would make my father take me to the bookstore and leave me there to read for hours. My favourite hangout was the MPH at Robinson Road, where I had spent many hours of my childhood devouring the Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl classics.

There’s something about holding, touching, feeling and smelling new books that thrilled me then. The best part about going to a bookstore – and not the library – with my dad was that it was almost always a given to return home with new books to add to my book collection. (Dad, I’m sure you knew I always pretended I couldn’t put down a book so you could buy it for me, right?)

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’d know that I am on a quest to make avid readers of my kids. I’ve shared that we should by all means borrow, but nothing beats being able to have our own books so that we can read and reread them.

Last year, I discovered The Groovy Giraffe, Singapore’s first official online remainder bookstore which sells heavily discounted new books that are overprints. The prices of books here are discounted up to as much as 85% and this giraffe is oh-so-groovy alright. So groovy that buying new books ain’t going to be burning a hole in your pocket anymore.

I recently shopped at The Groovy Giraffe again with the credits that the kind folks at The Groovy Giraffe gave me and managed to find the Read at Home First Experiences Series. The series is written with the aim of introducing young children to new situations and I am glad to have found them because these books are great starters to get the kids to talk about their feelings of their first experiences:

TGG_First Experiences Early Reader Books

We’ve been on a plane and to the pool, so these readers will be used as a springboard to get the kids to talk about how they felt.

The books arrived promptly within 3 working days after I checked out and paid, and I can’t wait to share them with the kids.

There is a decent variety of books for babies, toddlers, children and adults at The Groovy Giraffe. They even have assessment books and educational guides that are heavily discounted and sections for bargains and gift ideas. I particularly enjoy browsing at the Children’s Early Reader Books Section to check out titles that would interest the older kids, as well as the titles under Activity Books to see if I can find anything that wouldn’t cost me a bomb for the youngest to work on to keep him meaningfully occupied.

A screenshot of some of the bargains under Activity Books for Children - I'm thinking of getting 100 Stickers Series for some sticker fun for Nat!

A screenshot of some of the bargains under Activity Books for Children – I’m thinking of getting the 100 Stickers Series for some sticker fun for Nat!

There are also tips under ‘Babies’, ‘Toddlers’ and ‘Children’ to help you choose titles for children of different age groups and reading abilities, which is definitely helpful before you begin shopping!

Tips for choosing books for Preschoolers and Young Readers

If holding, touching, feeling and smelling new books thrill you – as it still does even now for me – you may want to consider popping by The Groovy Giraffe to shop for your books. Check out using the code “MOTHERKAO” to get a 5% off your purchases (except for Bargain books). There’s no expiry date to this code, so you can use it any time, whenever.

My dad would have loved to meet this giraffe when he had an avid reader of a little girl that was me. I’m pretty sure it would have saved him so much money buying me new books so often.

Disclosure: I received credits to purchase some books from The Groovy Giraffe for the Kao kids. All opinions here are solely my own.

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Homelearning fun Invites & Tryouts Learning fun! Reading fun Reviews

At Home with bilingualism! [Read With Me Mommy’s “My Home (我的家)” Book Review]

February 13, 2014

I’m always searching for bilingual books with local content so my children can learn the vocabulary that’s associated with their daily lives. I mean, how many books can you find in the market that can effectively teach preschoolers names of items and places found in a typical home and HDB neighbourhoods in Singapore? Places like the community centre, HDB void deck and sports complex are unique to our country and hardly feature in Chinese or English picture books and graded readers for preschoolers.

So when Read With Me Mommy, a local online Chinese bookstore approached us to do a book review for this made in Singapore book-set, I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Finally! A book my children can identify with:

My Home (我的家) is a set of bilingual books written by local authors, Rayne Ngoi and Cheng Pei Yee, and illustrated by Wang Lu Bo. It comes in a set of 2 books – a picture book and an accompanying activity book. The book follows Jason, an adorable boy who is looking for somebody to play with him (haha, it really is Ben in disguise – always looking for someone to play with!). But everyone at home is just too busy. And so together with his dog, Jason investigates every room in his HDB flat to find a playmate.

I got Ben to review this book with me during one of our once-a-week ‘Chinese Day’…

As we followed Jason through each room as he sought a playmate (and Ben seeing so much of him in the book as Jason, hurhurhur), we started discovering the many items and places that were all too familiar to us – places like the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the void deck and the HDB-neightbourhood playground.

And so we learned how to name items and places in both English and Chinese while enjoying the story (written like a poem) with vivid illustrations that were oh-so-very engaging. Ben particularly enjoyed lifting the many little flaps in this 40-page book which is beautifully illustrated.

The bilingual activity book complements the picture book and is specially written for children aged 2 to 6. The activity book contains vocabulary practices, hanyu pinyin learning aids, picture cards, interactive games, DIY handicraft, and sticker matching activities to make the process of learning fun and enjoyable. Here’s a sneak peek of some pages in the activity book:

This book-set is such a wonderful resource for keeps, and I would definitely introduce both the picture and activity books to the younger ones as soon as they are ready. The gem of a book retails at Read With Me Mommy for SGD$32 and is great to be read again and again especially with those flaps that would keep little hands busy!

And I have a giveaway here on the blog!

I have 5 book-sets of My Home (我的家) to give away to 5 readers! To qualify for the random draw, all that’s needed is FOUR SIMPLE STEPS:

1) Like Read With Me Mommy on Facebook

2) Like Zenru Publishing on Facebook

3) Like Motherkao on Facebook (if you haven’t already done so)

4) Leave me a comment here telling me who you’d like to win the book-set for

Giveaway closes on 20 Feb and winners will be randomly picked and announced on the blog.

Do also check out Read With Me Mommy for more Chinese and bilingual titles!

And the winners are…