[Good Brands] Klutz

We fell in love with Klutz 9 years ago when I discovered a Klutz book below:

It's not expensive at all, considering the hours of fun derived from it. Most of Klutz book... Well... Kit, more appropriately. Most of Klutz kits are reusable over and over again. Using the materials provided handily in the sturdy pouch or container, the child can do and redo many sets of instruction provided in the book. Afterwards, children can make their own creation. The idea behind each kit is simple, but very stimulating.

After that, we got about 5 other Klutz kits, none disappointing.

So, imagine the joy when we spot this:

Two of our favorite brands combined! Lego and Klutz. If Lego is cool, Klutz brought it to a new level by introducing the dynamic engineering theory into it. Super!

This post is not sponsored. It's purely an info sharing.

Monopoly Zapped

My dearest soul-mate loves games. From snake and ladders to oh-so-complicated computer games, he loves it all. 

Our kids had their first brush with monopoly from the tender age of around 2 plus.

So now, we have an array of board games. From domino to Robinson Crusoe. There's an online board game shop with good service in Singapore, but maybe that's for a later post.

This post is dedicated for Monopoly Zapped, our newest family member. It has reduced kids to tears, as well as elevated them to a whooping joy.

What's that? It's a combination of normal monopoly and iPad/iPhone.

How?

1. Instead of chance or community cards, you'll get to do games, auction, etc on the iPad/iPhone. No more messy or bent cards.

2. Instead of fussing with paper money, each player hold a card which we tap onto iPad/iPhone to charge/collect money. No more calculating everything with the kids arguing in the background. A much welcome relief. But, I wonder how if the card gets damaged. Hope it won't happen so soon.

3. The possibility is limitless. For example, for chance, the player might be required to spin the arrow via device. Something that requires another board on normal monopoly. And the games played allows more player to compete, or even all players. 

4. It allows auction of property. Adding an interesting concept to the game. 

5. Dices and houses are still physical. Not sure whether this is a plus or minus.

All in all, we're very happy with it. 

Kreo vs Lego

We have a 5 years old Lego boy at home. Seriously faithfully addicted to Lego. Helped us a lot in buying Christmas and brithday and whatsnot presents. 

So, when GroupOn has an offer on Kreo, we bought a box for him. Kreo is compatible with Lego, or so they claimed. We have not checked this though.

When opening the box, he was wide eyed with wonder. All sorts of new joints and shapes to explore. Kreo really has a lot of brick type variety. I know that Lego also do have not-joking breath of design, but Lego's beginner box contained standard types mostly. We bought the 700+ pcs of Kreo bucket, but I saw parts that I've never seen before. 

Then, boy boy proceeded to copy one of the vehicle on the bucket. Only then we realized the lack of manual. I do believe to encourage creativity in children, no need to rely on manual. So we goes on.

So I guided him. Carefully opening a little packet, keeping my finger crossed that Kreo packed everything we need for a creation on the packet. After staring at it for quite some times, my engineer self decided that they are not that kind. Each figurine parts were packed in a little plastic, thankfully. Seems like other parts were bagged randomly.

Opening and searching everything. 

Found there's at least one missing part. On the pic, there are two of a kind of brick. But we only got one.

Broken hearted, dear son stopped playing. Now, the Daddy is the one putting up the puzzle, where must go where. Good luck, Hubby. Do us proud.

One more thing, Kreo joints are more loosely connected than Lego. Plus side is that it doesn't require much strength or tricks to prise open. However, it causes the creation to fall apart easily.

All in all, I do think it is a good product. Workmanship is ok, though Lego's finer. You can still see some tiny sharp points on the Kreo bricks. But the marketing strategy needs a lot of work. Though written for age 4+ on the bucket, I seriously don't think that a four year old can take joy in it independently. Serious adult help is needed.

Well, though I don't think so, could also be that my son is the one 'slow'. We are also spoilt rotten by Lego fantastic no word needed manual. With the almighty manual, son have managed to set up everything by himself (written age 11+ on packets). Please share some comments/tricks if you have one. How to make use of that bucket sitting lonesome at home?

[It Works] Letterland

Long time ago, I was a little skeptical about Letterland. I thought of it as just another one of hyped-up-commercially-exploited creation.

However, we've been converted now.

[+]
1. Catchy tunes. My 3 years old son has been humming the tunes for a few months now.
2. Fun fun fun stories. Even my daughter cannot stop reading the book.
3. Bright beautiful colorful characters, both in illustration and in their story roles.
4. Well developed method of phonics introduction, making it easier for children to remember. 5. We did zoo-phonics with our first one, and we're impressed by the more wholesome approach. From single sound introduction, to digraphs, to more as we've yet to explore.
6. Letterland has almost everything we can think of. Games, workbook, storybook, flashcards,... To make learning continuous and fun.
7. They are available everywhere, not exclusive from the school.

[-]
1. Limited range of product in Singapore.
2. They don't provide free online games as other brands do nowadays.
3. Some stuffs are literally breathtakingly expensive.

Another one is minus for me, plus for my son. He can't stop doing the workbook. So one book was finished up pretty quickly. :)

[Good Brand] Lego

There are a few brand that I am quite passionate about.
Lego is one of them.
There are other brands developing the constructable little cubes, but Lego, by far, is the best we found until now.

[+]
1. First and foremost, the design is beautiful and creative. Bright colours, many interesting shapes, brilliant thematic packages (not only buildings or vehicles, it also have mosaic, calendar, ...). We kept on finding more features of a certain pieces, even months after purchase. Hopefully the creativity will pass down to our kids *keeping fingers crossed*
2. Mechanically, it's a good design too. What our kids love from Lego is that it allows them to bring the creation around, and to display it. The pieces snap snugly, without being overly tight. We tried other brand, but it collapse or break on the way.
3. Blessed are the considerate people who design Lego. Firstly, duplo and lego are compatible! Initially we purchase little duplo set since the kids will outgrow it so fast. But after we found that they are truly compatible, out we go to buy more duplo :). Mommy to mommy advice : duplo or lego plastic boxes are equipped with little holes at the base. To drain the water during wash.

[-]
They are e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e.
Does the quality justify the price? That's subjective. For our household, we'll wait for discount.