Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Which little boy does not like Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends? My little boy certainly does. He has a fine collection of Thomas the Tank Engine Story Books, Activity book, Stationary, VCDs, Toys and clothing.

Pictured above is Bill and Ben, the Twin Engines. There's no end to collecting the books and toys featuring Thomas and Friends. If I were to collect them all, I would go broke! Fortunately, there is YouTube.

So, after reading the book, just like his sister who gets to see her little Miss Magic come alive like magic on YouTube, the boy gets to see his Thomas the Tank Engine and friends storybooks come alive on YouTube.

You can catch more Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends on YouTube from my YouTube playlist.

Mr Men and Little Miss Series

I love the Mr Men and Little Miss series of books and cartoons. The cartoon is really adorable and there is usually a little moral behind the stories with titles like Little Miss Fickle, Little Miss Shy, Little Miss Chatterbox, Little Miss Late, Little Miss Stubborn, Mr Messy, Mr Happy, etc.

Its simple and easy to relate to for kids. Its also easy for parents to try to tell the child something by reading a story to them. Telling them they are fickle won't get you anywhere. However, reading to them a Little Miss Fickle storybook and pointing out about how fickle they can be sometimes gets the message across with lots of giggles and laughter in the process.

Little Miss Magic is my kids favourite. The kids love any stories that tell them about how they can "magic" things.

After reading the stories to them at bedtime, I make their stories "come alive" like "magic" by letting them watch the same story on YouTube.

You can watch more Mr Men and Little Miss videos on my YouTube Channel Playlist.

Alliance Bank’s You:nique Credit Card “Sweet Family Moments” Photo Contest Results

Remember the Alliance Bank You:nique Credit Card I was writing about in this post called "The Power to Choose Your Own Credit Card Terms." In it I briefly mentioned the "Sweet Family Moments" Photo contest.

The contest is over and the winners have been announced.Here are some of the winner's design on their credit card which caught the judge's eye. Large families or small families. Malay, Chinese or Indian, everyone is a winner! J

I love all of them. That is because family moments are really precious and it’s truly wonderful to be able to catch these moments by the camera lenses and capture them in time forever. The kids, they grow up so fast.

There is another photo contest coming up soon. This photo contest has a wedding theme called the "Perfect Picture Love" Photo Contest. Just right for newly weds and those who are not so newly wed as well. ;)

Just apply for the You:nique Credit Card, upload your best wedding photo, fill up your personal details online and you're in the running for the contest. You:nique Credit Picture Card on Facebook will have more details about the new contest.

You can design your own credit card just like how the winners of the first contest did. You may personalise and design your own image on the face of your credit card and keep it in your purse. Have you seen any of your friends carrying a credit card with their image on it?

If you haven't, it is because this is Malaysia's first personalised picture credit card. Cool? Well, yes, but that is not the only cool thing about it. You:nique Credit Card carries the personalisation one step further and allows you to customize your credit card terms as well. Now, that is truly cool and a very useful tool for those of you who are very savvy in your financial planning.

If you do decide to enter the “Perfect Picture Love” photo contest, do post up a few of your wedding pictures on your blog and let other bloggers help you to choose which one to pick for your card. Then leave a comment here and we’ll hop right over to help you select a picture. I am sure everyone will be more than eager to help you choose a photo. I just love to look at wedding pictures, don’t you?

ABRSM Grade 1 Piano Test Results

Coincidentally, after I wrote the piano post on my own blog, my girl's teacher gave her the results for her first ABRSM Grade 1 Piano Test Results. So now we have even more reason to be happy over the piano.

The girl passed with a Distinction with 137 out of 150 marks. The examiner wrote very good comments for her in all the areas ie 3 exam pieces, Scales and Arpeggios, Sight Reading and Aural Tests. The examiner used words like "sprightly performance", "expressive", "played with conviction", "pleasing shape", "confident, fluent, accurate" and "excellent response" while noting some "stumbles with quick recovery", "coordination laspes but playing was assured" and "need for care in synchronisation but a confident approach".

As an overall comment, the examiner wrote "A wonderful start with your supporting tests of a very high standard."

We are very happy for the girl. I sat down with her and explained to her what all those "big big words" used by the examiner meant.

What I am happiest about is the fact that this is another good opportunity for us to boost her confidence.

Little Miss Reward Chart Pack

Someone asked me to post up pictures of the Reward Chart I am using for the kids. Here it is.

This is the Little Miss Reward Chart Pack.

It comes with the Reward Chart, stickers and tokens plus it is an activity book too. There are two sides to the chart and the stickers are reusable.

This is my girl's side of the chart.

This is my boy's side of the chart.

These are the stickers and tokens

Another close up look at the stickers.

There is a boy's version of this Reward Chart Pack as well. Instead of the Little Miss series (which incidentally I love because its so cute), it has Thomas the Tank Engine Chart, stickers, tokens and activity book.

The kids love it. Each night, we would sit down together and decide whether they have met their goals and earned a sticker. At the end of the week we do a tally to see if they can collect a token. They get to remove all the stickers and decorate their stuff with them.

This week they will get a lucky dip if they earn enough tokens. The rewards are things like "play tic tac toe with mummy" , "play hangman with mummy", "extra story at bedtime". Those rewards are for the girl's lucky dip box.

As for the boy, this morning he asked me how to spell certain words and then he wrote them on little pieces of paper to be folded and included in the lucky dip box. He wrote "mummy can I hug hug" (can we hug), "Mummy can I play car" (with mummy) as rewards. He also included one "mummy, can you find my car" as a reward. :P He had been asking me to search for his matchbox car for a few days now but I still have not done it because I have been too busy or lazy.

By the way, they will soon do a chart for mummy with the goal of "not scolding" because they "want to give something to mummy too". Alamak. Sure to fail.

If you prefer, you can make your own chart too instead of buying.