Results of the Mother's Day Giveaway

Sorry for being late in posting the results of this giveaway! As there are only three participants, so I've decided that the winners will be the first two entries. So congratulations to:

Mich & Adeline Oon!

Please email me at ruthwongwrites@gmail.com with your full name and home address so we can get the book mailed to you! Hope you will share some insights you've gleaned from this book with me! :)

Thanks Melissa Chor of Image Harmony for sponsoring this giveaway!

How to Shop Smarter: Three Fashion Shopping Tips for Busy Moms (Plus a Giveaway!)

This week, we are celebrating Mother’s Day here on Mommy Café. I’ve invited a friend from the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI), Melissa Chor, to share some fashion shopping tips for moms. 

Source

In my many years as an expert shopper and style consultant, I have come to one conclusion: ALL women (no matter what they say) LOVE to shop. It’s in our DNA. Women are also emotional beings and shopping meets our emotional needs to a certain extent. Hence, we shop when we are happy or when we are sad. When making shopping decisions, we are often ruled by our hearts more than our heads. This explains why some of us make shopping mistakes over and over again.

Whatever your shopping challenges are, apply these three principles and you will soon find that you can shop more effectively and still have fun!

1. Spring-clean your wardrobe

           

You need to get rid of the old before putting in the new. Do this once every two years or annually if you shop very often. Discard or donate stuff that you have not worn for more than a year. Get rid of clothes that are worn out and faded or remind you of unhappy memories! You want a wardrobe that you can cherish and feel happy about every time you see it.

Once you have done that, reorganise your clothes by occasion such as work, leisure and home. Then organise your individual wardrobe by colour, type (dresses together, pants together etc…) and design (printed ones together, long sleeve tops together etc...).

This will give you a clear idea of what you now have at a glance. You may find that you have too many clothes in the same boring hues, so add instant style into your wardrobe with a dash of colours. Or you have too many tops and not enough bottoms to match, so you need to get more bottoms on your next shopping trip. With regular spring-cleaning and proper organisation, you will be able to identify what you really need to make your wardrobe work for you.

  

2. Stick to the basics

Whether you are revamping your wardrobe or developing a brand new one, always start with the basics first. Now, what do I mean by that?

Basics refer to the foundation of your wardrobe. You need to have a basic set of wardrobe which never goes out of style and is easy to coordinate with just about everything in your wardrobe currently or new purchases. Items such as a classic white shirt, a slim skirt, tank tops, a well-tailored jacket and a pair of straight cut pants will help you to maximise your entire wardrobe. If you are a stay-at-home mom, you should invest in several plain coloured tops, a pair of bootleg cut jeans, an A-line skirt and a few pairs of casual pants/shorts.

You can start with a five, seven, nine etc… basic pieces. Keep the colours neutrals (e.g. black, blue, gray, white and beige) and the style simple and plain. Then you can add on new pieces in different styles, colours and prints to jazz up your wardrobe. It is much easier to build on a basic set of clothing than a variety of styles. (Refer to images below)         

3. Plan for a shopping day

As a busy mom juggling multiple roles and tasks daily, I can imagine what little energy you will have left for shopping! While family, work and commitments are your priorities, you need to always set aside some “Me” time. I am sure you can find some hours to set aside for a little shopping if you so desire.

Don’t shop in between rushing from one appointment or task to another. You may end up not trying out the outfit or grabbing the same old stuff. Then when you reach home, you realise that the outfit is not that great after all or it is the same boring style as what you already have by the dozens in your wardrobe!

Some of my clients dislike shopping because they found it unproductive i.e. they return empty-handed or didn’t like what they bought. Upon my probing, they eventually confessed that they either did not try on the clothes or went for their comfort style due to lack of time to shop properly. So, do plan a time and date for your shopping where you will not be distracted by a thousand and one tasks.

Melissa Chor is a certified image professional (CIP) with the AICI, one of only a handful of CIP members in Singapore.

Passionate about helping clients to look fabulous and confident, Melissa has transformed many individuals’ personal styles to reflect their capabilities, potentials and personalities. Melissa founded Image Harmony, in 2007 and offers a wide spectrum of image services such as colour analysis, style personality assessment, make-up tutorial, wardrobe revamp and personal shopping in local and overseas countries.  

She currently serves as Secretary and Chair of Philanthropy on the AICI Singapore Chapter Board of Directors, 2011-2013. 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thank you, Melissa for the wonderful tips! She has many more principles on how to shop effectively. To find out more, get a copy of her book ‘Born to Shop – Guide to Making Your Shopping Fun and Fabulous!’. It’s available for purchase on her website.

Giveway Contest

As Mother’s Day is approaching, Melissa has generously offered to give away TWO copies of her book, and personally autographed too!

This is how to take part:

1. Like Image Harmony’s Facebook page.

2. Like Mommy Café’s Facebook page.

3. Leave a comment on this post or on Mommy Café’s Facebook page, sharing with us the main style/fashion challenges you face. Melissa will address some of your style issues in the next blog post (so keep a look out for it!).

4. The contest will end on 12 May 2012, 11:59pm.

5. The two winners will be randomly picked, results will be announced on this blog and on Mommy Cafe's Facebook page.
6. Please note that this giveaway is open to readers residing in Singapore... and internationally!

All the best everyone!

AquaBambinos Giveaway Results

Pic copyrighted by AquaBambinos

Thank you everyone for taking part in the AquaBambinos giveaway contest. Sorry for being late in announcing the winners, because my boy had been sick since the weekend. Thankfully he's finally recovered.

Now for for the results of the AquaBambinos giveaway contest. The winners are drawn randomly by Random.org, after I assigned a number against each of the participants (both on the blog and on Mommy Cafe's Facebook page).

The TWO winners are: 

Ooy Yoan and Joanne Teng

Congratulations mommies and kids! 

Could winners please contact me at ruthwongwrites@gmail.com with your details: mommy's full name, kid's full name, mobile number and email address.

AquaBambinos will contact you to arrange for the free trial lesson. Looking forward to hearing about your child's swim experience at the School!



PS: There will be a redraw if any of the winners do not contact me with the required information by Friday, 4 May, 11:59pm.

AquaBambinos Swim School - A Review and Free Trial Lessons

Among the many sports, swimming is one that we hope Kenan will be skilled in.

However, when it comes to being in the water, the best I can do is to keep myself afloat.

My hubby, on the other hand, is considered a good swimmer. So I've always thought he will be the one to teach our boy swimming - and I remembered how he used to talk about doing the father-son bonding thing through swimming together.

Many, many months later, let's just say that the spirit is willing but the flesh.

So after coming to terms with the fact the hubby is losing this battle against inertia, I did what most smart moms would do - outsource to the experts.

I think God agreed that it's a good idea too. Shortly after, I found a flyer in my letterbox from AquaBambinos about its open house. A quick visit to its website showed that they have classes for toddlers and after a phone call to the school, Kenan was on his way to his first ever swim lesson.

About AquaBambinos

AquaBambinos, located within the Burghley Lifestyle Hub, is an indoor swimming school. It's pool water is "heated to a comfortable temperature of 30 degrees celsius".

The swimming pool built on a deck

(copyrighted by AquaBambinos) Lots of toys to engage young swimmers

(copyrighted by AquaBambinos) There's even a slide by the pool

Classes are available for babies and children from ages 6 months to 7 year-old. Class ratio is kept to a maximum of 1:6 parent-child pairs per group for parent-accompanied classes and 1:5 for non-accompanied classes.

Facilities include bathrooms with hot water showers, lockers, changing tables, toilets and a waiting area where there are some colour pencils and papers available. There's also a playground within the Lifestyle Hub's compound but I didn't see it during our visit, shall go look for it the next time.

As the school has just opened in January this year, all its facilities are still new and well maintained.

Bathroom with hot water facility (left); lockers for parents (right)

Our experience

There were three other kids during the trial lesson. At first, Kenan simply refused to go into the pool. We almost gave up trying, until he caught sight of the balls in the water and decided that it would be fun to play with them and other toys.

I found the teacher very good - she could engage each child and showed lots of patience as well as enthusiasm. When I taught Kenan an action wrongly, she also patiently showed me how to to do it until I got it right.

Of course, I like the fact that it's an indoor swim school, so regardless of the unpredictable weather, the lessons will go on uninterrupted. No worries about make up classes or going there and then later having the class cancelled due to sudden rain.

What's most surprising was that I actually enjoyed the class!

To be honest, I'm so happy to bring my boy to a swim class that’s indoors, because this vain mommy is afraid of having more freckles on her face from direct sunlight exposure.

That aside, it's been fun learning together with my boy, especially seeing how quickly he learnt certain actions - it made me feel so proud of him! It's been equally rewarding to see how he's transformed from the boy who refused to go into the pool, to one who almost didn't want to get out of it.

I'm now looking at the class schedule and see if we can find a slot that best fit our timing.

Kenan doing a little doodling at the waiting area

Win free trial class.. for not one but TWO winners!

Here's how:
1. Like AquaBambinos' Facebook page
2. Like Mommy Cafe's Facebook page
3. Your child should be between 6 months to 7 year-old.
3. Leave a comment on Mommy Cafe Facebook page, OR here on this blog post*, telling us your child's age, and something about his/her swim experience (negative or positive) and why you hope to win this trial lesson.
4. The contest will end on 29 April 2012, Sunday at 11:59pm.
5. The winners will be randomly picked, results will be announced on Mommy Cafe's Facebook page and on this blog.

Join the contest now - TWO lucky winners will get a free trial lesson each with AquaBambinos! Do spread the word too!

*I'm adding this option after someone told me she rather comment here than on FB :) 

How to Nurture a Love for Reading in Your Child - Special Tips, Ideas and Insights from the Expert (Part 2) (Plus a Giveaway!)

Today, we continue with the second part of the interview with Ms Fiona Walker, the Principal Director of Schools, Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning and Chiltern House on the topic of instilling the love for reading in young children. If you have missed the first part, click here to read.

Q: What can parents do if a child doesn’t seem too interested in reading and tends to run away in the midst of reading together?

A: Sometimes you could say “You know what, I’m going to stay here and finish the book because I’m loving it”, and he might just come back, or he might not. But he’s thinking “She’s carrying on, I might be missing something, even if I don’t want to do it right now”. At your son’s age, you will be challenged to get him to sit down and listen for any length of time. So bedtime stories are the best, because they are tired and less likely to run about.

Q: Share with us how parents can use the Rainbow Bear series of books to help our children with reading? For example, for my little boy (not forgetting that he doesn’t seem too interested with text yet).

A: You can use the Alphabet Zoo book. We use that and the puppets in our schools when we first introduce the letters of the alphabet at about 18 months, just so that they become familiar with the letters and we use them all the way to our Nursery 2 classes, which are at about 4.

You can use the puppets and the songs in the CD. Songs are a wonderful way to get them to hear the sounds and the use of the language.That’s why this whole scheme is successful in that sense because it really brings learning alive and you’re not just sitting down and going through the book.

Q: Is there going to be another book in the series?

A: Yes, there will be! Rainbow Bear’s third adventure is going to be about word families, for example “at”, “that”, “mat” and so on.  It’s great for when the children are beginning to sound out words and read independently.

Q: Any other advice or tips?

A: I think the most important thing is to make it fun and to always keep in mind your child’s level of development and his interest. There’s not going to be learning if you pitch it far too high - it’s not going to interest him or he’s not going to feel like he can do it. While we can give our children a little push to see if they can do it, but if they can’t, or they are just not interested, we should respect that. Then come back to it another day, come back to it through another route.

There are many ways to get children reading beyond sitting with the book. Keep the sitting with the book to something really enjoyable, even if it means you only manage to do that a few times a week or just once a week. You can find other ways to point out the language in the environment. My son loves cars, so he’s really good at recognizing all the car brands. Which is great, because it’s a very important pre-literacy skill whereby he’s able to recognise symbols and understand they have meanings. Which is what letters are – they are symbols and we all agree on their meanings and we put them together to form words.

There are so many symbols with meanings within our environment; the more you spend time pointing them out and you see how quickly your children can see something and know what they mean. By understanding their level of visual discrimination you can have a good indication of when it’s feasible to start nailing down the alphabet and practicing the sounds.

Parents can also consider the use of technology like iPad in teaching literacy. I did have concerns initially. But I see that my children love it and they are so engaged. At the end of the day, learning boils down to how engaged the learner is. I think my son’s learning to read took a big step forward when he got an iPod Touch when he was six. My husband got him games where there’s a lot of reading involved . He’s more motivated to read when it helps him to play the game.

Of course, don’t leave it to just computers games to teach reading but I think they can certainly be useful tools, especially when you can control the amount of time they spend and the games they play.

Thank you, Fiona, for your wonderful sharing and insights. I've certainly learnt some useful tips on how to engage my son in reading together.

Now for the Giveaway!

There will be two books to be won:

1. Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery - An Adventure in Blends and Digraphs

2. An Alphabet Zoo - Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear

Both books come with CD and songbook.

Here's how you can win one of the books:

1. 'Like' the Mommy Cafe Facebook page.

2. Leave a comment here and share which book you hope to win and what you like about the book.


Note: 

• The contest is open to readers residing in Singapore.
• For the purpose of the draw, participants will be placed into two groups, one for each of the book. There will be a winner from each group.
• The contest will close on Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 11:59pm.
• Winners will be randomly picked and the result will be announced on this blog and via Mommy Cafe's Facebook page. 

Join the giveaway now and win one of the two books and embark on an exciting reading journey with your child! Do share about the contest with your friends too!

Tolalu Giveaway - Announcing the Winners

Thank you everyone who participated in the Tolalu giveaway!

There were eight participants, two via email; winners were randomly picked by the website Random.Org and here's the results:

PC and Deborah

Congratulations to both of you!

Please contact me within the next 7 days about your prizes. Just email me at ruthwongwrites@gmail.com

Have fun picking the gifts for the children!

Tolalu.com Giveaway - Have You Joined Yet?

Tolalu is an online shop selling personalised gifts for children. The site currently offers 350 products in 13 categories such as story books, calendars, activity books (under ‘Fun and Learning'), growth charts and many more. You can refer to my previous post about Tolalu here. 

Here are some samples of items from each category:

Clockwise from top left: stickers, jigsaw puzzle, wall stickers, growth chart

Clockwise from top left: story book, activity book (under 'Fun & Learning'), notebook, calendar

Like what you see? Here's the good news:

You can win a $30 Tolalu voucher for your child! 

To participate,  all you need to do is leave a comment here, sharing with us who you would like to get gifts for and what items you are interested in e.g. stickers, notebooks etc. This contest is open to readers residing in Singapore. Do note that $7 will be for delivery charges. 

There will be TWO winners for this giveaway! 

The giveaway will end on Sunday, 30 October, at 11.59pm Tuesday, 1 November at 11.59pm. So help spread the word and join the giveaway now! 


NOTE: If you have already participated in the previous post, you don't have to re-enter the contest. 


30 Oct '11:  A reader just informed me about having problems entering the contest as she couldn't find the comment box. If you would like to join the giveaway and encountered the same problem, you may participate by emailing me your information. My email is: ruthwongwrites@gmail.com
Because of the feedback, I've also decided to extend the giveaway till Tuesday, 1 Nov, 11.59pm. 

We Got Our Tolalu Products... Here's Your Chance to Get Some Too!

After about a week's wait, the Tolalu products I ordered have finally arrived!

In my previous post, I mentioned that the invoice stated a five-day delivery period. I was getting anxious when five days gone passed. Then I received a call from the company on Saturday morning and the staff asked if we would be at home and said they would send the items by noon.

After the call ended, I looked at the phone number and vaguely remembered there were two missed calls while I was away on holiday. I checked my mobile and one of the numbers was indeed the same as the one I just received. I had rang the other number when I was overseas and was told it was a printing company. But it was late when I returned call so most of the staff had knocked off and she couldn't find out who rang me. So they had been prompt, just that we had missed each other.

Anyway, this is what I ordered:

The package when I received it

Notebooks for my little boy!

Honestly, it was quite a tough decision as there were so many cute stuff. I settled for the notebooks because the rest are either not suited to his age e.g. puzzles, or he will most likely end up tearing them apart, such as the activity books.

Kenan enjoys drawing (ok, let me correct that - most of the time he asks me to draw for him), so the notebooks, which come with blank pages, is a good choice.

These are the two notebooks I got for my boy

The little boy examining his gift with great interest

Like what you see? Here's the good news:

You can win a $30 Tolalu voucher in 

a giveaway on this blog! 

To participate,  all you need to do is leave a comment here, sharing with us who you would like to get gifts for and what items you are interested in e.g. stickers, notebooks etc. This contest is open to readers residing in Singapore. Do note that $7 will be for delivery charges. 

Here's another piece of good news: 

There will be not just one but TWO WINNERS! 

The giveaway will end on Sunday, 30 October, at 11.59pm. So help spread the word and join the giveaway now! 

Petit Bowl Giveaway - Are You One of the Two Lucky Winners?

To everyone who took part in the Petit Bowl giveaway, a big "thank you" for your comments and feedback as part of the participation!

Here's the results of the giveaway:

Janie and Beanbean

Congratulations!

Please email me soon about your prizes :) 

Do note that the gift vouchers are to be collected within two weeks from now, latest by 16 August 2011, Tuesday.

Hope your little ones will enjoy Petit Bowl products!

Meals for Littles Ones - Easy Peasy with Petit Bowl (join the giveaway!)

If you have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I'm a fan of Petit Bowl (read past posts here and here). So when I was invited to a food tasting by them, and especially when I learnt that the founder Ms Josephine Koh will be giving a presentation at the session, I was thrilled.

If you have not heard of Petit Bowl or have not tried them before, and you're a busy parent looking for wholesome meals that can be easily prepared for your child, read on and find out why you should give Petit Bowl a try.

Kanten Clay Giveaway - The Winner Is Out!

Good morning! Thank you everyone who participated in the Kanten Clay giveaway. We now have a winner! 

TYL

Congratulations! 

Please email me soon about you gift :)

The results of the giveaway was generated by Random.org; duplicate entries were removed so that everyone stands an equal chance.

If you like to let your little ones enjoy some Kanten Clay fun, you can now do so at a special  15% discount! 

Just hop over to Sophie & Friends webstore, select your purchase and use the discount code: 

ruthwongwrites

Kanten Clay Giveaway and Discount!

Dear readers, have you taken part in the Kanten Clay giveaway yet? If not, you are still in time to do so! Hurry, the closing date for the giveaway is tomorrow, Saturday, 2 July @ 12 noon. A random winner shall be picked.

Meanwhile, here's one more piece of good news:

Sophie & Friends is giving a 15% DISCOUNT for Kanten Clay products for Mommy Cafe blog readers!

Just type in the discount code "ruthwongwrites" when you made the purchase from Sophie&Friends online store.

 Do share the good news with your friends too!

HAVE A HAPPY WEEKEND!

A Morning of Fun with Kanten Clay! (sponsored review and giveaway)

I love letting Kenan try all kinds of craft work (despite how uncreative a mommy I am!) and a few weeks ago, I was still thinking if there's an alternative to playdough that I can get for my boy (coz I'm not sure if playdoh is toxic-free). Someone out there must have read my mind because Sophie & Friends has just sent me two jars of Kanten Clay!