Goli @ Home

Date:  Jan 25, 2015

I have this putting mat at home.  

It comes with some very shallow holes.  (about 1-2mm heights)

I also got a few boxes of “Goli-es” (Marbles).  

Let’s play Goli!  (Marbles)

You can set up all kinds of rules.

We bought this from the Best Toy Shop.  It is a marble counting system.  You shoot the marbles from far, and landed on the hole with points marked on it.

He shoot so many onto it.

I have this golf putting cup.  So, all you do is to roll the goli up the slope, and it will automatically roll down to the hole.

The shallow golf holes are not easy, ok!  If you roll it too hard, it will come out. 

Like that, the kids play goli for the whole night.  HaHaHaHa

Football Game At Home

Date:  Oct 26, 2014

This is the Tabletop Football game I bought today for the kids.  It is < $50.

It is a very good game to have it at home for the kids.  Sometimes better than playing with iPad.

Let’s unbox it, and assemble the game.

You will need to take off a piece of the side board, and then, put in the football players.  3 rows facing left and another 3 rows facing right.  Take note, the goal keeper is at the last row of each side.

Once assembled, it looks like this.  The feel of the handle is right.

The aim of the football tabletop game is to put the kick the football by moving and spinning the football player stick until you goal it.

They even come with score board so that you can keep the scores for both side.

Look at how the football player spinning.  It is fun!

You can set your own rules.  Some games you can spin hard.  Some games, you set the rules such that you can only “slow” kick the ball without spinning.  If spinning, then, free kick is awarded.

GOAL!

Let’s see the kids play the game violently.

They played for almost an hour today.  This is the last game where they asked Mommy’s help as a goal keeper.

My Comments:

1.  Sometimes you really need to let your kid take a break from Electronic Appliances such as iPad and TV.

2.  Let them play some old timer game.  Such as this football tabletop game.

3.  The kids will enjoy it as it is a multiplayer game.

4.  This ensure kids interacts with each other.  Build the bonding between siblings.

5.  It is good for their eyes too so that they are not too sticky to the TV or iPad screens.

6.  It also increase their skills on fine motor skills.

Plucking Rambutan

Date:  July 27, 2014

Within our condo area, there is one of these very few rambutan tree.  Beside the Clementi 6th Avenue side gate.

The rambutan has grown ripe.  So, it is time for harvesting.

We need tools.  This is the scissors that tied on the extendable stick.  With rope and simple system to pull and cut.

We need ladder too.

Let’s get to work!

So far so good.

Of course, where ever shorter people cannot reach, taller people will need to come in and do the remaining.

Kids are waiting below waiting for the fruits to come down.

More rambutan.

Kay Kay felt so proud of be part of the plucking team.

So, what do they learn?

1.  Plucking fruits does not come easy.  It involves hard work.  So, don’t waste food.

2.  Sharing is important.  So the rambutan tree grows within the compound, so, it has to be shared to whoever walk passed, and lastly, majority of it goes to the security counters, sharing it with the cleaners, gardeners and security guards.

3.  Tools to pluck.  Tools to harvest.

4.  Dangerous things involve in the plucking process.  

It was a fun day.

Not to mention the quality time they spent this morning at our little garden inside the condo too.

Let the kids dirty their hands, make them plant, and let them learn why it is important.

They love it.  And they feel great!

Unboxing MOSS - Modular Robotics

Date:  July 9, 2014

Back in December 2013, I funded and backed this project on the kickstarted.

I find the project very innovative and it can teach young kids about the concepts of robotics, and programming.

This is what MOSS does.  I love it a lot.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/664X-pCfgik

So, finally today it came.  After I paid UPS the 7% GST as my shipment is above $300.

Very appropriate packaging.  And the manual is quite simple and precise too.  Easy to understand.

Let’s build our first robot.

Which consist of 1) Battery block (the bottom block with I/O switch), 2) the proximity sensor, where the black sensor hole will sense your hand movement, 3) a motor block which will spin when receiving power from the battery.  The battery block is charged using the normal micro USB.

Interesting… When you move your hand, the motor will spin, until a “sweet spot” it will stop spinning, and beyond that, it spin the other director.

Let’s try it out.  

Wow, cool!  And it works!

Let’s build a more complicated robot.  A Kapreblewongtron.  What a weird name.

I still don’t understand what does the Brightness Sensor’s usage in this robot.  But soon I will find out after I read all the manual.

The instruction page is quite easy to understand.

Continue building.

Finally some touch up.  They even give you some challenging questions.  For you to find out.

Here is our first robot mouse.  It does looks a little tiny bit like a mouse.

What does it do?  Let’s check it out.  If you place your hand in front of it’s face, then mouse will stop there and wiggle its tail.

Quite cool, is it not?  

So, I told young Kay Kay, this toy is for him to understand Robotics.  As Jay Jay already have his Lego Mindstorms.   

The robot construction kits does come with blue tooth connectivity to connect with iPhone or Android MOSS app.  You can add the double-brain block and then, let the app to remote control your robot.  Cool.  

There are still many many things to explore.  Will reveal other robots in next blogs.

Of course, since we are doing Robotics, I will teach the kids the Three Laws of Robotics.

Rainbow Loom

Date:  June 5, 2014

This is Rainbow Loom.  It is basically small colourful rubber bands.

Using a Y stick and a knitting stick, you can make those rainbow loom into colourful rainbow loom Friendship Band.  

If you have young kids, either in Primary or Secondary or even Kindergarden, you will notice that every one is wearing it.

Thanks to Isabella Guan, Jay Jay learned from here how to knit the friendship band.

Yeap, even Jay Jay play with the rainbow loom.

My wife also try to learn it.  But she uses sophisticated way to knit it.  Unlike Jay Jay, using a Y stick to do it.

Let’s check it out from Jay Jay how he knit the friendship band.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/gh8PkRfp0l4

 I am not going to spent so much money to buy it here in Singapore.  So I bought a couple from Taobao for RMB10 (about S$2) and a big box of 5600 rubber bands (RMB68 about S$14)… HaHaHaHa...

http://s.taobao.com/search?spm=a230r.1.8.3.Bc4Qm0&promote=0&sort=sale-desc&tab=all&q=rainbow+loom#J_relative

Kay Kay's Pet Hermit Crab

Date:  June 9, 2014

Kay Kay has a new pet.

Can you guess what it is?

Let him find it and show it to you.

It’s hermit crab that we accidentally brought back from Nikoi Island.

The sand is from Cebu, Philippines.  Thanks to Justin Yoon’s family bring the sand all the way back from Cebu.  

Now, the 3 hermit crab has a place to stay with proper sand.

We feed them pineapple and eggs.  There are a bowl of clear water.  And a bowl of salt water.

Some trees.

Let’s see this little home that we build is it suitable for the crab to stay.

Meet “Elsa” (left) and “Rocky” (right)

This is “Anna”.  Anna is found 3 days later in the shell box we have.  We didn’t know there is a life creature inside.

 Let’s look at Elsa walking from the food plate to the sand.

It is kind of fun!  

Kay Kay is happy about it, keeping the 3 hermit crabs as pet. 

He even brought the whole hermit crab home to school to show it to his friends and teachers.

COOL!