Children Toys in Malaysia

No wonder they say raising kids are expensive! Look at the price of children toys and clothes here in Malaysia and you will know why. For a good quality toy here, you will easily need to fork out hundreds (maybe even thousands! I'm not kidding and we are not even talking about the iPads and Wii!). Comparing dollar to dollar, you can easily get three toys for £20 in the UK and £50 can go a loooooong way! Second hand items still in very good condition sell at merely just a few pounds!

One example is the Leapfrog activity table. In the UK, a new one is selling for £35.75 while in Malaysia, it is selling for RM238.00! Dollar for dollar, can you imagine paying only RM35.75 for this item?? Even after converting, it is still shockingly more expensive in Malaysia!

Comparing second hand ones, one was recently sold for RM69 in Malaysia while it is common to see one sold for less than £5 on eBay! Some were even sold at their original list price of only £0.99!

Some solution to this:
1. Extend life of toys by buying second hand or hand over toys to younger children or donate to a charity. Only problem is second hand toy shops are a rare sight in Malaysia and we don't have many relatives to hand us down items while most friends are still keeping theirs for their third, fourth and fifth child  :(  Those willing to sell me second hand items, I'm willing to have a look! Those wanting to have more space at home, send your unused children toys and clothes this way please!

2.  Home made. Sure bought toys come with lots of sounds and lights but when a toy is crafted together at home, there is a sense of pride and achievement not to mention the special bonding session while sparks of creativity fly all over the place! Besides, it is fun, easy, doesn't hurt the pocket as much and green! Check out lots of ideas online or some of our little projects: play dough, five little freckled frogs, marble run and others which I will continue to post here.

3. Exchange. If you can find people who are willing to exchange toys with you for a few weeks or so, this is a great way to save and try 'new' toys on both sides. Just need to place your trust in each other to keep the toys clean and return them in one piece but don't have high expectations when dealing with curious toddlers. Though it is not easy to break the mental barrier of parents here regarding hygiene etc. it may be worth a try! Start with some small inexpensive ones first and if it doesn't work out, you can always scrap the idea.

4. Review. If you really need to purchase toys, spend some time reading reviews online before your next purchase to know what toys are suitable at what age to get the best mileage and have your money well spent. Hopefully I can help by putting some review posts up if I get a chance.

Any other suggestions out there??

MOMMade: Homemade Play Dough

Lots to do but can't help taking a break and put a post up!! ;-)

This is so easy to make and made of 100% edible ingredient though I wouldn't eat it due to the high sodium content! I can only imagine how it tastes like!

What you need:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
Food colouring

Method:
Mix flour, salt and oil in a bowl. Slowly add in water. The play dough will look sludgy at this point.  Cook over medium heat, stirring until dough becomes stiff. Turn off heat and leave the play dough to cool. When cooled, knead the play dough with your hands until they come together and form play dough! You can use it as it is. I have divided the play dough into four separate balls and added food colouring into each ball. You can also use vegetable juices like dragon fruit, spinach and carrot to make pink, green, and orange coloured play dough. Put the coloured play dough in separate containers to avoid the colours mixing - let the toddlers do that bit for you! I have been keeping the play dough in the refrigerator when not in use. The play dough are exactly two weeks old now and they still feel soft and look like how they were two weeks ago even though they have been messed with. Let's see how long it will last!

On hind sight, I should have used cooled, boiled water instead of tap water. Reason being the play dough will probably last longer. Second reason being should Baby O decide to put any play dough into her mouth, it is a tad safer and hopefully won't cause her any tummy ache(??). I doubt this makes any sense as the other contents of the play dough will probably be the culprit and not just the water alone. Regardless, please supervise your child(ren) at all times during this activity.

Another tip would be not to cook the play dough in a non-stick pot. I did that and the undissolved salt scratched the surface of my pot. :(

Happy play-ing dough!

Precious Ones Educational Toy Store

Someone recommended us the Precious Ones toy store which stocks up on wooden toys here in Penang. It’s located just a few houses (converted to shops) away from the famous Penang Char Kway Teow stall on the famous Lorong Selamat, Penang. To be honest, if we were not told about this place, we wouldn’t have found it. As you approach the front, there are three different entrances leading to three different businesses! That explains why the signboards are so crowded and confusing. Inside Precious Ones, you will go agog with the plethora of educational toys available! All packed in one-third of the space allocated to them. From cloth books to DVDs, wooden work benches to cook stoves, growth charts to crafts. We couldn’t spend too much time in there but this will definitely be one place I will go to to purchase toys for babies/ toddlers in the future!

Location: 56, Lorong Selamat, Penang, Malaysia.

Wooden Blocks

I have finally found it! I was looking for some wooden ABC blocks for Baby O. I like the classic looking ones with carved out alphabets/numbers. A friend has kindly sourced and recommended the Haba wooden building blocks. They come in beautiful colours and whimsical shapes. Haba wooden blocks are from Germany and claims to be made of hard wood with completely non-toxic, child friendly finishes. However, they are a tad pricey. The 25 pieces of Eeeny, Meeny, Miny, Zoo blocks are priced at $49.99 online. Besides the make, the price has to be right too. So, let's KIV that....

Then, I asked Mr Google for 'classic wooden blocks' and he showed me these from Uncle Goose going for $33.99. Also made from non-toxic inks, these 28 pieces made-in-the-USA blocks just ain't classic enough for me. 

The same friend then recommended me The Baby Loft which stocks the Wonderworld ABC Touchy Wooden Blocks. Made from rubber wood and non-toxic colours, this Thai product is priced at RM108.90. Not too bad but didn't spur me to buy them immediately.

Then one fine day at Toys R Us, I saw these on the shelves staring right in my face saying 'Buy Me!'.  These Imaginarium wooden blocks seem to check all the right boxes! Besides being wooden and carved, it comes in ABCs (both capital and lower case!) and 123s as well as pictures.

Building blocks aids a child's development in numerous ways - touch (the carved letters), cause and effect (stacking up makes a block tower/ knock them and they fall), fine motor skills (pick/ stack/ knock), size/ shape/ colour discrimination, visual stimulation (match the blocks).

I couldn't wait for Baby O to open the box up and play! While waiting, I went searching for reviews on Imaginarium. I noticed one review on the blocks I bought mentioned something about having the same letters on different surface instead of having different letters to be able to build more words. I didn't think much of it until the time came when we (excitedly) opened up the package. Three things struck me almost immediately:

1. The contents are made up of 1/3 blocks and 2/3 packaging! Very misleading indeed! Yes, cleverly hidden behind the alphabet blocks is another empty box that helps to put everything into a presentable manner. Tsk, tsk, tsk...

2. The blocks are pretty lightweight and have sharp corners. I suppose being lightweight is a benefit when it comes to being handled by tiny toddler hands and fingers. The sharp corners will probably wear off eventually (looking at how they are being handled!). 

3. The same capital and lower letters appear on the same block together with a corresponding picture. Eg. 'M' appears with 'm' and a picture of a monkey. This is great for learning the ABCs in upper and lower case and in association with an object. Then the review mentioned above flashed back at me saying 'See! Told you so!' when I tried putting the blocks together to spell the world 'BABY' for Baby O. There are 2 blocks of its kind so there are 2 'A's and 2 'B's and so on. To my dismay, the letter 'Y' appears together with the letter 'B'. So its B(Y)-A(Z)-B(Y)... and insufficient 'Y' blocks as they have been utilised as 'B's! Yikes! I guess this can also be easily remedied by .. erm.. buying another set??!?! For the time being, it'll be just building wooden block towers and knocking them down, Bab O!