Getting your "couch kid" to be active

 Good day to everyone, welcome to my parenting blog. Today sharing with you about getting your "couch kid" to be active. I am mom of two boys, and being parent I need to understand of my kids, I know that my boys fitness personality are non-athletes.

What are the barriers of kids being active? Low interest, school demands like tuition, lack of active role models, parents' fear of letting kids play outdoors, etc.

I can't agree more due to hot and humid weather in Malaysia now, I fear of letting my kids to play outdoors. But we cannot be forever keep kids at home, so we need to see the timing to get activities such as visit lets say the playground. If we are going in the evening 6pm, put on sunscreen and mosquitoes repellent. 

 

 What motivate my kids to be active? Being active myself of course, parents are the role models to our children.

One of the recent fun activity that my son likes at the KidZania is the bubbly artwork, we went not long ago for the KidZania Kuala Lumpur 7th Anniversary. He had a good time creating the bubbly work using a straw and cups of water color for the artwork.

 Benefits of being active, especially in sports - what skills are developed?
My kids stay active when they have the time to visit the outdoor for example fun time of flying the planes. It will be a nice good sweating time while playing. Whenever they fly the planes and chasing and running after it to collect it.

Everyone has got busy lifestyle, it's important to keep our lifestyle balance. We spend quality time together whenever we can. Both my sons now studying at different school as his elder brother is now 13 years old. Both of them different time of studying and also attending tuition. I try to keep them active and spend quality time together as much as possible. It's weekends that we can get together more often.

My youngest son likes the challenge of wall climbing, he knows some day he will make it to the top. 

 Sports is more than a healthy pastime, it improves coordination, builds confidence and helps develop social skills. Games can also teach kids about cooperation and teamwork; these are the important aspects of growing up.

Last year, KidZania has got the sports programme of Football Fever.
 Football-themed Highlights at KidZania SportZ 2018:
* Futsal: Practice dribbling skills in a 2V2 match, or try to score a goal while blindfolded!
* Foosball: This intense game puts hand-eye coordination to the test. Great for all ages!
* Subbuteo: Try the new table-top football phenomenon!
* Football Video Game: This virtual challenge brings the game to life in a different way!

my sons making bracelets

Part of the activities that we can find in KidZania is the bracelets making at Jewelry shop. This is good to keep them focus, active in mind and calculation skill as involve in thinking on how to put the beads together and making a bracelet. There are so many fun activities can be found at KidZania namely Researcher, Bottling Operator, Tourism Officer, Jeweller, Car Dealer, Actor, Nurse, Judge, Police, Fire fighter, Magician, Cashier, Modelling Class, and many more.

For more information about activities and events at KidZania Kuala Lumpur, visit www.kidzania.com.my or www.facebook.com/KidZaniaKualaLumpur, or 

call the KidZania Careline 1300 88 KIDZ (5439) 

from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm, Monday to Sunday.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur celebrates 7th Bubbly Anniversary

It's month of March, and last month 23 February 2019 was KidZania Kuala Lumpur 7th Anniversary.

We have a nice family fun time here, just nice as Sean's has accummulated 61 stamps so he can change his KidZanian passport to another level.

 
KidZania Kuala Lumpur is popping a bubbly celebration, marking its 7th year in existence as the ultimate edutainment centre in Malaysia.

A month-long celebration, the award-winning indoor family edutainment centre celebrates its 7th anniversary with all the crowding of children and parents in an event filled with bubbly and joyful festivities.

Through the bubbly celebration, KidZania Kuala Lumpur aims to educate children with values that could be attained through creativity that includes self-expressing through bubbles, as well as the dedication and attentiveness to make beautiful and big bubbles!

The Mayor of KidZania Kuala Lumpur, Shahrul Nizar Ahmad joined in to launch the event by cutting a cake that had the number “7” placed on top of it, marking the anniversary celebration.

“It has been seven wonderful years since we have launched KidZania Kuala Lumpur, and since then, we have catered to happy adult and kid visitors.

“By introducing new activities from time-to-time to give our young visitors more edutainment experiences and exposures to real-life professions, we remain, till this year, a continued favourite spot for kids and parents for an educationally fun experience,” said Shahrul Nizar Ahmad, Mayor of KidZania Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from the “Bubbly” themed role-playing activities, special performances and games for the visitors, members of the B.KidZanian loyalty programme called “CitiZens” could stand a chance to win some premium goods from KidZania Kuala Lumpur’s industrial partners too.

Partners like Vitagen, F&N, Mission Foods and Emborg have all joined in the celebration to offer CitiZens premium goods when they have completed exciting challenges and take a turn at the ”Wheel of Fortune”.

Another partner showing its support is the freshly joined, Faber-Castell through a colouring contest for all the visitors of KidZania Kuala Lumpur.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur has been welcoming visitors since 2012, with the aim to combine education and entertainment, enabling children to experience “grown-up jobs”, reflecting “Learn Life Today” in kids visiting the City.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur collaborates with international companies who act as sponsors for its pavilions and work activities.

Complete with shops, vehicles and other infrastructures, just like a mini-city specially made for kids, KidZania Kuala Lumpur is built for kids to experience life in a fun and educating way.

The edutainment facility also enhances basic concepts of financial literacy and contributes to children’s fundamental understanding of earning money for work and spending it depending on the income level.

About KidZania Kuala Lumpur
KidZania Kuala Lumpur is an award-winning indoor family edutainment centre that offers interactive learning and role-play experiences for kids. The first of its kind in providing edutainment fun, KidZania empowers and inspires kids to pursue their life’s dreams by providing them an avenue to explore what it’s like to live and work in a real functioning city. KidZania’s kid-sized city experience is targeted at kids aged between 4 to 14 years which allows them to choose from over 100 job related role-plays spread across 60 various city establishments. As in the real world, children perform "jobs" and are either paid for their work or pay to shop or to be entertained. KidZania is built as a replica of a real functioning child-sized city, complete with buildings, paved streets, vehicles, a functioning economy, and recognizable destinations in the form of "establishments" sponsored and branded by leading multi-national and local brands.

McDonald’s unveils Happy Meal Readers Programme

Good day to dear readers and visitors, how did you spend your weekend? It's Monday and I love to share with you about McDonald’s unveils Happy Meal Readers Programme.

McDonald’s has partnered with Cressida Cowell, world-renowned author of the bestselling ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ books. Cowell has written an exclusive series of 12 hardback books for McDonald’s that will not be available anywhere else in retail. The books will be available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia specifically for the Malaysian market. McDonald’s is using its Scale for Good to instil a passion for reading and to provide a moment of closeness for families. 

By making reading fun, it is possible to inspire a lifelong love of reading among kids.

My son is turning 8 years old this June, it's about time he starts reading more and good to know the books will be available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia specifically for the Malaysian market. My son reading the book series in English. 

It's good bonding time for parent and child get together. We can share our thoughts on the books we read and talk about it. By making reading fun,it is possible to inspire a lifelong love of reading among kids.

To inculcate the culture of reading among Malaysians from a young age, it starts from parents. We can make a different, we are the models to our children. Remember the saying of what monkey see, what monkey do. We can set good example to our children, they are our future and leaders.
 
It's importance of carving out family reading time, explaining and learning on new words together. It would be fun learning on types of dragons we can find in the Treetop Twin Adventures. The book series, exclusive to McDonald's.

Good news to book worms as now you can find throughout 2019, McDonald’s will be releasing one book every month. Families have the option to choose a book or a toy with every Happy Meal purchased. Now you can opt for the book instead of toy, when you ordered the Happy Meal, you can informed the staff that you prefer the book. The choice is yours you prefer the English Language or Bahasa Malaysia. 


The first book of this series was released on 10 January this year, while the second book was released on 1 February.

To make the reading experience more fun, digital versions of the books are also made available through the Happy Studio app that can be downloaded on both the Google Play Store and Apple Store. Using the app, families can read along with the story and bring the book illustrations to life.

For more infoabout Happy Meal Readers, please visit https://www.mcdonalds.com.my/en/family/happy-meal-readers

We can balance up our life as we know there's time where children need a break. The Happy Studio app is rated for children 3 years old and above.

You can select the country of Malaysia

Select the language English or Bahasa Malaysia, we selected the English.

 

There are fun games in the Happy Studio app that you can have fun playing naming a few. The making the of rocket, car, and pin ball. Fun time as parent and child can together explore the games.

I am happy seeing my son having a good time, playing making rocket and cars that he likes and think of how to pass the level.

 Don't worry it's not harsh for them, this given them the thinking hat to explore and create them. You'll be amazed on how they will react. 

There maybe chances of failing in the games but no worry we can encourage them to try again. This way we can think of what is the mistake and solutions of it. 
Just check out the video below where my son has done fail in a game but he didn't give up trying. He tried again and again until he succeed. 

Video link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OwUGYwALBo&t=23s

Using the app, families can read and interact together I am happy that my son showing me on how he loves playing the app.

We can spend the time of togetherness before nap time, sleep time or 

tea break time

even before the outing. 

Talk about outing, do you know the Treetop Twins Adventures book series,

are hard back covers. It's also just nice for keeping it in our bags or mini backpack.

This book series, which chronicles the colourful adventures of the Treetop Twins

Being a parent, spending time with my boy is the most important thing for me. My boy is now soon to be 8 years old and I want him to start a reading habit. He studies most of the time and I find it's important for parent and child bonding time together.  

So it was to our pleasant surprise that, McDonald's started introducing exciting and exclusive books with every purchase of a Happy Meal. 

There will be a new book introduced every 3-4 weeks throughout this year! 
 

This means that there will be 12 different books in this series to collect from! These books will definitely be great additions to our mini library at home! This book series, which chronicles the colourful adventures of the Treetop Twins is written exclusively for McDonald’sHappy Meal Readers Programme by renowned author Cressida Cowell –you won’t get these books at retail stores. 

So guys, don’t miss out on getting these exclusive books for your kids, and let’s join McDonald’s in its quest to inculcate a reading culture among the young by promoting family togetherness.

 

About the books Treetop Twin Adventures: The Treetop Twins –Alfie 
and Asha, and Tulip and Ted –are the luckiest twins in the world. 
Their parents, Professor Penelope Treetop and Professor Pablo Treetop, have built a time machine, and they are the first family EVER to go back in time to study the age of the dinosaurs. 
Share with them in their adventures of a lifetime!
This means that there will be 12 different books in this series 
 to collect from
Let's collect them all. 
Exclusively at McDonald's Happy Meal Readers Programme.

#HappyMealReaders