Kids and Grolier

So our Grolier products came yesterday. We purchased it at the TCE baby expo last week. Did I tell you we did really well at the baby expo? Didn't buy any unnecessary stuff at all. We were there for two hours only, which were pretty impressive.

I've known the product for quite some time. AM and AZ were introduced to it in their weekend neuro class. They loved it. Once in a while, I saw Grolier opened their booth at Tesco or IPC mall. But I never had the chance to really investigate. Most of the time, I was always in a hurry. So, when I saw Grolier's booth at the expo, I knew I need to stop, what more with my 'personal banker' next to me. We ended up purchasing the Logico series and Fun Thinkers. But because of the expo, of course they had to give lots of freebies. So, on top of that, they gave us their A Story a Day collection, mini encyclopaedia, a guide book, with the title, Raise Your Child's Self-Esteem: 99 Things to Do, plus, a book shelf. All for RM2.2k, which is a bargain.

These are the books from the mini encyclopaedia set. The kids haven't started on any of them or the other books yet. But they'll devour all these within days, make no mistake.

The award-winning Logico series actually came in three; Primo, Piccolo and Maximo. We bought Piccolo and Maximo as they targeted children above six, suitable for AM and AZ more. AM and AZ have done the Primo series at their neuro class, plus we could save our money to buy the Fun Thinkers instead. Logico basically provides a tool to foster a whole brained learning experience for the kids through their Brain Development, English and Mathematics series. Basically, their learning tools are made up of an answer board and game books with a series of learning cards.

The answer board. So colourful.

There are 10 buttons of different colours in the Piccolo answer board (there are more buttons for Maximo). So you can shift these buttons up and down. To start the game, you need to ensure that all the buttons are at the bottom.

So each activity card, will have their instructions and questions. On the left side of the card, are the questions and images, each marked with a spot with different colours. The right side, is for the answers. To play, just match the question with the correct answer by moving the corresponding colour button on the board up to the groove next to each chosen answer. When you have finished playing, flip the card and slip them back to the board. If the colour sequence of the buttons on the board is corresponding to the colour sequence in the card, all the answers are correct, like this:

All correct!

Basically, the kids are using their minds and hands simultaneously. I feel that this game let the children become more independent to explore and solve problems. They are able to develop good learning skills as they conduct their own assessment and they are more positive and interested to keep on trying until they find the right answers.  It also helps that I get extra hours to do my own thing without them constantly bugging me.

This is also a great learning tool for the home schoolers.

All busy playing. They really wanted to finish the first set.

For Fun Thinkers, the concept is pretty much the same. Instead of an answer board, you have Match-Frame Box, with numbered tiles at the front and coloured tiles at the back.

All I have to say is this game will buy me at least a month of my sanity. I don't have to feel guilty for not forcing AM to do enough exercises now that he is in his school break. Go ahead and play, son!