MishMashMess: The birth of my number 4 -- Lebox

I went through it again! The birth of my number 4! After my two Ks, my diapercake business Rhapnroll, I took the plunge together with fellow mummy xavvylicious on 27 March 2017 and started a new venture! The conception and gestation of this baby is certainly the shortest. Phew! I don't have to carry it for 9 months before my waterbag bursts and go through 27hours of labour pain (that was how long it was before Big K decided to make her appearance😅)

It was really by the stroke of fate that Lebox was conceived. It started as an innocent brunch date with xavvylicious on a fateful Monday morning at Forty Hands. We were chatting about random stuff and the next thing you know, it was a lightbulb moment for the both of us! We were so in sync in thoughts with respect to educating our children. We wanted to do more! We wanted to spread this love to time-starved mummies. Children are like sponges and it is such a sad sight to see their little faces glued to the google boxes or the ipads. I do not deny that a certain amount of screen time is necessary for our own sanity as well as to let the child be in the knowing. I wouldn't want them to be outcasted just because they didn't know Fluttershy is part of My Little Pony. However, the increasing reliance on gadgets is prevalent and we can't deny. Hopefully if readymade learning materials are readily available, parents may consider putting down the gadget and bond with the child.

With the intensity of the rat race, we also recognise that academics is essential. It isn't easy to marry academics to fun but we have been doing quite a fair bit in that area with our own children so why not spread the love to others?

To focus on Chinese (for the moment) was pretty clear to me. You see, Small K doesn't seem to fancy the subject and in fact refuses to reply his teachers or us in Mandarin. I realised this could be because my plate had been so full, trying to keep those two little beings alive when Small K came to this world, hence I was not able to expose him as much as i did for Big K. It was only after almost 1.5years did I achieve a better equilibrium and ensured that the two did not starve, had clean clothes to wear and got to school mostly on time. The name LeBox was also inspired by Small K who is affectionately known as 乐乐. Lè can also be hanyu pinyin for 乐 and 'the' in french! And recently, a fellow mommy A also pointed out that it could take the meaning of LEarningbox! Wow! One name, many interpretations! I love!

So right after that brunch session, xavvylicious and I started brainstorming and spamming each other with ideas and like they say, the rest is history!

Without further ado, may I present you with Lebox first box based on the Dumpling Festival theme!

Did you know that Dumpling Festival is also known as double five? Don't know right? Well, I didn't as well! I didn't even know there were more than one folklore leading to this festival! Apparently 屈原 is not the only celebrity here! Anyway, let's start with what we are more familiar with. The Dragon Boat Festival memorializes the patriot poet Qu Yuan and has held an important place in China's agrarian society. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, explaining why one of its alternate names is the Double Fifth Festival.

To help children be more culturally aware, #leboxsg has proudly come up with a Chinese learning box filled with fun materials which allows your child to not only understand the culture more, but to boost his interest in the Chinese language.

Steaming inside the box are:

- A sticker storybook about the origins of Dumpling Festival -Sequencing cards to enrich literacy

- Supplies for craft

- Supplies to teach numeracy

- Bricks for fine motor skills

- Fun reusable worksheets for word recognition

- Right brain training cards

- Fishing kit to teach word recognition

- Oracy materials

- Parent Guide with detailed activity instructions

Our materials can be used to complement each other. There may be more than one way to play. It is up to your imagination.

For example, our right-brain material is a gem. It can double up as ESP training, memory training and telepathy!

In case you don't know what I am talking about, here's the summary:

The right brain is sometimes known as the image brain. Through high speed training, it enlarges the vessel for the brain. ESP: It forms the right brain's 5 senses, similar to how the left brain senses are: sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. So how do we play this?

Place the set of 4 cards in a row facing up.
Have your child hold another set of 4 cards facing down.
Ask your child to place each card facing down corresponding to what they think is the same as the set that is facing up.
When your child has placed all 4 cards, flip them over to check if they are the same as those facing up.

Another way of using this set is to hone their memory:

Place the 4 pictures on the grey board in whichever order you desire
Show it to the child for 3 seconds and then face the cards down.
Get the child to arrange his set of cards on his own board.
Once done, flip over your set and let the child compare. If the child is having difficulty, start with one or two cards. Adapt the game accordingly to age and ability of your child. There are many possibilities and you may rearrange the cards and repeat the activity.

Lastly, we could work on telepathy with this set of cards. Telepathy is a child's ability to make a successful guess of what is visualised in the mind of his parent. You may think that this is bogus but it is a good skill to have when you need to tikam tikam for MCQ during an exam! It is actually to strengthen your intuition. So here's what you can do:

Line up the 4 cards in from of your child, faced up.
Line up 4 cards in front of yourself faced down.
Take one of your cards without showing your child what it is and stare intently at it and see the imagine your mind.
Repeat this as many time as you like.

It isn't Dumpling Festival yet but I have started some activities with my children and they absolutely loved them!