Pentago - Mind Twisting Game

I came across this game Pentago at Narita airport. Seeing the content and the fact that it won so many awards, I was attracted. Here are the awards that this game has won.



I appreciate intelligent games like this. Therefore, I decided to add this to my collection partially because I was afraid that I might not find it elsewhere as I thought this is a Japanese game that might not be available elsewhere.

The game is pretty simple, it's just like a usual "5 in a row" game. Each player takes turn to put a black or white marble on a 6 x 6 board. The first player having 5 balls in a row either horizontal, vertical or diagonal wins the game. But the trick is that the 6 x 6 board is divided into 4 sub 3 x 3 boards, which can be rotated. This feature definitely adds a new dimension and difficulty to the game. I am impressed by the mechanical design of the board, simple and elegant!



I like this game because it's simple. There's no need to learn many rules and I can enjoy the game together with my son almost immediately. In fact, after the first game, my 6 year old son can beat me.

I think this game is really a mind twisting game. The possibility that the board can rotate 90 degree clockwise or anti-clockwise actually twisted my brain. No wonder this game won the Mensa Select Award.

Recently, I saw a version of this game being sold at SGD14.90 in some toy shops in Singapore, almost half the price I paid. The packaging is very similar to what I have but I can tell that it is of lower quality. Since in Singapore, pirated products are dealt with strictly, I am not sure whether those are legitimate products. Perhaps it's local low cost legitimate version? I am not sure.

For those of you staying in Singapore, you may be able to find this in any toys shops at your local shopping mall. Alternatively, let me put down some links below in case you want to shop online.


Amazon Website : The most trusted online store in my opinion; shipping rate is reasonable if the seller is Amazon.

Official Website : I believe this is the official website, some of the links do not work on my browser.

Wikipedia : provides some background information on the game.

Well, I think this is a good game for adults too. For kids, definitely the game will help to sharpen the young mind, as we all know, the more we use our brain, the better the brain will develop. And more importantly, there's a lot of fun!
 

Report Card

Is report card a toy? No, definitely it's not. However, getting report card can be a pleasant experience for our children. Please allow me to share my son's report card and my observation on how a report card should be.

Report cards in my perception before I came to Singapore, even for kindergarten children, is full of 'A', 'B', 'C' etc. Check this out... you will like this.



You can see that there's no 'A', 'B', 'C' here, but the report card lists down good behaviors that a child should do. Then it grades them by whether they practice the good behavior "often", "sometimes" or "not yet". For example, one goal here is "I know how to read some sentence with understanding", in June, my son could do that "sometimes", but towards end of the year, he did that "often".

Getting the grade "Sometimes" tell parents that our child needs more encouragement. Even if you get a "Not Yet", seeing these words, the thinking is seldom negative. If you get 'C' or 'B', what do you think the parents would think? Or if you see others get an 'A' while you are getting a 'B'?



You can see the break downs of the skill sets even under category "listening". The teacher will also give comments on her observations. Instead of listening 'B', you find "I know how to follow oral instructions", "I can listen and respond to questions"... plus a comment on how my son did in this area.



Check this portion out, rather than merely looking at the result, the report cards also emphasizes on "Approaches to learning" and "Interaction between children".


This is a portion on Mathematics...



and Motor Skills portions... like this?

What do you think? I really feel thankful to the school and the teachers. This report card makes me think about the report cards I saw in Penang. At that time, my first question was, "What does 'A' or 'B' mean?" Naturally, seeing a 'B' on areport card, I asked the teacher, "What did the other kids get? Are they getting 'A' for subjects that my son is getting a 'B'"?

There is no way to run away from the standard report cards that we used to get. The grading of 'A', 'B', 'C' or even marks, average, position in class etc will come some days. But I think at kindergarten stage, the young ones should enjoy learning and not facing pressure due to comparison from "kiasu" parents.

I recommend the following guide. I think it's a must read for parents, if you are getting a report card from your child soon.
Report Card Guide by Slyvan Learning Center

I really feel thankful to all the teachers who had taught my son (Teacher Atika, Teacher Giam from My First School, and also Teacher Michelle, Teacher Oon, Teacher Loh in SuperKids). I do not know how he does compared to his classmates. That does not matter now. He can read story books, he can write some sentences, he can count, what else can I ask for? Thinking back, may be I had been too kiasu to purchase "worksheets" and ask him to do at home for 30 minutes before he plays.



"Well done! YK, you made me proud. Keep it up! YK".

I think kindergarten should not give any exams at all. And their report card and assessment should look like what I have shown. What do you think?

P/S
By the way, why do so many kindergartens in Penang (may be Malaysia) introduce exams and spelling test at the young tender age of 4-5 years old? I think the answer can be found if you ask the top kindergartens "M" and "D" in Penang.

Hooked on Phonics --- Don't miss this

Some boring history
I came across "Hooked on Phonics - Learn to Read" in one of the bookstore in US. At that time, the original set was USD80, but they were selling it for USD50. Immediately I decided to purchase. My wife disagreed at that time because we had not heard about it, and nobody recommended the set. Besides, USD50 was not a small sum for us.

I have to admit that my command of English is not really good. Being educated in Asia, my pronunciation comes with Malaysian slang. I think I want something better for my son. But that was not the real reason of my bold move. Actually when I was 12 years old, my mother spent RM200 (at that time that was really a big sum for my family) to purchase a material for learning English that came with cassette tapes. I did not make full use of it and I really felt guilty. Probably the sense of guilt drove me to spend that USD50.

The contents of Hooked on Phonics
I kept the set for 2 years until my son was 4 years old. The lesson starts with flash cards and song, helping my son to memorize the phonetic sound for each alphabet. This part is really time-consuming and it took us about 3 months before my son could memorize. I followed the instruction very well and kept my son's interest going. Sometimes he requested the session, sometimes I suggested. I stopped when he got bored.

Once he remembered the basic phonetic sounds, the real lesson began. First he went through a simple lesson. Then he was asked to read a simple story by himself. The results was fantastic. He could read the story all by himself! I could still remember my son's happy satisfying face when he managed to read the first story. That also created his interest in learning more.

May be it's hard to understand but that can be easily understood if you look at the actual product. Please look at the sample here that I downloaded from Hooked on Phonic facebook page and note that the story was written with limited words that the children know.

Kindergarten Level




The set came with flash cards, CD, stories book and the important one, is the sticker. After every session, my son is supposed to put a sticker on a progress sheet. This is the part that my son likes most.



You can find more information from the list below:

Hooked on Phonics - Learn to Read Website,
Hooked on Phonics Official Website,
Hooked on Phonics Blog
Check out this Demo page

It took my son about one and half year to complete the Kindergarten course. And last year, having convinced about the effectiveness of this material, I purchased the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Grade 1 and Grade 2 sets, plus the Master Reader ses at a cheaper rate USD30-USD40 per set. Okay, before you get confused, let me explain about this product first.

Hooked on Phonics --- Learn to Read
Most of my friends are confused when they search the web on what to buy. Actually this is very simple, you just need to decide which level you need first. It comes in 4 levels, Pre-K (I did not buy this), Kindergarten(4-6yr), Grade 1(6-7yr) and Grade 2(7-8yr). Next you need to decide whether you want deluxe set or not, because that comes with additional stories books. Go for the deluxe set. Reason is that our children needs those additional stories book for practice. The hooked on phonics is also sold in bundled sets or paperback sets.

To add to the confusion, Hooked on Phonics has revised the contents and came up with a new version. I will put a link and pictures at the end of the blog.

Why this is highly recommended?
My son has almost finished Grade 1 material now. See the sample below:

Grade 1




What I can say is that he can read almost any story books meant for his age. This is something that I could not have imagined. I could only read English stories book at the age of 11-12. But my son can read simple stories book at the age of 5 since last year. Certainly, his kindergarten teacher deserve most of the credits but I think the role this Hooked on Phonics has is also significant. My son's teacher told me that my son's phonetic reading is among the top in his class. I will surely get my daughter to use the set.

I know a friend in Singapore who send his son to a phonetic reading course, called "I can read", and I know that he is paying more than SGD100 per month. Compare to this, I think my investment in Hooked on Phonics really pays off. The benefit is not so much on academic, but also, I can see that the method had been effective to increase my son's self esteem and confidence. I enjoy spending the time teaching him myself without worrying of passing him my incorrect pronunciation (he will only listen to CD, not my pronunciation).

I showed this to a friend who is married to a US citizen. His wife told me that Hooked on Phonics has been around in US for many years. I checked this at Wikipedia and found out that this set was created in early 1980s. Well, when we know a product has been selling for 20 years, quite unlikely we would question the quality of the product, isn't it? :)

Why do I put this academic material into this blog? Shouldn't this be merely toys? Dr Glenn Doman said that children wants to learn, rather than play. I find it very true. In fact, I think my son enjoy this more than some toys he has.

Where to buy
Finally, let me also list down where to buy these items from Malaysia or Singapore. Unfortunately, you can't buy directly except from the website.

Let me put the link below:
Hooked on Phonics Official Website provides a clear illustration and it's very neat. But you cannot buy from them because they do not ship outside USA. I made inquiries earlier and they asked me to purchase from Amazon.

You can try to get older version from Amazon at cheaper price. But, once the old stocks have been cleared, you may find missing links below.


P/S: Most of the pictures here are downloaded from relevant website and quoted for reporting purpose, which is supposed to be a fair use in copy right law. However, if there's any issue of intellectual property rights, kindly let me know and I will remove them.

Updated 2011 Jan 26:
I have added the link to Amazon on the top and bottom of the blog. These link created from Amazon Associate will reflect the latest price. I know the link I pasted earlier may be outdated. The link at the top are the combined version whereas the link at the bottom are individual sets at different level.



Old version :




Updated new version:





Larger pictures of the product :

Kindergarten Level (Try this first if you are new)


1st Grade


2nd Grade


The all-in-one version, K - 2nd Grade, buy this if you are confident. Cheaper to buy at once.

MiniLuk and BambinoLuk

I came across this wonderful children game in a booth selling IQ games at Tesco 3 years ago. I was impressed because of the innovative contents. Besides, children can play on their own and checking their own answers. I still remember one of the puzzles showing the top view of a swimmer wearing a cap, and the children are asked to identify the respective side view of the swimmer. That requires quite some imagination from the children. However, the price scared me off. It's at least RM600+. The sales lady told me that this game had more than 30 years history in Germany.

Okay, you may not know what is this Luk and Bambino Luk, I have found a website that demonstrates this. Check out the demonstration and you will understand what I mean

Links to Amazon for MiniLuk (I hope this give you the latest price)


Links to Amazon for BambinoLuk (I hope this give you the latest price)



BambinoLuk (2-4 years old) : Introduction, Demonstration , Samples

MiniLuk (4-8 years old): Introduction, Demonstration , Samples
(note: I tried to purchase from them in mid 2009 but looks like they did not sell outside US)

I think you will be impressed too looking at the Samples and demonstration . I strongly believe that by exposing the children to these games, we are developing their intelligence, in terms of sequencing, imagination and association. You can tell that I am convinced and I would buy, but forking out RM600++ is very painful, especially at a stage that I am not sure my children would like it.

By the way, I am a big fan of Dr Glenn Doman(proposed use of flash cards) and Dr Howard Gardner(proposed Multiple Intelligence concept), I believe that parents should stimulate children to think and to sharpen their brain because brain development happen at early childhood. I had finish reading their books years ago. That's the reason I was convinced quite easily.

It so happened that I had a short trip to Germany in the following month. Although lack of time, within the available 2 hours, I managed to visit a bookstore to find out about this Luk system. Yes, the sales girl was right that it had been popular in German for more than 30 years. I had a hard time to decide what to purchase. Unlike other parts of the world, in Germany, the Luk system has a very wide varieties, and I was selecting from a range of 50-100 books. Each of them is about 5-7Euro. I bought several books and a controller, amounting to RM200 with the kind help from the Germany salesman translating for me. That's 1/3 of the price compared to what I saw.

My son had completed all the exercises of this miniLuk set. I wanted to get more, but I did not have any chance to visit Germany and I could not afford a trip like that. I came across a toy shop in United Square Singapore located at the basement. The official website could be found here. My son had a chance to look at it and tried out before I paid SGD100 for a set of 5 books. I knew in Germany and US, this would be cheaper but considering that we had a chance to try it out, I decided to pay. May be partly because the owner was very friendly and kind. As expected, I found out later that it was sold cheaper, about half price in US. My friend tried to purchase from Amazon, but again, since not offered directly by Amazon, they did not sell outside of US.
( Update 2015 : All the local selling this are out of business)

I also came across a "cheap version", sold in "pasar malam"(night market). The controller looked very similar to the miniLuk system. It was sold at cheaper price, but still at RM160! But the quality had no match to the miniLuk system. Besides, I also suspected that it might be pirated copy. Checking the contents, I found that the "Germany Intelligence" in the game was missing. It looked like a compilation which consists of many different subjects, without a key learning theme. Will be a waste of money if you buy those.

I always admire German engineers for their innovation and good engineering. I believe IQ games like this have a role in this. I value innovation products like this. But please do not get me wrong, I do not believe that IQ games will make a child more "clever" and definitely you cannot create a genius out of these. But the IQ games will make a child more "intelligent" in a way defined by Dr Howard Gardner. But unfortunately, it's not commonly available to us....

Update 2015 :
Some broken links removed.  Also, I counted 7-8 websites copied this post. Well, you can tell that mine is the original as my writing style (with grammatical error) etc. 

Jigsaw Puzzles

My wife loves Jigsaw Puzzle but I don't - I simply do not have the patience. Children are known to be impatient and usually they cannot concentrate for a long time. So, it is a challenge to make a 2-year-old sit down and play Jigsaw Puzzle for 1 hour. But I assure you that this is possible with some training. That is what my wife did and as a result, my son could complete a 200pcs puzzle all by himself at the age of 3-4 years old.

The training should start with something very simple such as the following items. Please do not underestimate the effect of these. We started these when our children were about 1 year old. I think these games help the children pick up motor skills and get a sense of orientation and pattern recognition. It will take some time for them to be able to grab the piece. The bottom game in the picture is very unique and interesting where it lets the children change the clothing of the bear.




After the above training, we started with simple 4-piece or 6-piece jigsaw puzzles like the following. I bought this in Walmart with hardly a few dollars each. Also, note that the puzzle has a base to hold the pieces which makes it easeir to solve. I remember that I gave a lot of praises to the children so that they become confident.



My children love playing the jigsaw, may be partly because of the praises and encouragement. Practice is critical because "Practice makes perfect". When they are ready, we slowly increased to 10pcs, 25pc, 60pc, 100pcs and eventually 200pcs. Look at the following pictures of my daughter completing a 10-piece jigsaw puzzle. Notice that the character is "Thomas the tank engine", her favorite character. Look at her happy face!






Sometimes, I think we have to spend a little bit more money to purchase those jigsaw puzzles with characters that our children like, such as Thomas, Dora, Pooh etc. Yes, a jigsaw puzzle with Thomas character may cost 30%-50% more, but it's worth the money because my son would play with it more often, 1 hour every time, and gave me the precious peace of mind to concentrate on what I wanted to do. I find that my children would not hang on long to those puzzle with the pattern that they do not like. So, the special character does play a role to give motivation.




I was so lucky to get a lot of Thomas puzzles sold at discounted prices, one of them can even glow in the dark. All these help to keep the interests going. Look at the photos of my son at work! He completed the 100 pieces puzzle in less than 30 minutes. If not mistaken, I paid less than RM50 for the set in the picture, definitely this is not cheap. But considering the time, the frequency used and his lovely happy face playing the Thomas puzzle, I would consider my money well spent.












Now, my son is helping me to motivate his sister to learn and play jigsaw puzzles.





And he is also helping his sister to clean up the toys after playing. I always insist that they clean up on their own even at a very young age. My son is doing fine in this aspect, but his sister tends to attempt to "escape" from her duty and relies on her brother's help.



One interesting observation is that my son sometimes uses different approach in dealing with Jigsaw compared to my wife and me. For those jigsaw puzzle with a "base", he could simply pick up one piece and he would know exactly where to place the piece by memory. I find it amazing because there are 24pcs together and I find it extremely hard to do so. I observed the same behavior on my daughter. Now, at the age of 2, she is playing 24pcs jigsaw using the same method. They never start with finding fringe pieces like what adults usually do.

What's the benefit of playing jigsaw puzzles? Well, I think it helps to develop motor skills. It's not easy for a 12-month toddler to hold the small piece and put it at the right orientation and at the right place. Also, playing jigsaw puzzles helps to develop skill of recognizing the pattern and colors. In addition, it helps to build up their concentration skills.

What matters most to me is that my children love playing jigsaw puzzles, and when they concentrate on the jigsaw puzzle game, I can really enjoy my own time, reading books or surfing net. I just need to sit beside. Don't you love that?

IQ Games -- River Crossing

I saw this game, "River Crossing" selling at less than 50% of the original price in Barn and Nobles during my business trip to US. I was very sure that if I were to buy this in Malaysia or Singapore, the price would be higher.




Now, itturned out to be one of my son's favorite games. My wife loves puzzle games too. So, the mother and son would sometimes spend some wonderful time together solving the puzzles. This game is about how to cross the river by moving around wood pieces that serve as the bridge, one at a time.



My son also has some other puzzle games like "Hide and Seek" and "IQ Logic". Frankly speaking, these two are quite difficult even for me. The level of difficulty for "River Crossing" is just nice.







I enjoy playing "River Crossing" together with my son too. Sometimes he would get very frustrated because he could not figure out the answer. I guess this is also part and parcel of life that he has to go through. I would just ask him to try again, or some times, I would sit down and think together with him.



I really feel thankful to the creators of these games. Not only does the game sharpen the mind, but more importantly, it also trains children to concentrate, to analyze and to solve a problem. Isn't this what is needed?

If you are getting one of these, let me warn you first that the games are not easy. Go to a shop that has a display set and let the child try the game first. Sometimes I really need to think out of the box in order to get the answer. Oh... you may want to ask me where in Singapore or Malaysia you can get these? Check out my favorite toy shop in Penang Elly and Friends, Queensbay Mall 3rd floor. In Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, I think you can find these games in many of the toys shop which sell children games and puzzle. If you know where to find them, add your comments to this blog...

Enjoy!

P/S: FYI