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