Playtime Fun at Full of Toys

Last Sunday, we were invited by Full of Toys, Jayanagar for a playdate, a chance to engage in an hour-long playtime slot with any of the toys in their store.  My husband was out of town, so it was just me and the kid who went to check it out.

Full of Toys is a brand of internationally sourced educational toys promising entertainment and education for children between the age of 4 to 12.

We have our set of board games and indoor games sets to keep our kid engaged. We even go out for bird watching, small trips and nature walks to introduce him to nature. But then, I am a writer and blogger. I don’t get enough time to spend with him. Hence, I was eagerly looking forward to this play date.

We were welcomed warmly by the owner of the store Gautam Gupta and his very efficient staff. The store is a comfy place with stacks of educational toys. There were tables arranged for various groups of parents and children.

We were ushered to our table. The staff member, Gopi, brought a toy and explained the rules to us and we began.

 THINKFUN RUSH HOUR (Click here to Buy)

The first toy my kid played with was Rush hour.  This award-winning toy is suitable for ages 8 and above. It is a puzzle game that demands analytical thinking and reasoning to get a car toy out of a traffic gridlock.

To play, he had to pick a challenge card and arrange the cars on the supplied grid board according to the pattern. The cars could be moved back and forth to clear the way for the red car to drive out. The game has 40 levels with difficulty ranging from beginner to expert.

The solution is printed on the back of each challenge card just in case a player gets stuck.

It was very interesting how he got engrossed in it pretty soon. After solving a particularly difficult level, the staff member rewarded him by bringing him another interesting game. 

THINKFUN GRAVITY MAZE ( Click here to Buy)

Gravity Maze is a building and construction puzzle game that required him to be an architect to beat the 3D challenges. He had to build towers and mazes to get the ball to its target to win.

It aims to give the kids a flair for building and architecture as they tackle this innovative puzzle game. Designed for kids 8 years old and above, Thinkfun Gravity Maze is good for both boys and girls. This game too had 60 levels.

THINKFUN CIRCUIT MAZE (Click here to Buy)

 The third game he chose was Circuit Maze. It seeks to ignite logic and sequential reasoning skills of the kids.

The goal of the game is to arrange the various tokens provided to create a real circuit that lights up the different coloured Beacons.

 I was skeptical about the choice because I was not sure whether he could grasp the concept of circuits and electricity to play the game. I must confess, he surprised me. He even solved a few difficult levels all by himself.

This game is a sure-fire way to boost the brainpower of your kid and introduce them to the concept of electricity. It has 60 challenge levels ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert.  

By the time our hour ended, he was excited to have discovered these games and promised the store staff that he would bring his friend with him next time.

I was curious as to how the concept of such a store came to be while the logical thing would have been to go for a shop with the latest popular kids’ brands. The owner Gautam Gupta shared his own experience how while doing his masters he started using Lego for coding. This was a new concept for him and led him into thinking about introducing the concept to kids. Also, he wanted to bring back family playtime which is slowly vanishing from homes these days.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. The best thing is that the playdate is free for all. The staff doesn’t persuade you to buy by extolling the virtues of their product. The main aim is to introduce the concept of playtime and educational toys to families. They stick to their tagline: Full of toys is where children play to learn and parents learn to play.

If you wish to connect with Full of Toys, check their Facebook Page and Twitter.   

Check this video to know more about the playdate at Full of Toys.

Declaration: This is a sponsored post. But the review of the toys, the store, and the experience are unbiased and true. 

The Creative Woman's Journal from Matrikas

“A good journal entry- like a good song, or sketch, or photograph- ought to break up the habitual and lift away the film that forms over the eye, the finger, the tongue, the heart.

 A good journal entry ought to be a love letter to the world.” 

~ Anthony Doerr

I love journaling. Be it the morning pages, creative journals, dream journals, bullet journals, or reading journals; my journals are close to my heart.

Hence, when I received the Creative Woman's Journal from Matrikas for review as part of the 'scribble your heart away' campaign, I was excited beyond words.

Reason? It is the prettiest journal I have ever owned.
Take a look at it yourself.

Isn't it gorgeous? The cover has a beautiful golden feather (or quill) with the word 'write' printed to the right side of the feather. Golden dots decorate the entire cover. I was impressed. A Golden quill that urges to write!

Specialities:

1) Adult Coloring Pages:
This beautiful journal has eight adult coloring pages that feature art inspired by nature. Butterflies, flowers, dragonflies and fruits are printed in these pages waiting for you to color them.

2) Blank Pages to doodle
In order to indulge your creativity further, there are blank pages where you are invited to doodle or draw or paint.

3) Personal memoranda page
This is where you can record your personal details and brand the journal as your own.

4) Places to visit page
A page has been allocated to create a list of places you wish to visit. 

5) Names and Address page
This page is dedicated to recording details about your important friends along with their address.

6) A paper pouch for keeping important papers with an elastic band for safe locking.

7) Sticker pages

Another wow element in the journal are the stickers that cater to your various lists and moods.My favorite one says,'Do it Now.'

8) Books to be read page.

Note down the list of books that you wish to read in this list.

9) Ruled pages

Scribble away your thoughts in the ruled pages that make it easy to write neatly.

10) An elastic band which acts as a pen holder.

Take a look at this video which takes you into the inside pages of the Creative Woman's Journal.

Do you wish to own this journal? Go to the Matrikas Website and order one for yourself.Trust me, it will be worth every penny.

Or if you are a blogger, hop onto their Facebook Fan page for participating in the 'Scribble your Heart Away' campaign-2 and get a chance to review the journal. There are prizes to be won too. Take a look!

Click to enlarge

Hurry, the last date to register is May 12th.

Disclaimer: I received the product for free from Matrikas. The review is unbiased and is my own opinion about the product.

Grammar and Writing Style Software for Writers

Today let me share my experience with three grammar and writing style software that I use. Out of the three, two are free.

Hemingway Editor:

Cost: 19.99$

 The Hemingway Editor app is named after Ernest Hemingway. Who doesn't like his simple yet deliberate writing? The app aims to assist the writers in creating similar tight and simple prose. 

The app helps you to cut the dead weight from your prose and write with clarity. It highlights adverbs, passive voice, dull or complex words.  It analyses the text and gives a readability grade. A grade 7 means that grade 7 students can understand it with ease.

 The lower the readability, the easier it is to read and understand.

 It doesn’t need internet and hence I can access it anywhere. There are options to format the text

 The option to publish to Wordpress or Medium is available in the current version of the app. I can export it to word or other editors too.  No more copying and pasting between the programs. There is also an option to email the text. 

After editing the text for this blog using the app, I was able to lower the grade of this post from 7 to 4. 

  

Grammarly:

Grammarly app claims that it can check 250 types of grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes. There are two versions of it. The free online version and the paid version. The premium paid version subscription costs about $29 per month. It comes with advanced options to write better than the free version.

The free version checks basic grammatical errors, spelling errors (according to whether you have selected the UK or US version of English) and possibly incorrect word usages.

I use the free online version to correct my online writing errors. It also enables me to check texts for grammatical errors when pasted into the Grammarly document. It is quite effective and easy. 

It can be incorporated into Chrome or Windows as required.

Microsoft Word:

Microsoft word combines the effectiveness of both the Hemingway app and Grammarly and is hence my favorite grammar and styling tool.

It gives a readability quotient, checks for grammatical errors, spellings, fragments, clichés, colloquialisms, and punctuation errors. In order to avail this, we have to set the grammar check options correctly. If you tweak it properly, it becomes the best grammar software available.

How to enable grammar check in Word (version 2010-2013)?

• Click on MS office icon to display the Word Options tab.
• Click on word options and then select proofing. Check the proofing options you require.
• Select the grammar and style option in the popup window.
• Click on settings and check the options you want to enable. Click okay to save.

Ms word version 2016 doesn’t have the grammar and style option anymore. So, ensure that you buy a lower version not older than 2010. The best version is MS Word 2013 according to my experience. 

During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is G

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Have you read the Letter A, B, C, D, E  F?

5 Kitchen Products I Love

Image Source

In my home, the kitchen is where only I can rule. I spend hours daily, cooking and cleaning for the family.

There are many products appliances that I really love in my kitchen. If asked to choose among them, I would select the following without much ado.

Prestige Grill-Toaster:

I purchased this using the winning coupons from the Game of blogs conducted by Blogadda. It is my savior during many hectic evenings where my fussy eight-year-old demands something yummy. A few slices of vegetables, cheese, and bread gets grilled and toasted to perfection within minutes. It vanishes from the plate within seconds. It is very compact and user-friendly.

LG Oven:

I am a reluctant baker. But I love making cakes on special occasions. The rich chocolate cake I make is a hit among my relatives and friends. I love it when the aroma of the cake wafts through the house. I use it also to cook one pot meals during emergencies. I have been using it since the last six years with zero complaints. 

 

Borosil Mixing bowls:

These lovely bowls come handy when making cakes, biriyani or other special dishes. Whenever I take these out, my family immediately guesses that some special item is going to be on the menu. Good to mix cake batter, marinating and also serving.



Pigeon Induction Cooktop:

This is another one of my saviors. All my cookers are induction type and hence my cooking gets over quickly. An LPG gas cylinder lasts over six months for me as I use it only to make tadkas, deep frying, dosas or other slow cooking items. Its timer helps me set the time to cook boiled eggs, veggies, noodles and other special items that have specific time requirements. It doesn't use too much electricity and increase our electricity bills. I use this to boil water for bathing. We don't use geyser anymore.


 

La Opala dinner set:

This is something which brings in nostalgia. When asked to select a dinner set, I had gone for La Opala as this reminds me of home. I even searched for the exact design that we have at home. Was not successful, though. My husband jokes that even rasam-rice tastes yummier when served on these white pristine plates.