Tag Archives: activities

Colmar Tropicale + Creative Painting Kits for Kids and Kids-at-Heart!

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Spending time with my son and doing creative stuff is one of the highlights of my everyday life. Whether we are building cars with his lego-like toy, writing numbers, coloring or simply doodling cars on paper, it’s a joy and blessing to be able to spend quality time with him despite being a busy working mom. 

A few weeks ago, my husband brought us to Colmar Tropicale in Bukit Tinggi. It’s a French-themed village and resort. Once you see the facade of the village, you’ll immediately feel like you’re in a different country, free from the hustle and bustle of KL life. 

Colmar Tropicale: French-themed village and resort, Bukit Tinggi


White swans at Colmar Tropicale

Within this beautiful place, my son and I stumbled upon a small shop where you can choose clay figures and paint it. There are several guests inside, and both young and old were captivated by what they saw. 

Creative Painting Shop inside Colmar Tropicale
Do you know who’s this? 🙂
Different samples of painted clay figures


The shop was very easy to spot and remember. In front of it were these beautifully-painted horses and carriage.



My son painted a small car inside the shop. It’s reasonably priced at RM11.90 and my son painted it then and there. Paints and gloss are free, brushes and water also provided. The staff were very friendly and helpful. 



My son wanted another one so I asked him to choose a painting kit that we can bring back to the hotel at Genting. He chose another car, of course. It’s bigger than the first car and came together with the paint set at RM18. 

Creative Painting Kit at RM18

Kit contains the clay figure, 7 colors + 1 gloss, paint brush, and paint palette

So we painted the clay car in the hotel. Aden really enjoyed the experience, seriously did his best to paint it nicely. He started with the wheels then the body. I painted a bit and tried to make it look less messy. 

Aden painting his clay car in blue
I used the hotel’s hair dryer and dried the car’s paint then applied the gloss. It was also a fun experience for me (so this means I’m a kid-at-heart?!). I never realized that I missed painting. And most of all, I was so happy to find that this creative activity is interesting and fun for my son. 

Voila! The finished clay car in blue!



For more information about Colmar Tropicale, visit http://www.colmartropicale.com.my/



Despicable Me’s Minions Invade Pavilion KL

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Hooray for school holidays! Kids all over Malaysia are celebrating, I’m sure. And for us, employees, this is also something to look forward to as there will be less traffic jam in the morning.
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur has once again delighted children (and children-at-heart like me) with their HOORAY HOORAY IT’S MINIONS COOL HOLIDAY. Despicable Me’s popular minions have invaded Pavilion’s concourse area with eye-popping display and colors.
The set-up is located at Pavilion’s famous concourse, host to numerous exciting and stylish events and launches. Despicable Me 2 minion adult-size and kid-size posters span across the place.
Fans can catch a sneak preview of the upcoming movie in this 2-TV display where Despicable Me 2 snippets are continuously played.
Guests of all ages can also enjoy different activities with all the booths across the concourse area. There are games where you can win toys and other goodies. Grab a lick or two of Italian ice cream from Gelatomio, take a joy ride on a kiddie ride or pick free Despicable Me balloons…
Take home plush toys as prizes from these booth games
Gelatomio serves delicious ice cream (yum!)
Kiddie joy ride
Grab FREE balloons from this booth
And you can buy Despicable Me 2 merchandise! Stuart, Dave, Gru, Gru’s fart blaster… 
The wonderful display was launched last 22nd May and will continue delighting Pavilion’s guests until 4th June.
Bababa—babanana!

Great Exercise Books for Toddlers

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Just this January, I entered into another exciting phase of ‘mummy-hood’…sending my child to his first school. I actually had some nervousness about this phase as I have heard of challenges on leaving a child for the first time in a new place where he doesn’t know anyone. And to leave him there even for a few hours was still heart-breaking for me.  

The first day was probably the toughest. I even took leave from work just to be ready and on-call at any time of the day, if in case something didn’t go well. Waking up early at around 7:30am was still new to Aden so, as expected, he had some tantrums. Everything after then was alright. We drove to school, I walked him into school up to his classroom. Until it was time for me to leave, the chaos started. 

He cried and cried. It was breaking my heart but I had to run away quickly and hide from him. The teacher and her assistant were doing their best to calm him down. He kept running out of the room. They closed the door and from outside, I can hear someone kicking the door. I am sure that was him, showing his temper while crying away. I waited for a few minutes, I knew he was still crying but I had to tear myself away and be strong. 

This continued for a few more days. Having some improvements each time until he got used to it after 2 weeks. It has been 4 months now. He still has some tantrums occasionally which we have learned how to pacify. 

The sad thing was he has been sick on and off since January. I sometimes don’t understand anymore why he catches cough and colds so frequently. When he does, it always comes with regular vomiting and sometimes fever. This is why he was often absent from classes since he started. And he was getting left behind with the lessons. So the teacher advised to teach him at home as well. 

Everyday since April, I have been teaching him at home. At first, I just started with writing on blank paper, teaching him about numbers and counting. But then it became boring for him so I bought several books. So far, his favorite book was this one:

RM9.90 at MPH




For parents with kids who just started school, it might be great to have this type of book at home. The pages are colorful but there are also exercises where your child can do coloring. Aden loved the sticker exercises. I think the book was created intelligently to make a child more interested and not easily bored. 

It also helps to have a few different books at home. I have a book for numbers, for letters, for both, for phonics and a plain drawing book. Kids have very short attention span so when he’s getting bored with one, I switch to another book, maybe from numbers to letters. I observed that having choices make him more interested and eager to explore. 



I’ve made it a habit to spend at least 15 minutes with him everyday to study. When his mood is good, we can even go for 30 minutes. No matter how tired I am, I must always spend this time with him. Except, of course, when he’s the one who’s too tired and sleepy. 

RM8.00 at a bookshop in Bangsar Shopping Centre


This K1 Maths workbook is good to focus learning on numbers. All the pages can be colored and it has several exercises to review each set of numbers. Aden enjoys coloring and I normally color with him. He finds it more fun when we color together.

RM6.50 at MPH


I also have a book to focus on learning the alphabet. This book has 1 sheet for each later, upper case and lower case. There are outlined letters for your kid to practice, a picture for each letter that begins with the letter.


RM6.90 at MPH


This last book is still a bit advanced for him, though. Aden has to learn the alphabets and numbers more before he can start with this. 

I’m enjoying this phase of Aden’s childhood. I know that in the next few years, he’ll be independent soon and won’t be needing me to study with him. So for parents who have a child, I encourage you to spend study time daily with him or her. It gives you a very productive bonding time and would encourage your kids to study more.  


(Image from web)