August 4, 2014

Playful: Fun Projects to Make With + For Kids

Dominique Book Review, Parenting and Kids Art and crafts

Playful- Book Cover

Playful: Fun Projects to Make With + For Kids by Merrilee Liddiard is certainly a book to look out for. For sale in September 2014 it is a book of 26 art projects which children and parents can embark on together.

There are five main sections in the book.

– Playful Paper Crafts

– Playful Dress Up

– Playful Toys

-Playful Re-purposing

– Playful Art

Each project is based on a fun activity which parents and kids can participate together to make the craft. There are crafts of different difficulty levels which will appeal to kids age 4-12 yrs old.

Each craft has step by step examples with illustrations to give the absolute beginner confidence that it is possible to be created.

My thoughts

I enjoyed reading Liddiard’s book and looking at how she creatively recycles different materials to make fun and purposeful crafts. There are templates in the book which one can easily photocopy and enlarge to the needed size to create the masks and other costumes which the child may be interested in.

I found the list of the sources of where to get the materials for all the crafts listed at the back of the book handy as many craft virgins like me do not know where to get the resources to create the crafts.

It would be certainly fun and a great bonding activity to do some of the crafts with the kids and I do intend to do the masks and fingerprint with the kids during the upcoming school holidays.

I certainly recommend this book if you are looking for fun activities to do with your kids at home.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own. This post has a compensation level of 3. Please visit Dominique’s Disclosure page for more information.

July 17, 2014

PhotoReading by Paul R. Scheele

Dominique Book Review, Parenting and Kids, Thoughts PhotoReading

PhotoReading by Paul Scheele

Photoreading by Paul R Scheele was a real eye opener on how one is able to break away from the norm and engage their subconscious in the learning process.

Scheele book claims that upon learning the PhotoReading Whole Mind System one will be able to read with greater speed, comprehension, and enjoyment as they absorb complete books in minutes.

Sounds too good to be true right? Is that really possible?

I too had these questions running through my mind before I embarked on reading the book. What I have learned upon reading the book and attending the PhotoReading Workshop changed my opinion 180 degrees.

Before I share my thoughts on the system and the book here is a breakdown of the system for you to understand.

There are basically five steps which one needs to follow in this system.

Prepare
Preview
PhotoRead
Postview
Activate

In each step there are certain steps to take note which gets you in the right state of mind to carry out the activities.

Prepare

At this step you would need to prepare yourself physically and mentally to start to read. There is a need to set your purpose to why you are reading the book and enter the ideal state for reading.

Preview

You look over the book and appraise the value for your purpose. You determine to go or not go further in reading the book.

PhotoRead

You prepare yourself physically and mentally through a series of relaxation technique to get your brainwaves down to the Alpha state. Affirmation of concentration , impact and purpose are mentioned before entering the PhotoFocus state. During PhotoFocus pages of the books are flipped as one unconsciously absorbs the information presented in the book while maintaining a steady state.

Upon completing the book you would close the process with a sense of mastery by acknowledging your feelings using ARC.

Postview

In this step one surveys the material and pick our trigger words which are used to formulate questions.

Activate

In this last step information that has been hidden in our subconscious is finally “called out” for us to process.

There are six steps to activating which are basically the following

– Let it incubate

– Review questions

-Super read and dip

– Skittering

– Create a mind map

– Rapid read.

Each technique has is own benefits and you use them to get the answers to the questions that we have drafted out during the Postview.

My thoughts

I found learning this technique has been really useful for me. I feel more focused and get less distracted each time I settle down to read something. I also find that I can read faster and cut down the time I need to digest various different materials.

I’ll certainly continue to PhotoRead and will be teaching part of the technique to the kids so that it can help improve their memory and retention of information.

Disclaimer: I got a copy of the book when I attended the PhotoReading Workshop here in Singapore in July 2014. All opinions are 100% my own.

This post has a compensation level of 3. Please visit Dominique’s Disclosure page for more information.