During the recent Chinese New Year Holidays we decided to go to the Chinese Restaurant at Toa Payoh for Dim Sum breakfast. It was Chinese New Year Eve and we expected the restaurant to be full as it was a weekend. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the restaurant was not that crowded and we didn’t even need to wait for a table.
Mini Egg Tarts
The egg tart really tasted divine. Doggie boy finished up the whole plate of four egg tarts by himself. We had to order double servings just to ensure that everyone could have a bite of the egg tart.
Audio books are something which are not very common to my kids. They haven’t really been exposed to these types of books and it was a great time to introduce them to such books. Tales4all.com has a series of 5 stories on the Treebobs by Declan Harney.
Treebobs Rescue Rotten Rena
1. The Treebobs and the Dizzy Broomstick.
2. The Treebobs Rescue Rotten Rena.
3. The Treebobs and the Runaway Cauldron.
4. The Treebobs and the Giant Mole.
5. The Treebobs Save Christmas.
Each story is about 15-16 minutes long and talks about the adventures that the Treebobs(forest elves) have with their friends the fairies and the resident evil witch Rotten Rena.
My thoughts
The boys and I found the stories very entertaining and captivating. The narrator and the audio cast did an excellent job in using their voices to portray the different characters and their actions in the stories.
We started listening to the story of The Treebobs and the Dizzy Broomstick first. The story was about how Rotten Rena and her fellow witch set up a broomstick shop in the forest and caused lots of chaos to it’s inhabitants. The Treebobs with the help of their fairy friends hatched up a plan to put Rotten Rina out of business and reclaim their peaceful home.
My 6yr old didn’t really understand the story the first time we listened to it but he enjoyed listening to all the action that was happening in the story with the whizzing of the broomsticks and the cackling of the witches. The 8yr old could understand the whole story and narrate a summary of what he listened to back to me.
The Treebobs and the Runaway Cauldron
The boys have listened to the stories a few times and can relate back to me their favourite parts of each stories. They are hoping that there will be more Treebobs stories launched this year which they be able to tune in to.
I personally found the stories to be a great way for the kids to brush up on their listening skills. It is a great way of them to build up their creative juices by getting them to picture in their mind what is happening while the story is being told. By not having any pictures attached to the story they are free to create their own connections and develop their own “pictures” in their mind.
This helps to strengthen their cognitive thinking skills and gives them another platform to release their creativity. It has been shown in certain studies that kids retain information longer if they are able to make their own associations and links between an object and their perception of the object. It leaves a deeper impression in their mind when they themselves make their own association of what has happened in the story instead of being shown in pictorial.
We will certainly be looking at more audio books after being introduced to these fantastic ones on the Treebobs.
If you are interested in hearing samples of the books you can catch them at their website Tales4all.com
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary download of the Treebobs series audios for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own.
