Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Educational iPhone or iPad App reviews (Highly Recommended)

Panda Daddy found a few educational iPhone and iPad apps that work quite well with the little pandas, there are some of the reviews for them.

Cheeky Panda is 2.5 years old now, here's her favorites apps:

Monkey Preschool Lunch Box (monkeypreschool.com)
Cost: $0.99 (Highly Recommended)

What the app do: It teaches the children shapes, colors, numbers, alphabets, matching, counting, problem solving and motors skill through little game tasks.

Why it works: Cheeky Panda has been playing with the game for 2 months. From the very first time, the colorful app with cute little monkey capture her attention right away. She tried to play with it all by herself since the beginning. With successful and fail attempts, she learned the shapes, colors, numbers and matching (which I tried so hard to teach her but failed) very well. Somehow she just figured out all these complicated concepts through the game herself without me explaining much. She can match and find the different object from a group easily now. At the same time, her motors skill and problem solving skills are clearly improved since she need to use her little fingers to drag and place some puzzle pieces to form some fruits' shape. Therefore, she is learning different kind of fruits also.



Monkey Math School Sunshine (http://monkeymathschool.com)
Cost: $0.99 (Highly Recommend)


What the app do: It teaches numbers, pattern, counting, concept of more or less and simple calculus (sum and minus)

Why it works: It shows the pattern along with narration, which have a blank in between, for the kids to pick 1 out of 3 objects to fill it. I found out the narration of the pattern actually help a lot for her to understand what is going on.

For counting and numbers, she has to connect the numbers dots from 1 -14 (more or less numbers) accordingly, so the turtle can cross the sea. She can count from 1 - 14 now, thanks to the turtle count along every dot he through.

There are four groups of sea creatures or objects to choose from, she has to pick the one with the most or the least.




Natural method that help heal my baby's eczema

My baby was suffered from eczema for 10 months since she was 3 months old. Thanks God, she is free from these itchy red bumps now. I have been trying all kinds of remedies, lotions, soaps and stuff that doctor, family and friends suggested. Nothing work and those cream and soap the doctor suggested were so expensive.

The brand my Pediatrician suggested was Cetaphil. I bought both the moisturizer and a bar of soap, they cost me $20. If they worked or I could feel and see the different, I wouldn't complain. I knew so many people are using these brand for the same reason, maybe it worked for them but not my kid.

I discovered a much cheaper alternative which is not a moisturizing soap, but known as purity and mildness - Ivory Soap. It was on sale at $1 for 3 bars in the store and I got a few $0.50 coupons. That made it $0.50 for 3 bars, a very good deal compared to my Dove soap, so I decided to give it a try. My husband then told me Ivory soap actually known as its purity, their commercial always have a baby in it (I never saw a commercial of the brand, didn't know about it at all). He suggested we can tried it on Cheeky Panda, the very sensitive him tried it and he was fine, so I gave her a try. I can feel her skin was not as moisturized compared after a bath using the $4/bar Cetaphil Soap. However, it definitely did not irritate my baby's skin and clean her perfectly.

And there was another discover for cheaper moisturizer instead of Cetaphil which works for Cheeky Panda. The well-known Johnson & Johnson's brand have a new product called Head-to-Toe Baby Lotion which is fragrance free. Honestly, I like it much more not only because of the price different, I actually see improvement of my baby dry skin after using it. It absorbs as quick as Cetaphil moisturizer and I can  apply it repeatedly if I wanted to. And it didn't not clog the pores like some other brands do.

Thanks God I found these products and they works so well with her. And I found one last product that works magic and it is Avene thermal water. This brand is famous for its sensitive skin products. All I do was spray this water on wherever she had eczema, mostly on face and neck. It soothed her itches right away as you can tell by her smile. I used it myself to soothe the itches from bugs bite and general irritation. I said it works like magic because I saw the red bumps faded to light pink only after a few sprays within 15 minutes (I usually spray immediately after the prior spray was dried). And I repeated it every hour or two. About half a day later, I saw her face and neck are regular skin color again although the bumps are still there. I continuously used it for a couple weeks, the bumps were finally gone and she has a perfect smooth little face again. Hope this will last and she don't need to suffer again. Wish this can help those loving parents out there seeking the method that works for their children. Good luck everyone.