Educational Toys from Germany: Luk (MiniLuk and BambinoLuk)

MiniLuk is a powerful IQ game for the children to develop their concentration and thinking skills. This toy originates from Germany and has good reputation with many years of history. Germans are well known for their intelligence so we have high confidence in this game. It has won many awards in the US and is being promoted worldwide.

MiniLuk learning system consists of a controller with 12 pieces of tiles and a set of books. The tiles are numbered from 1 to 12, and at the back of each tile is a simple unique pattern. Each page of the book contains 12 questions and 12 possible answers. The children will place the transparent part of the controller on the answer page and place the tiles on the answer following the number of the questions. After all tiles are placed at the respective answer, close the controller and flip it over. The pattern shown can be checked against the pattern in the book to confirm that all questions have been answered correctly. (You can view the demo here.) It is indeed an intelligent invention.

In addition, the power of this game is the unlimited potential expansion of the system with books of different contents at different levels that can be added on. Thus, depending on the child's ability, the level of difficulty can be adjusted by choosing the right book. Some examples of the book contents include:

• Visual recognition - finding the same picture. It can be very simple pictures for young children or pictures with very complicated patterns that look very similar to each other for advanced level.
• Visual recognition - matching slightly different pictures. For example, matching colors or shapes, matching different clothing with the same cloth pattern, matching shadows, matching rotated or mirror images, matching only part of the picture, matching the picture from a different view (front/back/top/side view).
  
• Logic - association of things from a similar category. For example, hammer with nail, pen with paper and teapot with cup.
  
• Logic - finding the missing parts. For example, bicycle without pedals, house without windows, and door without a knob.
  
• Logic - sequence of events. What will happen next? Find the picture.
  
• Mathematics - matching numbers, finding answers for equations.
  
• Language - grammar, phonics, vocab, spelling, etc.
  

As you can see, there is no limit to the kind of questions that can be incorporated into this system.

A "junior" version of MiniLuk is BambinoLuk which you can also find in the same website. It is a simplified Luk for younger children (2-4 years old), with larger tiles, 6 questions instead of 12, and it uses pictures (house, car, heart, flower, duck, apple) instead of numbers so that young children can recognize them at ease. The picture below is our collection of the games.


We first saw MiniLuk in Penang in 2006. Although very impressed, we did not buy it because of the price - it comes in a set of controller with 12 books for the price of RM600+! It is a big sum to invest and a risk to take if our child will like it and make full use of it. Very fortunately, not long after that my husband had a chance to visit Germany and he visited the local stores to check out this game. It is a popular game and the books are sold individually. He carefully chose 6 books with the controller for around RM200.

Our son was very interested and completed all the exercises. We wanted to buy more but could not find a good source. We found a cheap version of the system with inferior quality sold in night markets, but later realized that the contents are not well organized. We believe some people just want to make money copying the game and simply put in any contents without careful thought on how it can help the child.

Later we found in Singapore a shop in United Square, Intelligence Insight, the official dealer of Luk in this region. There are samples for the children to try out before buying for both MiniLuk and BambinoLuk. A set of 5-6 books are sold at around SGD100 each, and the controller is around SGD30. It may be cheaper in Germany or US if you have the way to send them back, but the dealers cannot ship the product out of the country. Recently one company in Penang, G-minimall offers this product. We bought some from each of the above.

Both my kids have benefited from this product. They learn to focus, look at the details, recognize and reason. Playing the game can help young children to strengthen their fine motor skills. Older children can play on their own independently. I highly recommend Luk for young children. It is value for money!

Jigsaw Puzzles from Young

I enjoy playing jigsaw puzzles. So do my children, especially my eldest son who started to show great interest from young. Playing jigsaw puzzles can help to develop hand-eyes coordination skills for young children and train their concentration skills. This will prevent them from being too active and running around all the time. :)

When my son was 18 months old, we found the following wooden jigsaw puzzles in the US. They look interesting so we bought them for him. You can probably get these in major stores (WalMart, Toys'R'Us, Jusco). One famous brand of wooden puzzles I know of is Melissa & Doug.


It turned out to be a great toy and trains him the basics of playing jigsaw puzzles. Although the puzzle may look very easy to the adults, in the beginning it was very tough for him. First, he learnt to hold the pieces using the red "handle" / "knob" attached to each piece. Then, he must stabilize the piece, rotate it as needed to fit the piece into the "hole" - and of course he needed to recognize which "hole" the piece should go to. Every piece put in was a great effort and we always cheered and praised him whenever he succeeded, encouraged him when he was almost there. What I realized from this activity is that, in order to train your child to have patience, first, you must have the patience to train him/her. It requires a lot of patience from the parents to sit down with the child and guide him/her to solve the puzzle. Adults tend to want to help the children when we see that they are unable to do it, but it's important to let them try out and experience the failure. Of course, at times, we may need to guide them, especially in the beginning, perhaps by holding their hands to put in the pieces. Children (in fact, even adults) love to be praised. So keep giving them positive words to encourage them.

I cannot remember exactly how long it took him to master the skills to complete the puzzle, probably after a few months, but I remember how joyful and proud we felt when he mastered the skills. And he felt a great sense of accomplishment.

The next step is completing the "cardboard" jigsaw puzzles, which is the same material as the common jigsaw puzzles that we play with. Start with puzzles of big pieces with "frame", like below, which we also bought from the US. Increase the number of pieces from 4 pieces to 6 pieces, 10, 25, and decrease the size of the pieces. Eventually, as the child "graduates" from these "junior puzzles", s/he will be able to play with the conventional jigsaw puzzles.



It is very important to keep the interest of the child. After some time and some trials, a child may lose interest as it is beyond his/her capability to solve the puzzle. If you fail to keep the interest by praising, encouraging, guiding and demonstrating, just put the puzzle aside and do not force the child to continue. I remember my girl had very little patience when I first introduced her to the first wooden puzzles. I tried again after a few weeks but she gave up after a short while. This was repeated for a few times. It took her longer than her elder brother, but eventually she was also able to solve the puzzle.

Another tip to attract the children is to use their favorite characters like Thomas the Tank Engine, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. It worked with both my children. Something special like a puzzle that glows in the dark can also attract them. :)


Below shows another variation which I find very interesting. The 2 bears each consists of 3 pieces - head, upper body and lower body which can be changed. My girl enjoyed changing the clothes for the bears and she also learnt to match the top and bottom clothing by color and pattern.


Quite a number of people commented that my children are ahead of their peers in solving jigaw puzzles. This is due to exposure and practice. I believe that most other children, given the same opportunity, would be able to achieve the same thing as well. Practice makes perfect!

My Toddler's Crying Problem

My 2-year-old little girl had been a little difficult to handle lately. She cried easily, day and night. It was disturbing especially during midnight, whereby she just burst into loud cries shouting "papa" or "mama" once she realized that neither of us were sleeping beside her, and it was difficult to calm her down and put her back into sleep without one of us being fully awake. Certainly, this had disturbed our sleep. Our tiredness due to lack of sleep had led to some other problems like lower tolerance level of her wrong actions - when she did something wrong and we punished her she started crying again... The cycle repeated and we could not break it...

I have been wondering if this can be due to the fact that I have recently returned to work after being a homemaker for 1 year plus. At first we did not think it was a big change to her because she has been attending a full day childcare for 9 months and all along she has been doing well. However, after the 3-day long weekend (with a public holiday), I noticed that she has been behaving well and I realized that what she wanted was more attention from the parents! She probably has felt the changes after I started working. Naturally, I feel tired at night after returning from work and have less energy and time to spend with her. Furthermore, I still need to do a little housework, and give some attention to the elder brother who is entering primary school next year, monitoring his progress in school related work. Sometimes I also need a break to watch TV / surf Internet, which doesn't make her feel very happy. Another big change for her is probably that I no longer take her to school every morning. Usually I leave home before she even got up. Although she is very attached to the father, she probably needs me around as well.

My girl had actually been very well behaved since birth, especially compared to the brother, who was a very difficult infant. (Nevertheless he has turned out to be one of the best behaved kids among his friends and makes us really proud of him.) She made little noises when she was hungry, seldom gave problems at night, slept early at night and slept through the nights from an early age. Sometimes when she woke up at 7am, she did not even cry to wake us up; she just stayed quiet by herself unless she was very hungry. As she grew into a toddler, her words always made us laugh, and she knows what to say at the right timing to melt our heart. :) So there must be a reason for her to cry - which I thought could be feeling insecure. Her cries during midnight may be due to nightmares as we punish or spank her during the day. (Well, some older people believe that this phenomena is caused by the disturb of some ghosts/spirits, but I prefer to look at it logically.)

Now the challenge is how I can keep up her good behavior during weekdays. I may need to boost my physical stamina by exercising more and taking supplements, or get someone to help with housework so that I can give her more attention at nights. Although sometimes I feel so sleepy and can't attend to her, I believe that my love to her will give me power to stay stronger... and help her go through this stage of hurdle. Pray for us!

Good TV/DVD Programs for Young Children

Nowadays, TV has become part of our live and there is hardly any families without this black box at home. There is a countless number of TV programs available for children and it's good to be careful and selective on the shows. Good shows can help to supplement our teaching and reinforce the good values. Avoiding long hours of watching TV is also necessary to prevent the strain and deterioration of the eyesight. I typically set the limit to about 30 minutes as I hope that my children (unlike me) will not need glasses, and definitely, not from a young age!

Some programs my children love to watch are:

• Barney - a purple dinosaur from imagination who is a playmate cum teacher. The show is very musical and instills good values like good manners, cleanliness and loving each other. It is typically more popular among girls and children can start watching from age 1. My girl loves Barney a lot! Highly recommended.


• Elmo from the Sesame Streets is a little red puppet who talks in a funny way. Together with other characters like Ernie and Cookie Monster, it is able to attract little children from age 1. Amazingly, before you realize, your kids will have already mastered the ABCs and 123s!


• Thomas and Friends - Thomas the tank engine is one of the most popular characters among boys! Adults may find the TV program quite monotonous but somehow the kids enjoy it. Besides, the standard of English used is quite high especially in terms of vocabulary. My boy is a big fan of Thomas (and my girl as well!). He owns quite a number of Thomas goods including the TOMY series of train playset, books and jigsaw puzzles.


• Bob the Builder exposes the children to the world of constructions (building/fixing houses and roads). His crew members include Scoop the digger, Dizzy the cement mixer, Lofty the crane, Roley the steam roller and many others. My kids start enjoying this show from about age 2.


• Little Einstein is a very good program that my son enjoys watching from about age 4. The 4 characters travel on a rocket that brings the kids to places around the world to accomplish a mission. The children learn about famous spots, cities and countries around the world, musical instruments, famous artists/composers and their works, and basic skills of reading music scores. Highly recommended.


• Dora the Explorer - a bilingual (English and Spanish) adventurous girl who solves problem together with the children along her journey. It often touches on protecting wild animals.

There are other types of programs which is more educational to stimulate the infants' brains or teach the children how to read etc., that I will share in another article in the future.

Just a side note, as my personal preference, I refrain my kids from watching programs that show violence like fighting and shooting (for example, Ben 10 and Power Rangers). I also dislike characters like Barbie doll that introduces materialism to the kids.

When to Enter Preschools?

It is never easy for parents to decide when is a good time for a child to attend preschools or childcare centers (i.e, when there is a choice :)). Like many things in this world, there are pros and cons, give and take.

I personally think that it's best to send the kids to a childcare center between the age of 2-3, as I did with both my children. In fact, I considered sending my son to an infant care center from about 3 months old when I started working! (which is indeed a very rare practice in Penang.) My reasoning is as follows:

• A childcare center is regulated, it has a system that the caregivers need to follow. The staffs in a childcare center are also usually formally trained. A private baby sitter who usually learns from her own experience has all the freedom to do anything without control from anyone. Thus I think the risk is higher for the latter, unless it's someone you know very well and someone you can really trust.
• Although in a childcare center the caregiver usually takes care of more than one infant (usually between 2 to 4 infants), she is 100% focus on her job. A private baby sitter on the other hand is usually a homemaker as well for her family and she often needs to multitask between babysitting and housework, so her attention is not 100% on the infant. Besides, there are some private baby sitters who take care of more than 1 child at home.
• There are usually more than 1 caregiver in the childcare center, or a backup system, so when the caregiver is not around someone else can still help. This does not apply for the private baby sitter. When she's sick or has some personal reason to take leave, there is no other people to back her up except the parents.
• Most childcare centers have programs to stimulate the infants' learning thru visual (flash cards), audio (talk to them, sing), sensor (touch) etc. They have a daily schedule for the infants. For baby sitter who is also a homemaker who multitasks, this is harder (but not impossible) to implement. Sometimes she even has to bring the kids out to run errands - many parents don't like this especially when their kids are still infants.
• In general, I find that childcare centers are more supportive to breastfeeding practice as opposed to a conventional private baby sitter. This is probably because preparing formula milk is more convenient and less time consuming compared to storing and warming up breast milk. Some private baby sitters also have the mentality that breast milk is not sufficient to fill the baby's stomach, this can be quite a barrier to successful exclusive breastfeeding. Some of them also think that they know everything from their experience and are not open to suggestions or new practice.

I think it is better to keep a child before age 2 at home to develop a strong immune system and avoid too much contact with other children as they may get sick easily. However as they grow older, it's good to get the children to start socializing with other non-family members. Compared to the past generation, children nowadays have little contact with people other than the family because everyone is so busy. So by sending them to a childcare, they get to socialize with other children and adults. Besides, the centers usually hold a lot of interesting activities that children enjoy doing together, like singing, playing with toys, sand, water, doh, etc. It is hard to enjoy similar activities at home with only 1 or 2 children, and it isn't worth the effort to prepare or clear the mess for those activities. As for toys, it is imposible, impractical and unaffordable for a family to own many toys. But by sending your kids to childcare centers (which can afford many different types of toys), your kids get the chance to play many varieties of toys. It is good to expose the kids to many different things as they can learn more.

Some fear that the kids will learn the bad habits from the other children in a childcare center. I think this problem may happen at any stage when a person starts socializing with others. As a parent, we need to teach our children to judge good and bad, and this has to be done sooner or later. (One potential problem from homeschooling is whether the child will have the necessary skills to socialize as s/he has less interaction with others.) Sometimes, it is easier to send them at a younger age as they can adapt easily. Of course, every child is unique - some may be ready but some may be not, the same holds true for the parents. Not all parents will be ready and willing to "let go" of their children to preschools at the age of 2-3.

By sending both my children to childcare centers from an early age, I was able to have my own time, own space and to work. I think that even for a full time homemaker who takes care of her own children, it is important to get some time of her own, away from the kids to get refreshed and recharged. Of course every individual is different. Some "supermothers" may be very efficient and may not need her own space, but I still think why not send the child to a childcare center, even for just a few hours per week, to get all the benefits?