Toy Show with Chinese Lanterns

Discover toys and games good for your family in 2014 Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival. Learn how to enjoy frugality, fun and healthiness all-in-one.

The lantern carnival at Victoria Park adopts assorted themes. The creativity and freshness attract many locals and tourists to pay a visit and take photos. I would like to share with you 11 photos selected from my shoot.

Among all, I found the toy and game theme the most appealing. Have you ever played this flying chess? It is a game for one to four players, suitable for almost any age. Each game won’t take too much time. Have the family sit together, play, chat, laugh and relax.

If you want to move your limbs and have fun, why not try kicking shuttlecock?

Either in single-player mode or in multi-players mode, you can have different kinds of competition, namely who hits lose first, the maximum hit per game. Play for fun and boost your health concurrently. The game is quick to start and end. It is nearly to no cost except for the purchase of a shuttlecock.

If you own none of the above playthings, get a chalk to draw the diagram onto the ground as my photo shown. Play hopscotch by turns. This game will keep the players jumping for fun and may help kids grow taller if they play it often enough. Normally, players jump with one leg and pick things up. You can always add new rules to increase the challenging degree. 

In the hot summer, play with a water gun will be highly desirable. Set the victims running wild and yelling with delight and laughter. The space gun style looks cool, isn’t it? Be a hero and save everyone from the heat wave with giggles. You can do it!

Now, here comes the mystery. Anyone knows what it is? Maybe it’s for the infant and so I can’t remember it. Correct me if not.

Robot and fighter plane are always boy’s favorites.

Want to offer something for girls? Stuffed bear is a safe choice. Many ladies got one in their childhood. Did you keep one and give it a lovely name, maybe costume as well?

Who wants to be a prince? Let the swinging horse give you a ride to the wonderland. It never tires out and is definitely reliable to swing you throughout the happy moment.

If owing a horse is not enough, go for a train then. Pulling the colorful train behind is a common way to make merry in one’s childhood. Run and the train will go anywhere you go.

Many people enjoy playing LEGO and could come up with marvelous achievements. But before that, you may play with wooden blocks that are larger, simpler and yet more terrific. If you don’t know why it’s terrific, build a castle and imagine yourself as a prince or princess and your pet as the monster that initiates an attack. Defend your castle and rebuild it anytime, any design you like.

Fishing toy was popular in the past and they were two types: one was made of plastics similar to what you have seen in my photo. Another one was made of papers and magnets. The plastic version may be renewed to look more exquisite now.

Children need to play for a healthy growth both in body and mind. Play with your kids to build up a stronger bond with them and also let yourself recapture the merry moment in your childhood. If you missed the fun in the past, don’t let your kids have the same fate. You can do more for them and reward yourself with new fun. Put aside the daily worries and have a carefree period. You deserve it!

Play hard and be happy always. May the lantern light send my best wishes to you wherever you are!

Author’s note:

Halloween is coming. Have fun with your family with something special, something you have never done before and have a memorable fun moment. If you have no idea what you can do, read the following article for help.

Special Fun for Halloween

The World in Colors

Mid-Autumn Thematic Lantern Display 2014 in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong is very inspiring. How wonderful it will be if lanterns replace all weapons…

This year the theme is “The World in Colors”. There are many cute lantern dolls wearing various cultural garments, each holding a lantern to brighten up the world. Owing to the joint efforts of these lovely representatives all over the world, the night becomes more charming with such a peaceful and harmonious view. Guess the Moon Lady is working hard with the legendary rabbit to clean her place so that the beauty at the ground won’t outshine the full moon.

The display is from 2014-8-28 (Thu) to 2014-10-5 (Sun). Lighting time is from 6:30pm to 11:00pm. Come to spot your pal and take photos with these world peacemakers if possible.

For those who will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival (2014-9-8) somewhere else, let my 16 photos feast your eyes.

  

May the light dispel darkness, fears, anger, hate and wickedness, end all wars and spread the peace to every corner of the world. Enjoy the full moon, moon cake (if available at your side) and be happy always.

Author’s note:

Tsim Sha Tsui is not the only place having a Lantern Carnival. If you are in Hong Kong during the Mid-Autumn Festival, don’t forget to visit Victoria Park as well. I haven’t paid a visit yet but I can share with you the photos taken last year. Let’s see if the images make your mouth water or you feel hungry all of a sudden after going through the “delicious” sight.

2013 Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival

Protection from Sunburn

Many people enjoy the summer fun and stay outdoors long. Don’t forget to take precautions against sunburn. Be protected with all methods listed below.

Minimize the exposure under the sun

Some people hold an umbrella to block the sunshine; some wears broad-brimmed hat instead. Don’t rely on either exclusively, thinking that you are immune from sunburn. Ultraviolet (UV) can still reach you to do harms. 

Stay in the shadow whenever you can. The place could be under a roof of foliage, the kiosk in the park, porch roof and the covered walkway, etc.

Pitch a tent next to your picnic so that you can hide from the sun during the nap or reading.

Use a beach umbrella when you are lying on the beach or in the swimming pool, or sitting for a barbecue. Don’t get your skin overtanned.

Protective clothing

Do you know that there is clothing material that can block UV? They are the sun protective clothing. In the midst of finding a good buy, consumers will come across UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor). Let’s learn more about the UV blocking capacity.

UPF rating ----- Protection category ----- % UV radiation block

UPF 15 – 24 ----- Good ----- 93.3 – 95.9

UPF 25 – 39 ----- Very good ----- 96.0 – 97.4

UPF 40 – 50+ ----- Excellent ----- 97.5 – 99+

If your clothes are not made of blocking UV material, the best you can do is to alleviate the sunburn by wearing long sleeve, full collars, full-length trousers and shorts. Surprisingly, darker colored fabrics can offer more protection than lighter colored fabrics.

Don’t forget wearing the broad-brimmed hat. If possible, wear a sunglass that can block UV to protect your cornea from opacity cornea and keratoconjunctivitis.

Also, get a towel to cover the neck. It’s good for absorbing the sweat and minimizing direct exposure under the sun.

Sunblock lotion

There are many brands in the market and the price range is wide. Be mindful that some products are particularly made for children whose skins are much tender than the adults’.

Consumers will come across two popular terms, SPF (Sun Protection Factor) and PA.

SPF measures the effectiveness of a sunscreen. 1 SF sunblock could last for successive 20 minutes. Thus, the effectiveness for SPF 30 could come up to about 600 minutes successively.

PA (The Protection Grade of UVA) system measures the UVA protection a sunscreen provides. PA+ is the double ability to resist sunblock, PA++ triple, PA+++ four times (the maximum protection level we can enjoy so far).

Sunblock can be in the form of lotion, cream, gel and spray. Read the product specification carefully and pick the most suitable one for your own protection.

Don’t be lazy and overlook the possible protections that you can get, lest you may subject to the three potential health risks that often arises after long and continuous exposure to the ultraviolet.

1)      Skin damage: lost flexibility, formation of black pigment, and skin cancer for severe case.

2)      Destruction to the immune system: lower the resistance to the bacteria and cause infectious disease easier.

3)      Eye damage: opacity cornea and keratoconjunctivitis.

Play hard and protect harder in summer. We can maximize the fun without endanger our health. Enjoy yourself safely.

Author’s note:

What fun will you get in summer? Try some beach sports to have fun and lose weight as well.

10 Summer Beach Sports for Fun and Weight Loss

Beside sunburn, you may also need some cooling tips to protect you from heatstroke. Read the article below for more details on how to resist heat.

How to Resist Heat in Summer: 11 Cooling Tips

FIFA World Cup 2014 and More

Many people devote substantial time and money to sit in front of the TV with snacks and drinks to enjoy the games. Not enough? Have more fun then.

FIFA World Cup always succeeds in capturing people’s craze on this sport. Football fans and non-fans do the same thing – staring at the big monitor to absorb the excitement of the game. Family or friends gather in one’s home to share snacks and drinks together. Everyone is willing to forget the body weight for a while and indulge heavily in consuming potato chips, coke, pizza, beer… And the pleasure comes to the climax whenever a football player kicks a goal.

The businessmen also show their enthusiasm – to sell more during this exhilarating period. The shopping malls have related decorations to attract more visitors. I took eight photos at the front entrance of the Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Time for a quiz, can you name all these football players? 

Besides eye-catching decorations, many companies offer FIFA World Cup version for their products or promotional gifts to boost sales.

The bars with big TV are crowded with exciting audiences, who are generous to produce applause, joyful shouts, order and consume one drink after another.

Still want more fun? Why not invite other people to have a football match? It will be a great fun to wear the number of your favorite player, run, yell and laugh, and kick a goal in the field.

Football is a sport that requires people to move every part of their body and cooperate with others to form a beautiful attack or defense. The exercise is a universal language connecting the players and the audiences, offering people an outlet to enjoy oneself immensely in a healthy manner. Daily routine, worries and troubles all lay aside for a while. Take pleasure in sweating, energetic movement, fun and the carefree moment for you deserve all these.

Finally, any forecast on which team will be the champion? Feel free to leave an encouraging message for your favorite team. Enjoy the FIFA World cup 2014 and more if possible.

Author’s note:

While enjoying every match of the FIFA World Cup, have you ever thought of learning something from this important event? Don’t miss the golden opportunity to learn more. Click into the article below for more details.

Six Things We Can Learn From FIFA World Cup

After reading two articles about FIFA, you must have realized how powerful a football could be. Don’t stop at this point, but explore the amazing power and take part in unleashing it with a special purchase mentioned in the article below.

A Power Football (The Soccket)

DIY Playgroups for your Kids

Many parents can’t afford enrolling their children to playgroups. They act as if no remedy is possible. Why not DIY playgroups to stimulate your kids?

In Hong Kong, many wealthy families will enroll their infant or kid to various playgroups (maximum I have heard about is 12 in a week), to have the child better equipped to face the challenges in the competitive world nowadays. It’s very expensive to join the playgroups available in the market and many families can’t afford the expense. Will you simply accept this entry barrier and do nothing? Or make an effort to create your own playgroups that are similar to the commercial ones? You can still stimulate your kids at a frugal way and achieve similar competitiveness if you will.

To DIY playgroups for your kids, you need to work harder than other parents for the setup but the investment will pay off when your kids are growing smartly and have confidence to face challenges and solve their own problems.

Essential things for the DIY playgroups:

1)      A good teacher, the parents in the DIY case – they must be creative, patient and proficient at the teaching subjects.

2)      Good venues -- spacious for both indoors (a spacious corner at home) and outdoors (children’s playground nearby and children’s library), colorful and safe.

3)      Helpful tools to facilitate the learning, for example, play mat for crawling, flashcards for learning new vocabulary, and educational toys for training of the eyes, ears and limbs.

4)      Good company of similar age, if possible – children can inspire one another; this prolongs the kid’s attention and involvement to an activity or item.

Many people believe in the sponge theory (the learning ability of 0-6 years old is the highest). It is also essential to know the best timing to acquire a particular skill.

Best timing for various developments:

Age 0 – 1: crawling and the ability to control the major muscles.

Age 1 – 2: language development and interest in moving around to explore.

Age 2 – 3: social development and habit of reading.

With the best timing in mind, parents as the DIY playgroup teacher could specialize their efforts to generate a satisfactory result, maybe even better than the paid ones.

Benefits of DIY playgroups for your kids:

The playgroups organized by commercial institutes are often expensive with keep competition to get a place. There is no guarantee that the teachers are definitely creative and inspiring enough to stimulate the kids, and if not, the money spent would be a waste.

It is important for parents to attend the playgroup, free or paid, with their children. DIY playgroups at home, you will save time from traveling to different venues and be able to devote more time to the kid’s actual learning.

Parents can adopt baby gyms at home to boost the crawling and muscle development. The setup is not difficult to arrange. You need a toy to hold the infant’s attention, a super mat, your attentive and consistent effort to stimulate the baby.

It’s said that kid’s attentiveness or concentration lasts for 30 minutes only. In the DIY case, you can take a break or shift to a brand new learning aspect for every 30 minutes. The flexibility will be more fruitful than idling oneself to wait for the teacher and other children for the next move in the commercial playgroups.

It’s also said that learning a new vocabulary takes application five times to stamp the word on the kid’s memory. Five times, fewer or more in reality, suggest that continuous efforts must be inserted. Having a group of kids, the teacher won’t be able to do the consolidation for each child. Parents often need to do the forging.

In commercial playgroups, the common activities are sing and play, circle time, handwork, refreshments, story-telling and playing in the garden. Parents can learn from the samples displayed in YouTube to play the teacher role as well. There are books and blogs giving helpful tips about playgroups and how to stimulate kids learning.

The most difficult element to duplicate from the commercial playgroup is having other parents and their children to participate. You can bring your kids to play in the park, befriend other parents and kids there and check to see if they are interested in joining your DIY playgroups. If your home is not spacious enough to hold many people, think about the park or the beach nearby.

One-time alternatives:

Seek and participate in some promotional events organized by companies marketing their infant’s or child’s products, for example, the crawling competition for infants, free play in the giant ball pit or inflatable bouncer, and trial play for new toys. Also, check out the family activities organized by the government and charity organizations. These occasions will expose your children to other kids of similar age, giving them more courage to face strangers and express themselves in the new environment.

Without enrolling to the expensive playgroups, a child is still competitive if his parents could provide similar and relevant stimulus, spend time with the kid to explore the world together, let him play with other kids to enhance the communication and social skills.

Opportunities are everywhere, grasp at whatever you have access to. Your kids can be benefited in a frugal way without leaving their potentials untouched.

Author’s note:

Doing exercises at home with your children is an inexpensive way to keep every family member physically fit and share more time with one another simultaneously. If you have no idea what exercises to do, the article below may give you a helping hand. 

Exercise at Home From Head to Toe