These day's children are blessed with technology, science and innovation to ease their journey through life. Although, with all the ease and convenience available, we must admit that somehow our children are still lacking in some areas in their life, especially when it comes to studying.

Attending Grolier Keymatic Launch @ Main Stage in Lola Baba, MAHA 2018

And as a parent, I am sure most of you would agree that most parents today lack of 4 key elements as a parent, TIME, PATIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & ENERGY. I am sure some of you will attest to that, but honestly, let's break it down in detail for your understanding why these 4 key elements and what is it about?

Ponder upon these :
TIME : With your current working life, how much time have you spent with your growing child? Do you spend more time at work or with your child?

PATIENCE : Do you have the patience to see through that your child accomplishes something at their own pace? Do you have enough patience to go through the repetitive process again and again until your child masters it on their own? With patience, you would have to have time, and without time... You are always rushing things, everything must be fast, wear shoe also must fast, eat also faster abit and etc...

KNOWLEDGE : Knowledge is a blessing to have everyday, because to learn a new knowledge daily is a gift you can give to yourself. And today's parenting, how many can actually "know-how" to answer questions from your child that is coming from school? Truth be told, parents these days has been dependent on the teachers and schools to provide knowledge to their children, it is as if, it is expected. However, do you know that a child can only absorb so much when they are at school with a teacher? A child learns more and learns faster from their home. So what knowledge are you passing on to your kids can actually be seen in the way they behave, react and express themselves.

ENERGY : With your current 9-to-5 round the clock job and some even late night shifts or OT; When you get home, do you have the energy to entertain your kids? Whilst you may still have to do some house chores at night. It can tire you out easily, hence why parents these days are lacking the energy.

With these facts mentioned above, am sure most or maybe some of you may relate to the above, and wonder how can they help their child or improve on these?


Your child from age 4, is at the perfect age where they learn basic skills from pre-school, from home and from you. Grolier that has been in Malaysia since 1962, has provided a myriad of products throughout the years, 25 products in general and also new innovations and programs and products that is introduced from time to time to meet the specific demand at that current state of time.


Just a quick background, Grolier, is a company that publishes children's books and educational materials. With the noble aim of providing high quality learning solutions, which helps equip parents and teachers with tools they need to enhance the educational development and well-being of children worldwide.


Today, Grolier launched the Grolier Keymatic, educational tool that is designed to help increase the mathematical skills of children aged from 4 onwards. This is actually the first mathematical learning aid under the Grolier line of quality products and programs.


What's so special about this math aid?
Basically it's shaped in a key to make mathematics fun and easy to learn while the child can experience counting, memorizing, analyzing, calculating with kinetic sensory and fun play as well.







As easy as that! My son loves it so much and he just turned 4 years old on 11.11 so it is true that the Grolier Keymatic is suitable from age 4 onwards and even my youngest boy Jayden is also keen to learn how, although, there is no harm allowing him to learn a little here and there because every kids mature differently and some are faster than the others, while others go at their own pace. There's no right or wrong. As long as the child gets a proper assessment based on their age, then there will always be a proper solution that Grolier Educational Consultants can assist and advise you as the parent for your child's development in their educational skills.


What is Grolier Keymatic?
1. You learn the basics of mathematics (plus, minus, multiplication, divisoon and fraction) in a fun and unique way.
2. Sensory learning which only Grolier can provide to the child that is through sight, sound and touch. Touch or also known as Kinesthetic along with Sight or Visual learning tool, actually encourages thinking outside of the box in five Keymatic areas (plus, minus, multiplication, divison and fraction). 
3. Builds self-confidence and actually helps children to learn independently.


One other important note is, when we were young, we were taught to memorize and practise and memorize the correct answers and methods. However, we were never taught how to correct our mistakes. As the saying goes, with memorizing comes consistency but not accuracy. And these days, mathematics for primary 1 students standard is very analytical and logical that makes our (parents) brain go heywire because we don't know the answer when our kids come home asking for help!


So with the Grolier Keymatic, it encourages proficiency through the provision of immediate reinforcement and answers. In lieu of the launch today, it was really timely as a matter of fact, because it coincides with the Minister of Education Dr. Maszlee Malik's recent announcement that examination for primary school students from Year One to Year Three will be scrapped from 2019.


I can understand where he is coming from because examinations builds stress and it's even more stressful now to see parents taking their children to tuition at a very early age, leaving them no time to enjoy their childhood. It's like we ripped their childhood from them through putting them through the texts to get the best result on that piece of paper.



Education should be fun and enjoyable, not stressful like a job. And this is where Grolier Keymatic comes in to help parents from home. With the proper consultation and free assessment by their Grolier Education Consultants, you and your child will be in good hands and will receive proper advise and products that will keep the whole family entertained and well-educated.


Grolier guide parents to lead their children to enjoy learning and have confidence while doing it. The main aim is also to allow bonding moments between the parent and child through Grolier Keymatic and its other educational tools.

Start the string at the top left number and do your maths, answers are on the left.

Through those moments, it allows the parent to learn to have patience as they are also in the process of learning together with their child. At the same time, with the activities provided, it gives a complete package of educational information that you won't have to take a photo and post on Facebook support groups asking for help to solve that answer anymore.

If you can complete the whole set of Keymatic in 30 seconds, you are already a Master in Maths, where you have reached Automacity level.

It is also rewarding in the process, because if your child is able to master each of the 5 keys of Grolier Keymatic within 30 seconds each, this means your child is already a Master in mathematics because they have already learn it by heart and if they got it wrong, they can always correct the mistake themselves by checking the back of the lines guiding.

Wrong Answers

If it's all correct, the string will follow and cover the white lines behind accurately and you will feel happy seeing the end result.

Correct Answers

So if you think sending your child to tuition to brush up their basic mathematics will help them better, then you have not given you and your child a chance to have an alternative solution that may end up to be more rewarding for the whole family in return and worth value for money!

Through Grolier Keymatic, children will achieve an automatic recall of basic math facts, which in turn will allow them to free up their working memory so that it can be devoted to problem-solving, learning new concepts and highler level math skills. Atleast they won't be like me, using my calculator on my phone or my fingers many times.


Who said you can't have fun with maths?
It is also a fun activity to do for teachers and their students, where they can conduct a race between students and teachers or fellow classmates or maybe even between you as the parent and your child and see who completes the challenge the fastest or completes it first.



It comes in a set of 5 Keymatics, 4 wipe clean work books, 4 wipe clean marker pens and a parent guide book included for RM400+, however, please get yourself to a Grolier Education Consultant or contact their hotline, to get you and your child a free assessment because they may require something else or a bundle of other educational tools that may help develop your child in all areas of their skills. The price may vary when in bundles of other educational tools.

It's been awhile since I last went for parenthood workshops such as this, and it is always good to come back for a good refresher on parenthood just to keep ourselves in touch with what's happening in today's era of parenting.



The event today hosted by Parenthood Magazine Malaysia alongside with Sunway Medical Centre and Nippon Paint Malaysia; Provides a good range of topic of useful information in today's workshop takeaway for every parents and new parents-to-be.

Some of the topics today which I find really informative are, Raising A Balanced & Successful Child In The 21st Century by Ms Sam Jeng Mun a certified clinical psychologist who focused on the effects of screen time in children. She also discusses the best way to tackle the touch screen generation and the importance of free-play in a child’s development.

A simple guide of screen time for your child consists of the following infographic that you can refer too (can easily fish this schedule off from Google/Facebook). I always keep this in my mobile but then I seldom refer to it. So it's good to set it in your alarm instead, atleast no matter how busy or involved you get with your work or duty or tasks, the alarm will ring you out of it and takeover whatever screen time and parenting duty that should be done. Make it a good habit rather than ignore it. Start from 30 mintes then increase gradually but if you can avoid it, then avoid it as long as possible.

Image credits to CHOC Children's

After that, we were brought through a very informative yet funny topic that every parent will surely remember and new parents will be bound to be surprise; Understanding Your Baby’s Developmental Milestones by Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Cham Weng Tarng. It's a talk about the developmental milestones according to ages and stages together with ways to encourage a child’s physical and mental development. So this can range from the way we as parents potray or behave or even react and respond to infront of our child. Because our child from the moment they are inside our womb, they start to learn and pick up sounds and feelings. As they are born, they start to feel, touch, sense, hear, see and even taste. And all babies from birth are like sponge, they magically soak up everything they are able to learn and absorb with ease. So it's good to provide them with the best environment to grow up in! With that in place, you as a parent gets involved and monitor your own child's milestone to ensure they hit atleast most of it age appropriately, because if you notice a child for example, does not smile or responds back to you at 3 months of age, no expression at all, means it's a sign that your child should seek a specialists for further assessment.



Dr Cham also talked about Myth Vs Truth on Children & Ilnesses, which touched on
vaccination, contagious diseases, indoor air quality as well as viruses and bacteria that you
didn’t think would exist in your own cozy little home. One of the subject he mentions how bacterias spread easily, for example, let's take coughing in the picture. When one coughs, the bacteria spreads out for atleast 1.8meter in area and the bacteria's stays active for 48 hours. which is why disinfection and sanitization plays an important role today in curbing viruses from spreading.



And in today's session, the other highlighted topic when it comes to hygiene and family health, it will be the 'Indoor Wellness Program' by Dr Amir Hamzah who is the President of the Malaysian Society of Allergy & Immunology (MSAI) which talks about air pollution, especially indoors, where many of us think we’re safe. This is where it is important also for indoor cleanliness. Incase you are unaware, our walls traps dust and bacteria's too. And some walls traps moist which can turn into hazardous molds that is very unhealthy for anyone living there. I am currently experience this in my master room and it gets easier to fall sick. Which was why I had to invest in a air dehumidifier and an air purifier. But it doesn't solve the issue even after steam washing the mattresses and rainbow vacuum the bed whilst cleaning up the whole room from the ceiling to the floor. The issue lies in the walls against my bedroom where there are no obstruction on the outsides, leaving it open to the wind, rain and sun. So when it's hot, the walls in my room heats up super quick and when it is cold, we don't need an aircond at all.


Basically, a good well-ventilated and furnished room is ideal for a better living condition. Now I have to re-renovate my room and re-paint the walls with Nippon Paint Malaysia, virus-guard and maybe weather-guard if they have it. Have to go check it out in-stores.


The session today, was a fun session where two lucky couples on themselves a free painting package worth RM1500 by posting their most creative photo of them on their social media at the Kid's Room Installment that was set up behind in the workshop hall. And participants raced to the stage to get the right answer for take home with a cute little Blobby Doll by Nippon Paint Malaysia.