FrogAsia - A one-stop shop for all your educational needs

Hear ye hear ye everyone with primary and secondary school kids in Malaysia's public schools! Your kid(s) may have already told you about this educational website but if they or you have not already known yet, let me introduce you to FrogAsia.

FrogAsia, a YTL company, is the first company in the world to connect an entire nation through a single, cloud-based learning platform. You and your child will not be charged any data costs while accessing Frog on their network, so everyone can enjoy unlimited access to their world of learning anytime, anywhere!

Through the 1BestariNet project, FrogAsia is bringing the future of education to every student, teacher and parent in Malaysia. Combining high-speed 4G internet access, a world class learning platform and access to ‘best-in-class’ resources and technology, Malaysia is the first country in the world to bring its entire education community together on a single converged network designed specifically to meet the needs of teaching and learning.  1BestariNet is a project initiated by the Malaysian Ministry of Education in line with the government’s vision of providing quality, Internet-enabled education for all.  Over 10,000 government schools around the country will be equipped with this awesome solution, bridging the digital divide between rural and urban students.

I first got to know about Frog Asia when Alycia and Sherilyn came home from school one day some time early this year and told me that their teachers had instructed everyone to log into this website. The students were required to explore the website and try out the apps and features at www.frogasia.com.

Your child will first need to register at the FrogAsia website. For Alycia and Sherilyn, they were given a set of log in data by their school (they are in a cluster school).

The website is pretty kids friendly. It is Sherilyn, my drama queen who taught me how to navigate around the website.  And boy was I impressed with what I found in there! Everything that is available at the FrogAcademy is on the left side bar of the Frog Store from resources to documents, books, images, videos, audio, question banks and much more.

Your kids can even gain access to their school text books at the FrogAsia website! So worry not if your kid has forgotten to bring home an important text book for revision. She/he will be able to read the text book by hopping into FrogAsia.

Here is a sample of how the eText book looks like...

Alycia and Sherilyn have added over 50 e-books into their 'My Library' at the FrogAsia website. They can read them on their iPad or lappie during their free time.

This is how the eBook looks like...

They were jumping with excitement when they found Diary of a Wimpy Kid from the Fun Brain app, in eBook form!

Interesting eComics are also accessible for free!

Parents can buy questions for their child to work on from the FrogAcademy at a minimal cost of only a few Ringgit per subject. Since the Question Banks is still at its Beta stage, only Form 4, Form 5 and SPM questions can be purchased at the moment. But very soon, questions for primary students and other levels will be readily available for purchase. You can pay via M2U or credit card. There will soon be sample UPSR questions for purchase as well.

Parents can check their kid(s)' work from the questions that they have bought from the Question Banks and monitor them, as shown below...

Educational videos can be added to your 'My Library' and they are free to view!

Under the Resources category, you can add flash cards, free images, free sounds, Funbrain (my girls love this category) and much more to your 'My Library'.

FrogAsia has a partnership with Google, which means that your child can assess to a buffet of interesting education materials from FrogAsia, which will bring them over to Google Apps to assess the educational materials. So make sure you or your child has a Google Chrome account as well.

FrogAsia is probably one of the best and most comprehensive local educational websites that I have come across. If your child's school has not been introduced to this website yet, you can help your child register now and start letting him/her explore FrogAsia today. This is definitely a must have website bookmarked in all your electronic devices!

Free Educational Gifts

Ever since my kids, especially Sherilyn suffered from bad constipation as a result of drinking the Enfa range of formula milk, I have switched both my girls to Dutch Lady. I have tried many brands but they only have a liking for Dutch Lady.... and it's quite a cheap formula milk! During the day, Sherilyn will be on Dutch Lady and night time, I'll feed her Enfagrow A+ with fibre. Alycia is on Dutch Lady 456 thrice a day. I tried feeding her with Enfakid but she hated the taste.

Dutch Lady often comes up with great free gifts for purchases of their formula milk. The latest range of free gifts are :

Disney activity books (which my girls love)




and magnetic spelling puzzles.



Unlike Mead Johnson where we have to collect the tin foils / bar codes to redeem the gifts, Dutch Lady gives out these educational stuff free.

IT-Savvy Kid

Alycia loves learning words on her toy electronic laptop. At the press of a button, she can choose what she wants to learn. She got this laptop for her 3rd birthday a year ago but she did not know how to play with it then, so I kept it. Recently, she went to the cupboard where I keep all their new books, toys, stationery, stickers, etc. and fished out the laptop herself and started playing with it. As she doesn't know spelling yet, she will ask me for help to play the word games on the laptop. This is really a cool learning tool for toddlers ages 4 and up.

My IT-Savvy Kids

In this modern day and age, most kids are now IT-savvy. Toddlers are even taught to use the computer in pre-schools. This kiasu mum here does not want her gals to loose out and wants them to be on top of technology too. So she's taking advantage of their interest in the computer. Hop on to my other blog to read more....

Breakfast Ritual

This is Alycia and Sherilyn's breakfast ritual each morning - reading or playing jigsaw puzzles or drawing and writing on their Doodle Pro whilst they have their breakfast.

These pictures were taken yesterday morning:

Take a look at Alycia's serious look as she was deeply engrossed reading this Peter and Jane series book. BTW, this book once belonged to my eldest brother Ray, me and my youngest brother Roy. Now, it's with the gals.


Sherilyn is a replica of Alycia. Whatever her sister does, she's sure to follow suit.

Tom Tom The Piper's Son

Today just before lunch time, I read and sang some nursery rhymes to Sherilyn, my 2.5 yo toddler who LOVES singing and loves me reading through singing to her. I sang her a few nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep, Rock A Bye Baby, Little Bo Beep Has Lost Her Sheep, Hey Diddle Diddle and Tom Tom The Piper's Son. She loved the Tom Tom song so much that she wanted me to sing and point out each word to her as I sang to her over and over and over again and she didn't want me to stop. I swear I sang like around 50 times. When I stopped, she cried. I had spent close to 1/2 hr singing to her till my voice ran hoarse. As I wanted to do some work on the computer, I put Sherilyn on my lap as I did my typing with 1 hand and I continued singing and singing till I told her mummy got to stop to go wee wee. Wah... the moment I put her down on the floor, she wailed and her tantrum flared.

My maid and I spent another 15 mintues trying to placate her. She didn't even want to watch Thomas & Friends when the tv was turned on. So my maid placed Sherilyn on her lap and fed her her cereal for lunch. After a while, she stopped whining and began to settle down, enjoying her meal of cereal and organic green tea noodles with fish paste in winter melon soup.

Alycia My Young Reader

Every morning as the gals have their breakfast, I will be seated at the dining table reading the newspapers as I sip my cup of green tea. Most times, Alycia will climb onto my chair and ask me to read the newspapers to her. I will then quiz her by pointing out familiar words to her. Yesterday, as I walked into the kitchen to get a bowl, Alycia quickly climbed onto my chair and began to 'read' the papers, flipping the pages like a pro reader and pointing to the words as if she knows how to read. I think I will be the happiest mommy around if Alycia can finally read a book or the newspapers on her own.

Learning Through Singing

Sherilyn has always loved music, singing and dancing. When she was a baby and cried each time, singing and playing soft music had always comforted her and lulled her to sleep.

I have recently discovered a new way of teaching my 2 gals. Since it's really difficult to make them sit still classroom style with eyes focused on whatever I am teaching them, I discovered by chance some time back that by singing out the word as I read out each flash card to them really helps and they kept asking for more and more and more till I have to say STOP, ha ha..

This is how I sing out my teaching lessons:

Let's say I am showing them a flash card with the word 'happy'. I'll sing out the song "I am h-a-p-p-y, I am h-a-p-p-y" and modify the song a tad bit. They find it so entertaining and now both Alycia and Sherilyn recognize the sight word happy and if I ask Alycia what h-a-p-p-y is (without showing her the flash card) she could tell me the word correctly.

The same goes for many other words. I will try to match the individual word that I am about to teach / sing to them to a rhyming nursery rhyme tune. Eg. singing out the word 'strawberry' to the tune of 'If You Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands'. After a few times singing out the word, both my gals started to recognize the sight word 'strawberry' as well as the spelling of the word orally (without being shown the flash card).

When we go for walks and see a coconut tree for instance, I'll point to the coconut and tell them that they've just seen a coconut and then I'll sing out the song "c-o-c-o-n-u-t".

This is such a fun way of teaching my gals and all 3 of us enjoy it so much.

Alycia Can Tell The Time

Remember I wrote about Bedtime stories where DH taught the gals to read the clock? Well, I have been teaching Alycia how to read the clock for the last 1 week, though not consistently and last nite when I asked her to tell me the time looking at the 'Tell The Time' flashcards, she managed to tell me the time, though she only knows how to tell the time when the minute hand points to 12, ie. she has to say o'clock.

Today, I brought out a book on telling the time which my sil had bought the gals a few months back and tested Alycia and she managed to tell me all the basic 'o'clock' time.

Tonight, I shall progress to the next step of teaching Alycia how to tell the time when the minute hand points to 6. I promised her that if she knows how to tell the time, I shall buy her a Princess watch and this has motivated her to pay attention when I read to her. Hopefully she can independently tell the time very soon and be my walking clock.

Cool learning method... strewing

A few days ago, The New Parent wrote an interesting article on strewing up.... a method of introducing new things to his little girl through discovery. I thought what a cool fun way of teaching Alycia and Sherilyn to read through discovery.

Yesterday when the gals were having their afternoon nap, I strewed flash cards around their room... one card in their mega blocks tub, two cards in their toys closet and one more card on their bed for them to discover.

Later that night, as they got into their room, they were so thrilled and surprised to see flash cards strewn everywhere. They thought mummy had forgotten to keep the flash cards back into the drawer. As they returned the cards to me, I read out the words and number on the flash cards to them. What fun way of teaching them to read. No coercion on them and they actually looked at the cards. Tonight, I shall strew a few more cards at different places in their rooms for them to discover.

These are some of the pix I managed to snapped candidly of Alycia and Sherilyn when they discovered the cards.








Mummy, the word "fun". Sherilyn always recognizes this word.


"How come there's a card here too mummy?"

Alycia Can Spell

Alycia can finally spell her first word by memory.... and the word is God!

SIL#2 had recently bought the gals a kids' bible with lots of colourful illustrations. For the past few nights, Alycia has been pestering me to read this kids' bible to her as she is so drawn to the colourful pictures in the book. She was so interested in the bible that the following morning when I asked her what I had read to her the night before, she could tell out the entire story. Then when I asked her how to spell the word God, she said GOA. I then corrected her. I was very pleased anyway that she got the first two letters right. The next day, I tested her again and this time, she got it right... she spelt out GOD.

Today, I tested Alycia's spelling on the word dog. She got the first two letters right by saying DOB. I corrected her. I shall test her again tomorrow to see if she has picked up the word dog. I know I should not be testing her as kids just don't like to be tested but kiasu mummy me am just too happy and excited that my baby girl finally knows how to spell.


The kids' bible that sil #2 bought the gals.

Bedtime Stories By Daddy Dearest

Once in a while, daddy will be home early to read bedtime stories to the gals. These are considered rare treats from daddy and the gals enjoy every moment of it. As for me, they are long-awaited breather treats for me....






Daddy teaching the gals how to read the clock.

I Love Reading From The Computer

My gals' all-time favourite reading resource... the computer. Most of the time, I will hoard the PC, blogging and net surfing away but when I am in a good mood, my gals rule the PC.


Reading from the Starfall website.

Make Good Use Of Thy Time

I always wished there were more than 24 hours to a day so that I can do more for my gals, more for myself & DH and lastly get more SLEEP. I hate to see precious time being wasted, I don't like me or my gals sitting around not doing anything purposeful. This perhaps, may be contributed by the fact that I once worked at 3 large organizations where time was of the essence and I was constantly put in a pressure-cooker, always rushing to meet deadlines for my bosses and always had to do multiple tasks at any one time. I rarely had the luxury to go out for long lunches with my colleagues and most of the time, I had my lunches behind my PC, one hand typing / checking e-mails and one hand biting a quick and easy-to-eat lunch.

I like to read to my gals when they are having their meals, drinking their milk or sitting on their potty doing their little poopy business. This is what I normally do with my gals to maximise our time :



Flashing cards on shapes to Alycia & Sherilyn before their afternoon nap.






Sherilyn fixing an educational board puzzle whilst doing her little poopy biz on her potty, with Alycia lending a helping hand.



Call me a kiasu, crazy mummy!

Bedtime Ritual

Alycia and Sherilyn reading on my bed. Note : Sherilyn busy counting away with her fingers.



Sherilyn reading her favourite book.



Alycia learning to read from her Leap Frog.


On most nights before bed, I will either read to Alycia and Sherilyn or sometimes the gals prefer to 'read' on their own and Alycia will tell me to go to my room to do my own things and not to kacau them. You see, so young and they already want their own space and want me to get lost :shake head:

The gals can sometimes 'read' independently an entire book, especially if it's their favourite books. I think it's more of them memorizing the pages. Anyway, I am glad that my gals have acquired the love for books and hope that this will be their lifelong love as there is no better and cheaper way to broaden one's horizons than to keep reading, always.

Using TV As Babysitter

Do you use the TV to babysit your kids? I do and I limit my gals' TV viewing time to between 1 - 2 hours a day. I only allow them to watch educational programs on TV or educational VCDs whenever I need to get some work done or take my baths. I've had my fair share of heart attacks when I let my maid babysit my kids when I had my bath. During these incidences, my 2 samseng gals got themselves hurt. My maid is the type who does not have foresight and just cannot predict if accidents can happen to toddlers. So, I prefer to let the TV babysit my gals. My 2 gals will behave so well, sitting quietly or dancing and singing whilst watching their favourite VCDs.




Each night when I need to have my shower, I will lock Sherilyn the samseng up in her cot and I will tell Alycia to jaga her sister. I will then leave the bathroom door ajar whilst I have my quick scrub, peeping into the room to check on them every now and then. My gals also learnt to sing most of their nursery rhymes thru these VCDs. So, using TV as babysitter ain't that bad an idea after all, as long as there's a limitation to using it, right?

Learning Through Food

Kids learn best when they are having fun and in a relaxed and non stressful state. Recently, SIL got the gals a pack of organic alphabet biscuits. They love it whenever I play the alphabet game with them. I will ask them to tell me the letter on each biscuit and whoever guesses it right gets to eat the biscuit. We all have so much fun playing this game and eating the biscuits at the same time. This is really another great way of feeding info to your kids, thru food of course.

The Love For Reading

Alycia and Sherilyn love 'reading' books. Every morning after drinking their milk, they will sit on the potty to do their little poopy business whilst I read to them or they read themselves. I think it's good to start inculcating the habit of reading to kids from young so that they will have a life-long love for books and reading. It's much easier to nurture and shape kids from young.