My sister and I are book fair stalkers.
Books are expensive here, especially with the crazy exchange rate right now.
A small board book for the kids can cost up to rm40!
So, you can imagine how excited we are whenever book fairs come along.
We usually wait for a few major ones:
1. POPULAR RM5 English Books Fair
2. The Big Bad Wolf
3. MPH Warehouse sales
After a few years, the books starts to look the same :p
We used to grab whatever board books available when the kids were younger.
There is no telling which would become the favourite.
So cheap ma, buy all laaaa!
This year, I tried something new.
I gave Tiger his own trolley to fill up with books that he would like to read.
That way, he was involved in the selection process.
Or whine. Or bounce eveywhere.
He did but it was at a more tolerable level than usual.
We ended up with lots of Animals and Dinosaurs books.
=.="
After I filtered his basket, we ended up with these.
PS: I bought a 100 facts (Monkeys) from Bookxcess for RM 9.90
All the books here are rm5 each.
I picked some Disney illustrated version of classics.
The illustrations reminded me of Archie :)
Should have gotten all for myself..haha.
One Tiger book, for Tiger and cats for Dragon.
The Hello Kitty Book she hugs to sleep. Score!
She was such an angel at the fair.
Just chilling in the stroller with some random books Tiger chose.
She requested for some coloring sheets and this is her work. Seriously.
These are my selections.
Some to complement our toobs and some for General Knowledge.
These workbooks, we selected together with MIL.
Tiger requested for Chinese and Malay books.
The top row is 3 for RM10 (thicker).
The bottom row is 3 for RM5.
Tiger's already started a-page-a-day on one of the chinese books;
so that's missing from this pic.
School holiday homework!
Because he goes to a play school, he is so excited to be doing 'real' writing & homework.
"Did you do your homework?"
Nods his head excitedly, "I did two pages!!!"
It's highly unlikely he would be this enthusiastic after a few days of primary school
in a couple of years from now. Such innocence. Tsk tsk.
Some stationery.
A file divider rm 18 (NP: rm25). It makes the neat freak in me happy!
Sheet protectors. 2 packs for rm 15
Sofia Beginner UNO.
Foldable congkak.
Just realized it was a massive savings of 5%
=.="
I am one of those stupid shoppers who thinks everything is cheap at fairs.
Still, I am pretty happy with our haul. A little bit of everything is our motto now.
As I was writing this post, I got a SMS from POPULAR, reminding me
to spend more money at the fair.
It's okay la, we've spent rm 268 already.
MIL bought three cooking books.
(Also not pictured are: one bottle of star sprinkles and a Minion pencil case)
***
So, in a nutshell, to survive the fair with kids:
Have a general idea of the types of books you want to buy.
Go early, during the beginning because some books & flashcards
were long gone by the weekend.
Be fast and keep it short. (Otherwise the whining will start)
Give them a basket and let them think they are in control.
Filter books at the end. Do not try to argue in the middle of your trip.
Don't buy anything less than 30% discount. (stupid congkak mistake)
Everyone goes to the washroom before entry. (MUST!)
Bring an extra pair of hands if you can. Book fairs are like war zones.
Still it was much calmer than baby fairs. I stay far, far away from those.
Good luck!
