PIP's PLAYbox at Esplanade Singapore

We missed out on PIP's PLAYbox the last time we went to Esplanade for "The Magic Jungle". 

My friend told me it was really fun.

I didn't know how fun was fun so I had to go check it out.

We had been indoors for a while now following J's latest bout of flu so I know she can't wait to get out. I told her that we were going to PIP's house when she woke, and I don't think she had gotten out of bed faster than this.

She met PIP when we went for the performance so she knows who PIP is.

Getting to PIP's "house" is a perfect excuse to get her to shower "because it is only polite if you turn up neat and clean at someone's house." She bought it. Getting a shower wasn't her most favourite thing to do recently. I don't why why. However, that did give me an opportunity to give J a mini lesson on manners when visiting someone's house..

I am not someone with a good sense of direction so I thought the walk there would be challenging. But it was an alright walk from the train station to Esplanade (if you do not have to carry a 15kg wriggling toddler) and PIP's PLAYbox is relatively easy to locate once you arrive at Level 4 because of the brightly coloured decals on the outside.

As with visiting someone's house, please remember to remove your footwear and deposit your shoes in the shoe cabinets on the right as you enter. I couldn't locate the shoe cabinet initially. It's important to do so because the inside of the PLAYbox is where children and be free to roam around. You can imagine the number of little hands that's going to touch the ground.

The sight that first greeted us was one that shouts brightness, lightness, freedom.

I love that the full length glass panels allowed the sunlight to pour right into the space. That gave plenty of natural light so no filters and edits are required for the photos.

I love that it is so minimalist. Simple, natural wood tables with plenty of green.

The moment I stepped in, I was in love.

And that, is the activity corner where children (and parents) can work on the seasonal activities.

It was Mandala-making when we were there. We spent a short while working on our mandalas. Only a short while because I can't wait to check out the shadow play corner at the back.

But before that, we arrive at a little nook where children can cuddle up to read a book or two. Which we did.

Books from local writers/ illustrators are placed in various corners and there are cushions and other reading nooks around so that meant that there are really many spots to cuddle up and read.

The colourful animal heads are props from The Magic Jungle which J really wanted to touch but I stopped her because I wasn't sure if we were allowed to. Turns out I think we can, because I saw many doing so from the photos on Instagram. We'll play with that the next time we visit.

The space becomes more whimsical as we move in, with many cupboards and doors to open. Which J did and I freaked out, because (again), I wasn't sure if we were allowed to. Then I took a while to convince myself that since it's a space for children and there are still so many doors to open, then they must be meant to open.

There are photos of PIP displayed on a few shelves and J being curious J wanted to have a good look. It was nice to talk about the photos - Where PIP went, what PIP was doing...

There's also some puzzles, IKEA train sets, and a collection of Tegu blocks to play with. 

A rather large collection of Tegu blocks if you ask me. I was excited to lay my hands on these magnetic blocks but realise that I'm very bad with construction toys. I can imagine fairies and play with air but to build something? - Sorry I can't.

But we still had fun anyway!

Right at the end of the play space, there is a door leading to an outdoor playground which we didn't manage to check out because it was under maintenance. But it sure looks like fun!

See those sound pipes? I love sound pipes!

There's also a flight of steps leading up to the treehouse. Beside those steps are higher cushioned steps to snuggle and read some books together. 

We were suppposed to leave but J found this and we got stuck for an hour longer. 

Just cuddling up together to read.

I love moments like these.

Of all the books we read that day, this is my favourite.

The story is simple and not too wordy for J to follow. 

The illustrations are adorable.

And it introduces the musical instruments in a very fun way. J and I had fun trying to imitate the sounds these percussion instruments make.

And maybe it's because they were instruments I could relate to. Makes me think of the four fun years I had in Chinese Orchestra when I was in school.

Cute right?
J thinks that the tubular bells looks like the installation on the ceiling.

J had many questions along the way too.
The one I like most - "Who does the stick belong to?" when we were at the page on Muyu.
The page shows most of the Muyu hitting themselves with a stick, but one of the characters was also holding on to the stick, so J as genuinely curious to know who exactly the sticks belong to.


This is the corner we snuggled in.
She didn't want to leave.
I told her that we should take a photo to show Daddy your latest bedroom inspiration.
And she demonstrated that.

It is such a cosy place I didn't want to leave either.

Maybe the weekday crowd plays a part - there wasn't any crowd. For an hour or so, we had the whole space to ourselves.

And in very local terms, this is a beautiful place to nua. 

Can't believe I couldn't find the definition of "nua". okay, this is the best I could find.

I'll be back to nua.
Soon.

Esplanade PLAYtime! - 奇幻森林 The Magic Jungle 2016

We attended our first paid performance today.
I've never dared to pay for a performance or play because I don't know how J would respond to it, or how engaging it would be to her, even though she has been to quite a few (free) mall shows and enjoyed them thoroughly.

I bit the bullet because we are quite stingy and went for The Magic Jungle when a friend asked because

1. It says it's recommended for "2-4 year old". J is two, so, okay!
2. This year's performance is presented entirely in Mandarin., which is good because J suddenly stopped speaking in Mandarin after we stopped Grandma School.
3. Time to give performances a try.
4. It's affordable at $17 per pax.

The set
Simple (but a lot of effort went into it I'm sure!) and colourful.
I'm someone who is easily influenced by ambience so the moment I stepped in, I can already picture myself in a magical jungle. Colourful trees.


The performance
Two words.
Bloody brilliant!

It started with a pre-show entertainment where the performers each take charge of a section and introduced the children to their animal friends - made out of (mainly) recyclable materials and some which we can find around the house. I'm already thinking of making the moth. *inspired!*
It's a cosy group so no child gets left behind. I thought J would be afraid of the animals but upon seeing the other children go forward, she went anyway. Having a jiejie with her helped too.


The hits

It really does suit the very young audience!

In fact, it hit the three most important points to keep young children engaged.

It's colourful.

The pop of colours in the set.

The colourful fabric on the performer's headgear.

It's colours, colours everywhere!

It's interactive.

The children didn't have to sit through the entire performance,

They got to MOVE! And moving is such an important thing to do for toddlers.

They got to stand and dance, then sit for a while, then stand up to dance, then sit for a while as the story proceeds, then walk up for activities. Then dance again. 

We also went through the colours of the rainbow, which I thought was a nice way to weave learning into a performance. I gave them a lot of bonus points at this part!

It's short and the pace is just nice.

Plays to me, are slow.

And that was my primary concern just before we entered the theatre.

But this one is just 45 minutes and the pace of the performance went just right.

Not overwhelmingly fast that you don't know what's going on, and not too slow till the children gets bored.

The miss

Only one.

They introduced an animal and the herd of animals were repeating their names. We got a little lost at this point.

What I love about it

I think it tells a lot if you have a sizable group of children and no one is crying.

Maybe it's just the group I'm with today but yes no one cried, and that's impressive.

The headgear are made of recyclable materials. Loads of inspirations for parents.

You could totally do some up at home.

The performers made sure every child is engaged. The little girl in front of us is very young so she wasn't really following through the actions. One of the performers came forward and encouraged her to follow along.

There are bits of learning in it, which I wasn't expecting. So that was a pleasant surprise.

I was engaged through the entire performance. I loved it. One of the best I've ever been too.

*****

My friend told me that PLAYtime! performances are interactive but this one has got more activities than the previous ones she went for. Hopefully all the future shows are the same and I can't wait for go for the next one!

{Grandma School} Post-haze Nature walks

Ah.... The weather is great today. My view out of the window is exceptionally clear (other than the fact that Daay came to help me clean it. Thank you , Daddy!) We've been living with the haze for a while now and I truly appreciate the clear skies we have today. I hope it stays that way.

This was two weeks ago, when we enjoyed three days of good weather amidst the haze.

We've been cooped up at home doing nothing for too long, so when the opportunity came, we had three nature walks in a row.

Evening Walk at Changi Beach

It's been a while. This was supposed to be a spot-the-planes-and-have-some-sensory-fun trip for J.

But she didn't really like the sand. We had to half-drag her across the beach to get to the water. She didn't really like it too.

Until the waves came splashing on her legs. And she got to washed her hands (and figured she could splash) in the sea water. 

She became more confident and starting drawing in the sand after.

It was a brave move. She really disliked the texture of sand on her feet.

When we went to Little Planet Playland the other time, she chose to sit outside and scoop the seeds (which is the play-pretend soil) instead of sitting in the pit.

She asks for more sandplay now.

Beautiful sunset.

Beautiful skies.

Beautiful bub.

What a lovely evening.


Afternoon Stroll at Pasir Ris Park

It was a hot-turned-gloomy-turned-hot afternoon.
Grandpa decided it was a good time to check out the mangrove forest in Pasir Ris Park. He spotted some otters before and was hoping to show J some.

We spotted two roosters the first thing we got there. 

Rooster #2 chased after rooster #1 at an incredible speed. What a sight (for me!)

I've always wondered where they came from.

A lady told us that we missed the beautiful moment of some hens bringing their chicks out for a walk. They were out the day before. It was quite spectacular, she said.

A pity we missed it but at least we spotted some roosters. *positive thinking*

We stepped on some dry leaves to hear what it sounds like.

We spotted mudskippers, crabs and monitor lizards while walking through the Mangrove Boardwalk. One was climbing the trees (the monitor lizard) and J got a good look. Thank you, monitor lizard!

We didn't get to see the otters though.

Walked along the bridge after that and spotted some jellyfish. 

Grandpa pointed out some fungi on the way back. These are not as magical as I hoped it would be, but definitely something new to J.

We ended up walking through the Mangrove Boardwalk twice, so an outing that was supposed to last one hour took close to three hours. We went for tea after and J got her first taste of Milo.

It was a good break from the haze, though. That fresh air. Never mind that I got home with 10 over mosquito bites.

Morning Walk at Tampines Eco Green

Our usual if-the-weather-is-good morning activity whenever we stay over at Grandma's.

Only that J didn't really want to walk much this time.

The air was really good though!

Stroking the grass is a great sensory experience - they are so soft!

After these three days of haze, we were back to no-outdoors for a while.

The weather looks good today.

Hoping to have some outdoor activities with J soon.

:)

Till then!

Edit: We did go for another outing. To the beach, again!

Ocean Week - The rest of the week

It is really a bad idea trying to document our activities daily.
I went to bed early the night of Day 3 to save up as much energy as I can for The Big Day, and spent the next few days recovering from the running around at the aquarium.

But anyway, here's the rest of Ocean Week.


DAY 3
It was a day of realisation so we ended after one activity.

I found this idea from Pinterest - footprint starfish, but didn't want to risk J decorating my mum's floor, so I changed it to handprint instead. Pretty naive of me to think that handprints would end up looking like starfish.

J was apprehensive initially when grandma painted her hands, but quickly got used to it and started to insist that she paint her hands on her own. Even though the painting didn't resemble starfishes, it ended up looking like sea jellies when inverted.

We had a lot of paint left so we went on to stamp vegetables instead.

And... that is all the ocean-related activities we did. I stopped because I realised I was trying too hard to capture the moment with my camera, up to the point that I was interrupting J. She got distracted upon seeing my phone so on second thoughts, that's probably what made her stop. 

The whole afternoon, I reflected. Do I want to be so focused about capturing the moment with the camera? Or should I do so with my heart. J didn't seem as enthusiastic in the activities either so should I still attempt structured activities? I don't have an answer yet.

Because I was so caught up in my thoughts, we allowed J to have a lot of unstructured play that day. She did amazing. 

She helped with the clean clothes. She pulled out the toy box and played with the little toys that were from her uncle's time. She swept the floors when my mum was sweeping. 

She didn't ask to be entertained. But at the same time, she's learning.

Note to self: I'd still like to continue with themed activities but I probably not be too rigid about it and expect things to go as planned. Maybe I should try to take her cue and facilitate her learning instead of trying to 'teach' her.

Day 4

The big day we hit the aquarium! 

What's better than seeing those fishes and sea creatures in person?

We were lucky to see the dolphins this time. We've been there for three times but have never had luck with the dolphins! Read more about it here. :)

Day 5

We are all exhausted from the trip the day before. Maybe, except J.
I attempted to make a jellyfish from this activity sheet we got at the aquarium.
It got destroyed even before we started. Was I even surprised?

When I was about to give up doing ocean-themed activities altogether, my dad decided that it was time to show J the starfruits he brought home that day. Before they rot.

So, J

1.  felt the smooth texture on the starfruit (she sniffed it the day my dad brought it home).

2. saw that the cross-section of the starfruit is, well, a star (we tried explaining that to her, not sure if she got it), and

3. did some starfruit painting.

The starfruit prints are perfect as sea stars so I gave her some blues and greens to paint an ocean first.

J really doesn't like to paint over the entire piece of paper.

We didn't manage to do as many activities as I wished to during this week but I did discovered something about the way I tried to carry out the activities and J's learning style. Let's leave that for another post.

Let me go dream about future aquarium visits now that we have the annual pass.



Here's what we did prior...

Preparation and Book List

Ocean Week - Day 1

Ocean Week - Day 2

To S.E.A. Aquarium we go!

Nature Walks

I love nature walks.

Visits to the parks and having picnic-style-dinner there, are a big part of my childhood.

Even as a teen, my dad would sometimes 'surprise' us with breakfast-at-the-parks.

Never mind that he comes into our room excitedly at 5.30 in the morning.

My parents always make an effort to point out the flora and fauna to us.

"See this? You can eat that."

"That's the kangkong plant. We had that a lot in the kampung."

"Look that those birds. They are XXX."

"This is the YYY."

"Did you see that??"

We are that strange family who stops in the middle of nowhere to look up in the sky, or squat down to look at the ground. There is always something interesting to see. 

I don't mind being weird. 

In fact, I love it. 

And I know that when I have children of my own, they will too, experience the wonders of nature like I used to.

I can never remember the names of the birds. Nor can I identify the edible plants. 

(Perhaps only the papaya.) That is why I'm terribly grateful to my parents who accompany us on nature walks on weekends. 

This is our third weekend at Tampines Eco Green. It's extremely close to the expressways and the residential area but once you enter the park, it's just peace and tranquility. (And fresher air.)

The Husband loves that.

I love that I can enjoy the clear blue skies, take some snapshots, and go faerie-hunting again. 

Would be perfect if the weather is cool.

J?  She has a great time running around the parks, stopping to look at the butterflies and ants, so I'm pretty certain that she enjoys it as well.

Last weekend, J got some bonding time with Daddy.

We stomped on dried leaves to listen to the sounds they make.

We observed leaves.

We spotted ants.

And we ran and ran.

We ended our walk with a beautiful sky.

How awesome is that?

Since we are at it, humour me a little more, won't you?

Here's a throwback to the last two weeks.

The first was mainly bird-spotting.

The second, we had butterflies stopping very close to J and ants marching past.

J was lucky to get close encounter with a monitor lizard which moved really slowly across. 

(I wanted a picture with it because I thought "Cool! The park makes sculptures too! I'm impressed!"

Then my mom said it was real and the lizard starting moving. Freaked me out a bit.)

Each time we are there, it feels like somewhere new.
It's wonderful.

I  hope this will become a tradition we can continue.

I really do.

And I'll make and effort to try identify the plants and birds.

{Dear Baby} And the show begins

Dear Baby,

You had your first experience watching a live performance at Takashimaya Shopping Centre last week. It's the Hello Kitty so we thought you might like it. 

We headed there early for lunch, but the food court ran out of high chairs. We were seated near the wall so popo says you will do fine on a regular chair. I was a little doubtful. But you did it. You sat on the chair and finished up your porridge without trying to wriggle off. You have no idea how proud I am of you at that moment. Of course, popo might be the reason why you were so well-behaved. You've always been extremely cooperative with her.

You were so delighted to see Hello Kitty everywhere!

We were lucky to have someone tell us about the queue to the performance so kiasu Mommy was in the queue before the queue even started. I guess it helped that it was a weekday. Popo and I were initially concerned about how you will respond to the show. Will you fidget and fuss? Will you not like it? 

Our concerns were uncalled for because you were enthralled by the cast once the show started. You were so attentive, it actually surprised popo and I. You clapped. You danced along. You enjoyed yourself every bit.

You even did the hug at the end.
(Eh. Yup. Your hug looks like this for now.)

When it came to the meet and greet session, you weren't too excited to see Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel. You were more excited to see the only cast who wasn't in a costume - that sweet lady who caught your attention the moment she went on to stage for the pre-performance activity. We asked for a photo, of course. We know why you didn't fancy the others. Because Hello Kitty didn't quite look like a cat.

You must have enjoyed the show a lot because the following night, when you didn't want to sleep, you made Daddy and I get off the bed and you danced. 

Our only problem now is that whenever you hear a public announcement, you'd think that there is a performance coming up so you actually stop what you are doing to clap. Excitedly.
That day at Ikea, you refused to nap after you heard the announcements. You were anticipating something. And each time the PA system goes "Would the parents of .....", you eyes widen, and you clap.
Thank goodness for the promotional poster for December at the exit - a poster with a picture of a goat, and bleating. We stood there and watched the poster for a while. You were finally willing to nap after that few minutes because show is over.