The Newly Renovated Playground In Our Neighbourhood

After about 10 months worth of wait, the playground was finally ready. We met up with some of A's classmates and gave them a good run at the playground. The area was certainly a whole lot more spacious. Instead of the previous one play station, now, we have not one, but four stations! There is also a court beside the playground where children could be seen playing badminton, and a fitness corner.

For the children, the play stations are divided by age group, starting from the babies and toddlers, all the way up to the adventurous older kids. The space is very well constructed and parent can see all the way from the babies and toddlers play station to the furthest adventure station. There are also a lot more seats for parents and caretakers. The seats are also located such that they sit on the circumference of the whole playground, which makes it a breeze watching the children. Because of the huge space, it was breezy the whole time the children were there and parents had no issue pushing the baby prams around.  K was extremely pleased to see so many babies that she spent more time playing with them than the play stations. Definitely a top notch playground in our neighbourhood now.

Lots to climb on, swing from, slide down, and hop around! Note the sheltered sitting areas around the playground.

 

Getting 'dizzy' with friends!



Who says these are only for toddlers?



What goes up must come down!

Playing trishaw!

Bedok Public Library: An Afternoon With Entertaining Story-Tellers And Books Galore!

Both the girls love to read books. On days when they do not need to be in school, such as school holidays or weekends, the first thing they do when they wake is often to grab a book and curl up on the living room sofa, sometimes with a bowl of cut fruit to go along with it. When daddy is not working, the standard procedure is for him to read them a story, even if they're capable of reading it themselves. We don't know how this routine got started, but we're happy it caught on.



Typical holiday or weekend morning scene if we're not in a rush to go anywhere that day.

The special surprise this Saturday morning was that not only was daddy going to be home for the day, but that we were all going to spend the afternoon in the library together. Wow! You can imagine the excitement on their faces. For all the books they love to read, they seldom get a chance to visit the library as our bookshelf is stocked with hand-me-downs and second-hands. Today, we get to borrow fresh books, and learn to be responsible for them!

The plan was to meet mummy after lunch at Bedok Point. The bus ride there itself was something to look forward to, and the girls exchanged jokes with each other along the way, commenting on all the chatter going on in the crowded bus around them.

Bedok Point is a food haven, and we decided to try Kungfu Paradise near the main entrance on the first floor after a photograph of a juicy burger caught A.'s eye. They also served soupy noodles, a favourite of K.

Chicken Mushroom Soup Noodles and a Kung Fu Burger (chicken chop hamburger).

Mummy met us there after her class, just in time to see us finish and grab a couple of kaya toast slices from Ya Kun Kaya Toast to munch along our short walk the Bedok Community Library.

Along the way, we chanced upon a queue for free ice-cream. A Japanese brand was promoting their latest flavour and everyone was entitled to one. That means four free tubs of ice-cream for us. We ended up giving away one to an elderly lady as we could not finish it and were eager to go into the library building.

Left: Caramel with white chocoloate flavour. Center: eager queue behind us!. Right: Strawberry flavour.

At the library, we headed for the childrens' section on the third floor and straight to the shelves for preschoolers. We learnt quickly how to read the signs to find the kinds of books that we want. A. loves dinosaurs, but she's also into typical girl themes like princesses and big sisters. K. went for the the easier reads with captivating cartoon-like illustrations.

The books went into a basket and we found a quiet room dedicated to young readers with parents only. The girls immediately dived into their wealth of reading material, and mummy was not spared, often having to answer K.'s requests for story after story. A. on the other hand preferred to read on her own, occasionally pausing to ask questions about things she did not understand.

The parent and child reading room.

After reading for a while, we were interrupted by an announcement informing us about story-telling sessions at the spaceman corner. We took a while to realize where this corner was, and when we arrived, the Mandarin story-teller had started. The girls settled at the back of a small crowd of children, as the story-teller continued her animated stories. Even though the girls are not particularly fluent in Mandarin, I was impressed that A. was able to understand and sit through and understand the entire session. K. on the the other hand preferred to have mummy read to her after listening to the story-teller for about ten minutes.

Story telling in Mandarin.

The Mandarin session was followed by one in English. You could tell immediately when the staff took to the stage that she was experienced and was able to build rapport quickly with young children. I was impressed with the setting of ground-rules in a fun way, involving the children with actions and role-play during the stories, and using of large, well-illustrated books. She told three stories employing various interesting methods, and the children had a wonderful time.



Setting ground rules by means of a 'welcome song'.

Children get excited to role play characters in the story with props!

Captivated audience, captivating story-teller.

The story-telling sessions were an unexpected treat for A. and it'll be something she's definitely going to look forward to the next time we are here. Story-telling schedules for various public libraries can be found on their website (http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg/programme/Story-telling%20~2Fcrafts.aspx) and it seems that that it is a regular affair on Saturday afternoons at Bedok Public Library, with half an hour of Chinese stories (2.30 to 3 pm) followed by half an hour of English stories (3 to 3.30 pm).
After the story-telling sessions, we consolidated our booty at the pre-schooler section, taking a longer than expected time to sort out which books we were going to borrow, and which to leave behind. This was because while flipping through to see if we wanted to borrow the item, the kids ended up getting distracted from their objective and often found themselves reading the entire book cover to cover.

Our quota for four at eight items each was a hefty total of 32 books. Audio visual items are capped at two per person, and books can be loaned out for a maximum of 21 days. Each kid chose six they wanted to take home.

We proceeded to the ground floor where the girls learnt how to use their member cards to activate the self-borrowing machine, how to place their books to process their loans, and collect the confirmation receipt.

When we finally left the library, it was time for an early dinner. We stopped by the Pastamania at Bedok Point for a family sit-down meal together before hauling our catch of books home in a cab.

Can you guess what the kids were doing at home after dinner? Checking out their new 'toys' of course.

eXplorerkid @ Downtown East

A. had been raving about the outing to eXplorerkid at Downtown East she had with her kindergarten about a month ago, and we finally found time to bring her and her sister down again.

Arriving in a taxi, mummy and daddy realized how much the entire place had changed since the last time we were here. The last time mummy came to Downtown East was when she was till in junior college! That sure was a long time ago. We had to count on A. to help us find the place.



Cartoon map of the playground showing the various play stations.

eXplorerkid is known for their indoor playgrounds made up of 'play stations', stand alone areas of thematic play that are merged together to make up the entire playground. Some of these 'play stations' require an additional fee while the rest are free of charge.

Ticketing counter.

Shoe racks and stroller park.

Lots for strollers (marked on floor) to keep strollers in a neat order

Pay per use locker facilities are provided.

Hand sanitization.

Thermal scanner aka 'fever detector'.

At the entrance, we bought our entry tickets, which came up to $20 per kid and $1 per adult for NTUC Card members. Otherwise, one has to pay $22 for each child and $2 for adult. Once inside the arena, the dim yellow lights with colourful walls indicated we have entered a new zone altogether - the kids' play zone! We changed into our socks and placed our footwear on the racks provided before scampering off to check out the play areas!

Once inside the gantry, A. began playing tour guide and enthusiastically introduced us to all the different play stations. As a parent, I was impressed by the vast amount of space that integrated all types of people under one roof: children moving at light-speed, tired children, hungry children, parents who prefer to chill out in the corner, toddlers, infants, and gatherings such as parties and celebrations in function rooms. When we were there, all the function rooms, or should we say, party rooms, were all fully occupied. The pretty birthday decorations and yummy looking food opened up A's eyes to the idea of having her own party here too. Well, we would see about it...

The MegaPlay is the main play frame in the playground. There's plenty to climb on, hide behind, hang from, and slide down in this play station, and it's absolutely free!

A mini 'flying-fox' inside the MegaPlay.

The speedy slide inside the MegaPlay.

Panaromic view of the crawl through areas of the MegaPlay.

The Ball O City cage costs $5.50 per half hour; children run around in an enclosed area fitted with cannons that shot the balls around.



Party rooms for booking.



One of the play stations that caught our eye was the Adventure Highlands. It appeared to be a 'high' elements obstacle course for children. After observing some children navigate the course, A. was keen to give it a try. A go at the circuit costs $5.50 and requires the participant to meet a minimum height. The child navigates under the watchful eyes of an instructor, and appears to be relatively safe.

Although not very high, the course proved to be both mentally and physically challenging for our five year old A.. Still, I was particularly proud of how she did not give up and stuck through the entire course.

The adventure begins!

Obstacle 1: Double line crossing.

Obstacle 2: zig-zag bridge.



Obstacle 3: sliding bridge - the child stands on a disk and drags herself across by pulling a rope.

Obstacle 4: criss-cross single line crossing.

Obstacle 5: tyre bridge.

Obstacle 6: net traverse.

Obstacle 7: assisted single line cross - crossing with a hanging buoy for support.

Obstacle 8: hanging plank bridge.

Obstacle 9: log bridge.

At the end of the challenge, I asked her how she felt. Her response was very positive, and she too was extremely satisfied that she overcame the challenges faced while on the course. Overall, I must say that it was indeed a confidence builder and a positive experience that has helped A. to appreciate physical play and understand her strengths and weaknesses better.

Another physically challenging station was the Cliff, a low rock wall with zones marked out for different difficulty levels. A. was excited to show me how well she could climb, but the more difficult levels required me to spot her now and then. The floor is a soft mattress so there were no hard landings in the event of a slip or fall.



While A. was busy showing daddy around, K. spent most of her time enjoying another innovative play pen with mummy known as the Lit Ballpool, which is a simple ball pool that is lit up in such a way that the coloured lights shine through the balls such that it appears to be a magical bubble land.

Lost in Bubbleland!



In the ball pool are also basketball hoops and there were many kids just lying around and having a go at tossing the bubbles through the hoops. Next to the ball pool was a cushy slide that the girls really had fun with. In fact, K. simply went up and down the slide for a cool ten minutes!

A. helped K. up the slide...

... and then pushed her down!



Making it look so therapeutic.

 There were many other attractions in this 'park', and some we didn't even get to try! One of the things that will make me come back is the availability of rest areas for parents to watch their kids from. You could literally sprawl yourself anywhere on the floor, find a cosy corner, slouch into a comfy cushion, or even lie around while taking care of your kids!

Toddler and infant roll-around mats spread out around various areas on the large floor space.

Special kiosks sold drinks and snacks.

Plenty of comfy areas for parents and their kids to lounge around.

An innovative run through with lights that change the colour of the dimly lit cave.

This booth provides children a variety of craft options for $5.

The children participating in the craft...

A large café area booked for a birthday party later.

Bouncing around on the springy leaves at the Cactus Garden.

We spent about two hours there before leaving for dinner at the nearby Downtown East fast food area. There were so many food options we actually spent a good amount of time trying to find that special restaurant to eat a good meal. It was an anti-climax when we settled for fastfood in the end.

A rare treat indeed

We'll be back to explore the rest of the mall another time!