family bonding time Archives - Page 2 of 6

Charity Work For Families – Boys’ Brigade Share-A-Gift Project

Every Christmas is a period of giving and sharing. It has been my wish to do volunteering work for the longest time. There are plenty of volunteering work out there to choose to do. But taking time on weekends on my own will deprive my family time with the kids. Till the day my kids are older when I will have more free time to do my own stuff, I will need to find one charity work that includes the family and suitable for the kids for now.

Some volunteer work need long term commitment which I cannot commit. Some needs older kids to do. Some, like orphanage, are sensitive to visit as a family (we learnt that through inquiries). It was not easy to find one that 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 toddler can volunteer together. And that is when I learnt about the Boys’ Brigade Share-A-Gift project.

Share-A-Gift is an easy thing to do and it can involve the whole family including my 4yo toddler. In short, it is on food hamper delivery to needy families.

First we had to sign up at http://www.bbshare.sg/ for a time slot that works for us. On that day, we appeared at BB’s Headquarters, and had the BB Boys load 10 big food hampers into our car. We also received 5 acknowledgement slips with 5 addresses to deliver the food hampers to. The 5 addresses are within blocks away from each other or within the same block. Then we were on our way as delivery boys and girls!

Initially we thought it was as simple as going up to the beneficiary units, and passed the hampers to them with a friendly smile of Hello, Merry Christmas and Bye. And if we were lucky, chat with the families as well. But it turned out to be a little tougher than just that.

With happy smiles and enthusiasm, each of us carried a heavy hamper and went up to the first unit. But there was no one at home after knocking on the door. So, we moved on to the second unit, hoping we had better luck, then, it was again no answer. We moved on to the third unit, refusing to believe that we would hit an empty unit for the third time. Again no answer! Even the toddler started to call out “Hello! Hello!” and knocking on the door loudly. By this time, the kids were getting disappointed and were tired of lugging the heavy hampers around. Can you believe our bad luck? None of the 5 beneficiaries was at home!

While we thought this was it, I decided to call the recipients and finally one uncle, who was at the coffeeshop downstairs, came home after picking up my call. This was our first successful delivery after an hour or so!

As we were doing this project with 4 family friends, one of them did not have any luck too. And they went back to the BB Headquarters to report and were given new beneficiary addresses. This saved us a trip back and we drove to the next address to deliver the remaining 4 sets of food hampers. This time, we were smarter. We called up the recipients before we delivered the hampers to them. In this round, we managed to deliver another 3 sets of food hampers! The kids were delighted and one of our family friends helped to send back all our remaining hampers back to BB Headquarters together with the acknowledgement slips.

All in all, we spent 2 hours of a Sunday afternoon, breaking our Sunday family routine, to do a simple but meaningful work for those in need! Seeing their smiles upon receiving the hampers gave us a feeling of contentment and happiness. I hope this small start of volunteering will enable the kids to appreciate simple things in life and learn to share and give 🙂

After that, the 4 families went for a playdate together at Marine Cove playground and had great fun at the East Coast Beach.

Perhaps, if you wish to do volunteering work with your kids or friends, you should really check this out. It is certainly a good start to teach the kids to share and give. It need not be all monetary gifts, it can be a gift of time and I find this even more meaningful!

Do check out http://www.bbshare.sg/ and register a slot from now till 31 December (Except for 24, 25 and 26 Dec).

More information:

For 29 years, since 1988, The Boys’ Brigade has been seeking to bring cheer to the less fortunate by collecting food items and fulfilling Christmas wishes of the beneficiaries through The Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift (BBSG) project.

Beneficiaries include elderly, kids and needy families.Each food hamper consists of 25 items, put together by the BBSG, from donations gathered from the public.

Each hamper is estimated to last the beneficiaries for four months or more. Common items are Rice, Biscuits, Cooking Oil, Instant Noodles, Canned food, seasonings, etc.

There are 3 things you can choose to do for this Share-A-Gift Project:

1) Donations of food items:From 25 November till 19 December 2016, gifts donated will be collected through the Gift Boxes (for General Wishes) and Wish Trees (for Specific Wishes) at various FairPrice outlets island-wide from 11am to 9pm daily. The public would be able to deposit their general food and household items in the Gift Boxes, and fulfill specific wishes of the beneficiaries that are placed on tags on the Wish Trees.

Donors can also contribute by purchasing general food and household hampers valued at $20, $30, and $50 via NTUC FairPrice’s online portal (www.fairprice.com.sg) or donate cash at any AXS station.

2) Adopt a Wish (Specific Wishes Project)Adopt a wish or wishes from any of the Boys’ Brigade Share-A-Gift Wish Trees in Singapore.Pick up a wish tag and get the item on the wish tag. Place the gift at the location where you pick up the wish tag. The Wish Trees are located at various NTUC outlets. More information can be found on the “donation location” here.

3) Deliver Food Hampers like what we do!

Let this season be the start of a regular volunteering work with your kids and families 🙂

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. We got to be part of this meaningful project when I learnt through media and PR who are promoting volunteering and sharing during this holiday period. It could not have come at a better time when I was coincidentally looking up for doing volunteering work with my kids 🙂

Our Hand-made Advent Calendar with Activities!

I would need to plan according to the dates from 1 Dec to 24 Dec. Advent Calendar begins on 1 Dec for 24 days if you do not already know. An Advent Calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. You may read more about the Advent Calendar over here.

Even though we are not Christians, we love Christmas anyway. Somehow with the cool weather, with Christmas decorations dressing the malls plus the school holiday season put together, the Christmas mood does make me happier than other months. I have seen many pretty Pinterest photos on Christmas ranging from party ideas to activities. One of them is the Advent Calendar. This year, I decided to do a hand-made Advent Calendar with activities.

My first inspiration was really from A Million Little Echoes, a very talented mum blogger who did an Advent Calendar last Christmas, unveiling one activity each for her kids to do. As I am a full-time working mum, I do not have the luxury to bring the kids out every single day to surprise them, and many of the advent activities have to be in the evening when I come home from work. So, I decided to plan evening home activities and impromptu ideas to make each day an interesting one for the kids!

I started by checking my calendar for special events, and drafted a list of activities that I could input into each day of the 24 days. Some ideas are pretty crazy like.. “Accompanying Ye Ye (Grandpa, my father-in-law) to take a bus home to find Ah Ma (Grandma, my MIL)!” This will be a pleasant surprise and I think it is a great idea to let the kids take an out-of-norm impromptu bus ride to accompany my FIL on his journey home. Did I mention I have the best in-laws in the world? Without my FIL’s help each day to come my house to take care of the kids, I cannot work in peace. I know my kids are in good hands. My MIL is a kind grandma whom my kids are blessed to have. So, giving her a surprise by turning up at her childcare workplace will certainly please her greatly! The kids will certainly be thrilled and for me, I have planned it to be a Friday activity so that I can stay up late with the kids since the next day is a weekend 😃

Some other ideas for activities include movie nights, staycation surprise, a walk along Orchard Road to view Christmas Lightings, Reading Wizard of Oz to my kids, Art and Craft nights, Baking, etc, etc. You can think of your own activities to do with your kids too! It need not be bringing them out if you are busy at work on weekdays. The activities that I plan are mostly taking place at night after work hours.

There are plenty of Advent Calendars out there on Pinterest to find your inspiration. What I did was really a simple one and I got all my supplies from Daiso!

A pack of transparent gift bags
A roll of brown string
A pack of colour paper stickers
A pack of wooden clips
A pack of adhesive fancy ribbons
Small gift cards – I found cute Christmas templates and print them out

I roped in all the kids to help on this very first activity on the Advent Calendar on 1 Dec: To make an Advent Calendar! LOL!

It was easy to task the kids now that the elder 2 are good with their hands and have lots of creative juices. First, they helped me to paste the ribbons on the wooden clips to make the clips look Christmasy and lovely. Even the youngest can do this!

Then I cut a few templates of stickers meant for writing the dates on them and Missy 11 could follow my templates to duplicate to 24 of them.

Next comes the interesting part of writing the dates on the stickers. For Pinterest worthy, my initial thought was to write the dates big and legible with a nice lettering. But I decided to get the kids to write for me and they came out with their favorite drawings, with one creative snowman representing the number 8, a reindeer with a red nose using the red colour paper sticker, a tiger, butterfly and lots more! As a result, even though these bags with the cute drawings are not as glam and Pinterest showcase worthy, I really much prefer these designs as they truly make the otherwise boring advent calendar so much fun and unique!

After the bags were prepared, I spent an hour writing the activities for each day on 3 pieces of Christmas cards and slot them into each bag. One card for each of the 3 kiddos. As the youngest needs help in reading, I drew a picture on some of the cards so that he understands.

The last part of it is to string each bag and hang on the wall!

Each morning, the kids will look forward to opening up that day’s bag and read the messages inside. One thing to note is not to write the date on the message cards so that I can change my activity plans around as and when necessary.

Do you have an Advent Calendar in your home? Perhaps you can try this activity with your kids and have fun everyday till Christmas!

U Escape @ Plaza Singapura – Escape Room suitable for Family!

I am pretty excited to share about our addiction to Escape Room concept game!

Previously I have read reviews from The Little Mom and Mummy Ed and I was not sure if the kids could handle, but after we went to U Escape at Plaza Singapura during the September holidays, we all got hooked! And 2 days later, we went again, but as we did not book for it, we checked out another Escape Room and we loved that too!

I am pretty excited to share about our addiction to Escape Room concept game!

What is an Escape Room?

An Escape Room is usually designed with a theme, for instance the one that we went is a CASINO room.

The ultimate aim is to break codes and locks to finally unlock the door of the room within a limited time, like 60 min.

You have to move around the room and find clues which will lead to a combination code of a lock or a key to a lock to unlock the next clue and so on.

It requires team work, wit, and creativity.

There are different theme rooms to choose from, ranging from family friendly, to more challenging ones and even Virtual Reality Scary ones. There is music played in the background which adds to the mood of the game.

Number of pax: typically from 2 – 14

How do we play?

There are many versions of Escape Rooms in Singapore.

U Escape, being our first Escape Room experience, is very suitable for kids and family in my opinion. That is from our experience of 2 different Escape Room concept between U Escape and another similar Escape Room provider.

First of all, U Escape has 4 rooms to choose from: River Quay Casino, Szechuan Secret, The Atomic Bunker and Room 13.

We were told the River Quay Casino is the most family friendly and has a more vibrant theme and Room 13 is the more challenging one. We decided to try out River Quay Casino as it might be more suitable for our young kids especially when we had the 4yo with us too.

I like that U Escape has a Game Master dedicated to guide us in our game. We were led into the Casino room and after a short briefing by the Game Master, he left us to explore the room on our own. The timer started to count down from 60 min.

Initially I thought that both Kel and I would have to break most codes since the kids may not be as witty as us, how wrong was I!! The kids were happy to explore around and dared to touch anything and anywhere, and they had better chances in finding clues than us. Usually, they get warned on itchy hands when their curiosity get the better of them in new places, but over here in this room, my first instruction to them is ”Go ahead and explore and feel around.”

Whenever we got stuck, we had 3 chances to shout for clues, in which the Game Master will type out the clue on the computer screen on the wall. Perhaps, seeing that we have 3 young kids and time was running out quick, he typed subtle clues whenever he saw that we spent too much time at a location. Each time his message comes, there will be a soft “Ding” and we would all look up at the screen for his message. Sometimes, we even talked to him, and he replied on the screen. I thought this was really, really helpful for us as there were really many codes to break and spending more than even 5 min at one part is considered too much time wasted.

There was a moment when my youngest was a little upset that he did not know what we were all busy searching around for that he started to cry. We had neglected him in our urgency to search for clues. So, I brought him to a corner and got him to unlock a door combination lock again and again by repeating the numbers to him to which he opened that lock numerous times. Thankfully for him, when the door was accidentally closed, no one could remember the lock combination anymore as we had advanced to many other locks, except me who had chanted the code, and this time the little one could open the door and beamed with pride that he helped “solve” a clue!

I would say many of the clues are cleverly thought and arranged. We were amazed at some of the ingeniously hidden ones. When the time was up, we were still left with 2 locks. The Game Master appeared and revealed the final clues that we did not solve. We left the room feeling all hyped up on the fun. The older 2 kids could not stop talking about the experience and pestered us to go again. I feel that this is a really good place for family bonding as we need to work together and use our wit to break out of the room together. In fact, we loved it so much that I suggested going again 2 days later when we went for a playdate with Master 9’s classmates.

On the second occasion when we checked out the other Escape concept place, we were a little shocked that they do not have a Game Master like U Escape. Hence, we struggled in solving the clues within only 45 minutes, compared to U Escape’s 60 minutes. There were no clues typed out for us to read and whenever we got stuck, we pressed a bell for help and a staff member would appear to guide us on wherever we were at. As 45 minutes was really too fast for us kids and mummies, I find that this Escape room provider is more suited for experts who need minimal or no help. It is certainly not so easy for young kids to start with.

If you ask me, I will tell you that we will certainly be planning Escape Room fun for the kids again! And what’s more, for the start of the school holidays from now till 30 November, just quote

“Christy15”

to the U Escape staff and you will be entitled to 15% discount!

More information on U Escape @ Plaza Singapura:

U Escape is powered by Timezone, in partnership with Breakout Kansas City (Breakout KC).

What rooms do they have?

1) Szechuan Secret (4 – 14 players): Ever fantasized about stepping into the polished shoes of brilliant CIA Agents and tackle adventurous missions? Well, here’s your chance to live the fantasy!

2) Atomic Bunker (4 – 12 players): Imagine stepping into an atomic bunker only to realise that the only way to save mankind from world destruction is to stop a reactor meltdown! And you only have 60 minutes! — tick tock…

3) Room 13 (4 – 12 players): You don’t know how you checked in, that’s why this is one hotel room you would want to check out of as soon as you can!

4) River Quay Casino (2 – 10 players): Take on the role of an eagle-eyed investigator and find out a corrupt employee who has been looting the Casino.

5) INTENSE mission – NEW!

U Escape has recently launched ten-minute Escape Room missions. Typically, each game at U Escape is 60 minutes long. But now, for the first time in Singapore, people will be able to experience the adventures of an Escape Room in just ten minutes. This works for those who are looking for some quick thrills and proof of their mental prowess and also for first-timers who may want to get a feel of Escape Rooms before they commit an entire hour to it.

Priced at $6 per person, U Escape currently has the following five types of missions:

No.	Mission	Description
1.	Operation Firefly	Special Agent, Our inside man has got some really important information. This information is code named Firefly. We will only have a 10min window to pick Firefly up. Failure is not an option. Your mission is to BRING BACK FIREFLY. Be Swift.
2.	Hit List	Special Agent, At 0041hrs this morning, one of our agents, code named The Skull, was killed in the enemy territory. It is believed he was a double agent working for both sides. His loyalties were unknown. Now, we need to retrieve The Skull’s Hit List diary, a notebook believe to contain the names of people he was tasked to assassinate. There is little time to waste, once in the mission zone, you will only have 10mins, before the enemy retrieves it themselves. Your mission is to RETREIVE THE HIT LIST DIARY BEFORE THE ENEMY GETS THEIR HANDS ON IT.
3.	Hell’s Gate	Special Agent, There are ORBS code named “Hell’s Gate”. ORBS is believed to be an unknown technology able to open a gateway to another dimension. We cannot let the enemy have this. We have come to know that all the orbs are within the same zone, but you will only have 10mins to retrieve them all. Your mission is to FIND & SECURE ALL FOUR ORBS.
4.	King Solo	Special Agent, You have been selected for this retrieval mission, code name “KING SOLO”. There is a key that will open the gates to King Solomon’s Treasures, which we have found to be located in the Szechuan area in China. Your country needs this key. Your mission is to FIND THE KEY AND BRING IT BACK TO MISSION CONTROL.
5.	Raven’s Tale	Special Agent, We believe the enemy will be instigating an attack on our lands. We can get you into the heart of the territory where we believe the plans are stored in a SAFE, but you only have 10 minutes to find it, remember everything, and get out of there. Save your Nation. Your mission is to FIND OUT WHAT THEIR PLAN IS. REMEMBER THE DETAILS; WHAT, HOW AND WHEN.

Each mission can be attempted by one to three players.

Location:

Plaza Singapura #07-08A
68 Orchard Road
Singapore 238839

Tel: 6337 0049

Email: info@uescape.sg

Website: http://www.uescape.sg/

Opening Hours :
Mon – Thurs : 10am to 11pm
Fri – Sun : 10am – 12mn

Price:

Off-peak (Mondays to Thursdays before 6pm) – $26 for Adult and $20 for student

Peak (Mondays to Thursdays after 6pm, Friday to Sunday whole day) – $29 for Adult and $26 for student

Children under 12 years old will be allowed student prices. Children under 6 years old are free.

To check for promotions which they do have value for money on and off, click here.

Functions: Corporate booking for team building events or Birthday and private functions, you may write to them at info@uescape.sg

It is advisable to book in advance before going to U Escape to secure an Escape Room to avoid disappointment.

Disclaimer: We were invited for a review experience at U Escape. As you can see, we loved it so much that we had to go twice within a week! That kind of sum up our experience! 🙂

May – what goes on in our lives

The mid-year examinations are over and I seriously think that I am the happier one than the kids. Why is that so? Firstly, the children are not so stressed by us as compared to their peers, although the revision had increased in intensity. How could they be stressed if the revision is only at most 2 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday? Weekdays were for them to do past year exam paper or revise a couple of chapters and weeknights were for me to answer their questions. Secondly, I can come home to the kids, relax and talk everything except academic. Thirdly, I have so many plans on weekends to bring them to and none of the hours are for revision! Yeah!!

Separation Anxiety for me

This month also saw my separation anxiety for the very first time as a mum of 11 years. I was surprised that it affected me quite a bit. I had been to business trip, on couple trips, but nothing like knowing my girl was overseas and I was not by her side. I didn’t even have the mood to blog.

Separation anxiety is for mums too…

Leading up to the days when my girl was going for her first overseas trip without her parents beside her, I had already started missing her.

She doesn’t know so much about how I felt. Being her mum, I needed to put on a brave front so that she would not feel worser than what she was already feeling in leaving us for a short while.

She cried when she thought of leaving for the trip the next day. I comforted her and told her that she would have such a great time that she would feel that the trip is too short.

Come the day when we sent her to the airport, I thought I would cry and she thought she would too. Thank god we did not as the merriment of being with friends and teachers forbade such outpour of emotions.

Then it was my turn to feel sad and I really miss her so much. But then I looked at my younger ones and decided that it would be a good chance to spend more time with them now that my time is divided by 2 instead of 3. We went to the beach after the sent off. The car did seem somewhat less jovial and a little too spacious without my princess with us. When we reached home, I decided to check if her flight has landed. That was when my heart sank when I could not find her flight. All possible thoughts flashed through my mind and I felt a icy cold shiver. When my hub heard me mumbled, he quickly searched in a different website and announced that the flight has landed safely. And I began to cry. Cried with relief!

For the rest of the day, I could not really function until she finally called during dinner time! Whoa! Hearing her voice and seeing her face in the mobile phone took away all my worries instantly. I am not sure how other mums do it, but I am probably not so brave when it comes to my own children leaving my side. Maybe this is a prep for me when they grow older and move out of our family love nest.

So this wrap up of the month was only written after she came back. Yeah Yeah!

Despite the exams, we still did quite many things within the last 2 weeks in May.

Cold Storage Kids Run 2016

We went for our 2nd year of Cold Storage Kids Run. 2 days before the run, Master 4 and I were spotted on the poster for the Run! The funny thing was that although I had received this mailer in my inbox and had referred to it several times on important information for the run, I had never really took a good look at the picture beside it! A friend snapshot the poster and sent to me and that was when we had a more than pleasant surprise! This photo was taken during last year’s Cold Storage Kids Run when Master 4 was 3yo. Isn’t he such a cutie?

Poster boy and mum Continue reading “May – what goes on in our lives”

April – what goes on in our lives

While I dreaded my examinations in my school days and celebrated the end of it after going through 16 years of being a student, and more than a hundred of examinations, big or small, I have never thought I would be going through it again. Many of you should know by now that I used to be a laid back mum, learnt my lesson, and become a not-so-laid-back-mum. So, naturally, I am doing what many other parents are doing: mugging for examinations along with my children. Ok, maybe mugging is a strong word, let’s just say, reinforcing the basics but at a more intensive pace.

So, April is about preparing the kids for the examinations. Primary school students are too young to know how to prep for exams, aren’t they? I remembered I did not really study for my examinations prior to PSLE. With my wealth of experience, I decided to go through the process of this preparation with the kids, hoping to slowly let go, and let them learn how to revise on their own gradually. As much as I hate it, in this aspect, I belong to the helicopter parent for now. You will be surprised at how at Primary 5, the English examination paper is really quite tough. I need to check the dictionary or sometimes google up the word when the dictionary hasn’t got the word! And we are talking about the Oxford dictionary! And yes, we are talking about primary school standard!

Because of the exams prep, I have been neglecting my toddler as my short hours after work are totally consumed by teaching the 2 elder kids. I know it affects him because he has not been looking at me when I leave the house for work and when I come back home in the evening. All these gestures make my heart ache. I feel so guilty and really hope to make up for it after exams. Bear with Mama ok, baby?

So, while exams are important especially for my gal who is doing PSLE syllabus, I still try to strike a balance on revision and play. I don’t believe in mugging for the examinations for every waking moment. So, we brought the kids out for our usual weekend routine.

Safra Punggol – Little Explorers

Perhaps I am one of the rare parents who give the kids an exam break. On the weekend before the exams, we brought the kids to Safra Punggol for a day of fun.

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kidsrsimple.com Continue reading “April – what goes on in our lives”