family bonding time Archives - Page 3 of 6

March – what goes on in our lives

March has a one week school holiday and we did quite many things together as a family. This monthly wrap up post is really a good way for me to check on our family activities and ensuring we have sufficient family bonding time and time for play.

Taking time off from work for the kids

During the 1 week school holidays, I took 2 days off from work to bring the kids out. On the first day, I planned a visit to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum together with the grandparents. We went to sing Karaoke later on. My kids love to sing, and half the singing session was for them to sing their favourite songs. Mind you, the songs they sang were adult ballads and fast numbers, not the kiddie songs. And seeing that we have still some time, we took a leisurely walk at Labrador Park and saw a Holland cruise ship which was exiting to the sea up close! How lucky we were! At dinner, we took a visit to where granny works in a childcare centre. The visit intrigued the kids as they seemed to be impressed that their grandma is still active in the workforce as an assistant teacher teaching little ones just like when they were young.

I am sure by now you know that we love to bring the grandparents and the kids out together. I can’t emphasize enough to the kids that their parents love their grandparents and we place great importance on family relationship and respect our own parents. Hence, as much as we can, we will invite the elders to join us.

Family

On the second day, Master 9 had a playdate. We met over breakfast at Mac Donald’s, had 2 games of bowling, went for a good lunch, and visited Art Science Museum – Future World. It was a good meet up with the mummies who are pretty much Continue reading “March – what goes on in our lives”

Cold Storage Kids Run 2016 + Discount code

Media Invite

Cold Storage Kids Run is back again for the 9th consecutive year! To be held as a run event for nearing a decade, it must be really popular! The theme for this year’s run is “Eat Healthy. Get Active.” and aims to promote a healthy lifestyle and family bonding through exercise and a healthy diet.

This year, the race is held on 22 May 2016 on a Sunday at The Meadows, Gardens by the Bay again! We love Gardens by the Bay and think that the location is totally perfect for this event. I still remember when we took part in our first Kids Run last year, Continue reading “Cold Storage Kids Run 2016 + Discount code”

February – what goes on in our lives

I can’t believe it is already end of February! What did we exactly do in this month that seemed to fly by in a jiffy?

Birthday Celebrations…

February is full of celebrations with 4 birthdays including my lunar birthday too. Missy 11 is, well, 11 years old this year. She had a simple celebration together with just the 5 of us. No big parties for the first time. She made my day when she asked me to bake her favourite New York Cheesecake and we baked her cake together. We treated the kids to Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid, a comedy, in celebration of her birthday.

One on one date…

I dated Missy 11 one on one a few days after her birthday. I asked her what she would like to do on our date and she replied,”I want to go to Timezone!” We went to the archade at Plaza Singapura and had a fun-filled afternoon. I had not had such a good time playing in the entertainment centre for a good many years. It was very special to go with your own daughter and play together. I did not have to keep watch on other kids. It was easier to go out with one child and we had a good chat over MacDonald’s fries and sundae and there was no distraction. Continue reading “February – what goes on in our lives”

No Longer A Laidback Mum in Academics

Being a mum is a constant learning journey.

Each child is different and I have to craft my mothering skills differently on each child, be it nurturing his/her character or be involved in his/her academics.

I used to think that I will be a Laid Back Mum in Academics for as long as I like and my children will turn out fine studying by themselves, just like how I did it myself. How wrong I was.

After my girl failed her P3 Math exam last year, it was a kind of wake up call that my child may need me to be involved in her studies to some extent. I will not hold her hand forever and still will not load her with tuition and endless helicoptering over her studies such that she will be turned off by me. But I will guide her along when she needs my help or if I see that she NEEDS my help. Children may not know and may not always be so initiative when it comes to academics. I need to be more aware of their signals for help.

Imagine my elation when she came back to tell me she had scored 84/100 for her P4 SA2 Math exam!

This was from a “F” in P3 SA2 Math to a pass of 54 marks in P4 SA1 Math exam to an Ace (in my own mummy ranking) in P4 SA2 Math exam!

Not only that, she scored well across all subjects this time round and her friend actually told her that she should get the BEST IMPROVEMENT award 🙂

Best part is Missy 10 said this one evening when I was at the dining table: Continue reading “No Longer A Laidback Mum in Academics”

FIVE SQUARE – new family-friendly dining place

How often do you find a dining place that caters activities to everyone in the family?

FIVE SQUARE did just that! Not only did we have sumptuous mid-range price food, we had fun after that as well, all in the same place. So, you can eat slowly while other members of the family can move on to activities, and I am talking about electric car rides, playground, bouncy castle, pool table, art and craft and beer for the hub.

FIVE Square, the new flagship outlet of the FIVE Bar Group, had recently took over the old home-grown restaurant Hans in Great Eastern Centre. The concept of FIVE Square is rather unique with 4 different dining / chill out places within the same 13,000 square feet space. Add in a few play areas and the Artisan market (think of Uni / Poly days bazaar) within the same “food court” at The Bazaar, you have a family friendly dining area to go.

Let me take you through the play areas and the 4 interesting corners on FIVE Square.

PLAY AREA – For the toddler and younger children

The play area for the younger kiddos is sufficient to keep my toddler occupied for 2 hours that we were there. Best of all, they are all free, including the electric car rides!

ARTISAN MARKET – For the crafty kids and adults

The Artisan Market is only available on Saturdays and has up to 30 stalls selling hand-made accessories, arts & crafts, fashion apparels, decor, home-ware items and more. Missy 10 and I were so engrossed in all the cutie stuff and beautifully hand-made crafts that we spent more than an hour at one stall called Scottiecraft, learning from the freelance self-taught artisan who was selfless in teaching us how to make these beautiful spoon flowers, cupcakes and more!

Continue reading “FIVE SQUARE – new family-friendly dining place”