Tag: Fun activities

5 Indoor Places to go with your kids

Here are my 5 simple indoor places to bring your kids to.

1. Indoor Playground (Fidgets)

This is located in Old Turf City at Bukit Timah Road.

Like many indoor playground, it has all the play areas. But what we like about this place is that it has a separate area for below 2 years old, a separate one for 2-4 years old and the main play area for all ages. The large main play area has many play themes that kids will not be bored with. The cafeteria and sofas are just beside the younger play areas. Parents will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee while keeping a lookout for their young ones.

Admission fees: $19 (2-10 years old), $10 (under 2 years old), free (adults and babies under 1 year old)

2. Time zone Arcade

We like the Time zone Arcade at Compass Point. It has many games appropriate for younger kids. The popular ones are the small bowling lanes, basketball throws, Percussion game, roll up balls into holes, and Air Hockey Table game. After the games, kids can have the joy to redeem the gifts using their e-tickets.

Fees: A pre-paid Timezone card to play the games

3. Safra Yishun Swimming Pool

This is our favourite swimming pool so far. Safra Yishun Swimming Pool has 1 long slide and 1 short slide that all ages can play. There is a man-made waterfall where you can stand under to enjoy the pitter-pattering of water on your shoulders.  (However, recently the slides have been closed for renovations.)  There is a baby pool, a learning pool for kids, an Olympic size pool and a pool with Jacuzzi. Music is played throughout the day and on some weekdays evening, they play romantic songs and soothing music while you soak in the pool.

Another attractive feature of the pool is that there is warm water for shower which is important when you have kids. You will find that bathing them is a breeze. The luxurious space in the shower area and separate changing area is definitely another draw for us. You do not need to bring along shampoo and shower gel as each shower room has a shampoo cum shower gel dispenser unless you prefer using your own.

Admission Fees: Free for Safra members, $3 for guest on weekends

(This place is actually outdoor, but I find it such a cozy setting especially in the evening, I have decided to add to this list.)

4. ChangiAirport Terminal 3

Amazingly, Changi Airport Terminal 3 is SO kids-friendly, tourists or passengers in transit would have mistaken the terminal as a shopping mall rather than an airport. Weekends are packed with families with young kids. What’s fun is an area with big stencil tracing blocks where kids or adults can colour on with the crayons and paper available. Also, there is a 12 metre tall jumbo twister slide and a shorter one for the less adventurous. There is an area for television viewing tuned to Cartoon network where you can deposit your kids there while you shop around the vicinity.

Not only that, there is an indoor playground located in Terminal 3 , B2 as well.  It’s called Singkids.  Check out this Japanese designed PlaySystem as they called it!

Admission Fees: Singkids – $18 per 2 hrs (off-peak), $18 per hour (peak)

5. Ikea Tampines

Ikea is a famous kids-friendly furniture mall. Over at Ikea Tampines, there is an indoor play area for kids while the parents shop around or enjoy the famous Swedish balls at the cafeteria near it. Even the cafeteria has a small round play area for kids while the parents eat and watch their kids beside it. Kids above 4 can sign up as members of småles kids club where they can have a sticker with each visit and use the stickers to redeem small gifts.

Shopping at Ikea is a pleasant experience. The kids can’t wait to reach the kids furniture area where all the things are kids’ size. There are toys to play too. Everything is so adorable even to the eyes of parents; it’s hard not to get something from here.

Admission Fees: Free

Do you have other interesting places to bring kids to?

Our neighbourhood is just as fun

In Singapore, we have ample and countless playgrounds just within a simple neighbourhood.  Recently, as I am taking a short break due to fatigue and stress (see my post in “My baby is 8! (month old I mean)“), I had more time with my kids together.  One of the things we did was to explore our neighbourhood.

We found many playgrounds within walking distance of probably half a kilometre radius from where we stay, and the last of our count is 17!  This is not inclusive of those we had not covered by foot yet!

Each playground is unique.  Some are simple and some are more challenging which makes it fun for kids in various ages.

Below are some playgrounds that we find interesting.  And some are slightly further away but still within 10 minutes of a bus or car ride from where we stay.

Bishan St 22

Bishan

Bishan

Bishan St 13

Bishan

Bishan

Bishan

Bishan St 12

Bishan

Bishan St 12

Bishan St 11

Bishan St 11

Bishan St 11

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Bishan Park

Toa Payoh Lorong 8

Toa Payoh Lor 8

Toa Payoh Central

TPY Central

Junction 8 Shopping mall Level 3

Junction 8

Junction 8

With so many playgrounds spoilt for choice, it will take some months before we will start exploring other neighbourhood!

Do you have great playgrounds in your neighbourhood? Share with me! I would love to know!

Learning Math – Simple Division using bottle caps

Division using bottle caps

My girl has started on learning “Division” in school and I know it is not easy for her to grasp it as a new topic.  Yet, this concept is in everyday life and she just doesn’t know it’s called “Division”.

If you had read my earlier post “Learning Math – Mass using Lego blocks“, you would have known that I have been trying out simple Math concepts for my 2 kids using Sarah’s (from Frugal Fun for Boys) method that she uses for home-schooling.

First we start with some bottle caps (we had 12 of them).  Then, I asked XX and YH to draw on a piece of paper each with 2 columns as the following:

1st column: Numbers 1 -12 – This is the number of bottle caps that we used in all.

2nd column: “Each person has               caps.”  This is to write down after dividing the bottle caps between the 2 kids, how many bottle caps does each person has.

Again, my kids love the decorating part for their papers but this time round, they spent lesser time on it.

So, the games goes – I started with 1 cap and ask them:

Question 1 – “Is 1 an even or odd number?”

Question 2 – “Can it be divided equally between 2 persons (XX and YH)?”  If their answer is “Yes”, they put a tick beside the number 1 on their paper, otherwise, they put a cross.

Question 3 – “How many bottle caps will each person get?” And here they have to write down the answer in the 2nd column. (XX actually answered yes in Question 2 and her answer for this part is each person will get “half” the cap, haha, it is not wrong even though that’s not the answer I am looking for.  Clever girl!)

And the game goes on with 2 bottle caps all the way to 12 bottle caps.

YH's check sheet

Even before the end of the game, they began to see an “AB” patterning but still does not know how “Division” concept comes in here.  That’s when I had to explain to them that by doing this activity, we are learning on “Division”.  This is simple division of 2.  As XX already understand multiplication, I wrote down the number sentences for 2 x 4 = 8 vs 8 bottle caps divided into 2 persons, i.e. 8 ÷ 2 = 4.  After writing a few more examples, she began to understand the relation between multiplication and division.  As for my boy, it is a little more challenging to understand the big word “DIVISION”, but he could grasp the concept of dividing bottle caps equally.  Also, he understood more on what is odd and even numbers.

XX and YH had fun playing this activity while their baby brother YT was reading and playing with bottle caps by the side 🙂

YT reading @ 6th mth

Do you have simple and fun learning for Math or other subjects?  Share with me!  I would love to hear new ideas to play at home!

Learning Math – Mass using Lego blocks

Balancing object      YH balancing with Lego blocks

I have been thinking how to teach simple Math concept through play that will interest both my 8 year old XX and 6 year old YH.  I found so many resources in countless excellent blogs in the blogosphere.  One of them is on learning the concept of Mass using Lego blocks, a hanger and simple objects (found in Frugal Fun for Boys blog).  This is timely as XX happens to be learning Mass now.

First, get a hanger and 2 strings / ribbons.  Then, with 1 string / ribbon, tie a Lego block as a starting piece so that later on more Lego blocks can be fixed to it and the other string / ribbon tied to any object that is not too heavy.  Next, I got XX and YH to each draw a simple score board with 3 columns with the following:

1st column: OBJECT – What is the object being weighed?
2nd column: GUESS – How many Rectangular Lego blocks do you think will balance the object?
3rd column: ACTUAL – The final answer to the number of blocks that will balance the object.

Score board

XX and YH took quite some time to work on this score board, simply because they were busy decorating their score board, and we have not even started anything yet!

The kids enjoyed the activity and we tabulated the scores with guesses that have the correct answers.  2 points for the correct answer and 1 point for close to correct answer as a consolation.

* You would have noticed that the 2 pieces of score board in the picture look weird.  That’s because when we tabulated the score, YH was not happy that he lost to his sister by 1 point, and he did a naughty act by spitting some saliva on his sister’s score board.  I, too, did a naughty thing to scrap the saliva back onto his paper and there you see XX’s paper was cut short to remove the saliva portion, and YH’s paper was torn a hole as he tried to wipe off his own saliva.  It’s a norm to see them squabble over such minute things.  And equally a norm to see me deviate from the goody, yummy mummy supposed by-the-book way of punishment. 

Off center balance

Oh, and one interesting and unexpected learning from this activity is that when each child took turns to weigh their Lego blocks, they shifted the Lego string position.  This resulted in off center balance of the hanger as the centre of gravity had shifted.  When initially we saw that it took 10 Lego blocks to reach balance, it now could not balance and required 12 blocks instead due to the string shift.  I had a good opportunity to demonstrate that the position of the strings at the 2 ends of the hanger was important in determining the balancing act of the object and the Lego blocks.  And the kids were pleasantly surprised by this new finding! 

Try it with your kids and you will be off to great, simple fun learning!

Learning through Play – the fun and simple way

There are many ways to teach academic topics to kids through playing and games.  Kids find the games interesting and get to learn English, Chinese, Mathematics without knowing.  I find the ways to introduce learning something new extremely important as first impression last for a long long time.  If kids are introduced to learning in a fun way, they will not tend to be put off or reject learning the same subject matter in future.
 
Here are 5 fun ways of learning that my kids love:

1. Teaching NUMBERS using playing cards

I love playing cards.  Not to gamble with kids but to introduce the concept of numbers to my kids.  There are many ways to play to reinforce this concept.

a) Big and small – The deck of cards is distributed evenly to each player.  If there are 3 players, each player take turns to be the first to throw out a card, the next person has to throw out a bigger number card.  Whoever throws out the biggest number card wins the pool of cards.  There is a catch here.  If you always throw out big number cards in the beginning, you will end up with small number cards towards the end of the game.

What is learnt here: kids get to think of what number is bigger than the number thrown out.  They get to plan to reserve cards for the end where everyone has no big cards.  This trains their thinking and planning skills.

b)   SNAP game – Do you remember how to play “SNAP”? If you have those flash cards with a set of numbers vs a set of counting dots, you can play “SNAP” with your kids.

What is learnt here: kids learn counting and get used to patterns and train them to know the number without counting dots.

c) Memory game – Sieve out pairs of number cards, shuffle, and lay them face down on the floor.  Players take turn to open 2 cards at a time.  Whenever 2 cards with the same number are turned over, player gets to keep the cards. If the cards are different, they will have to be turned over face down till someone picks these cards again.

What is learnt here: kids learn numbers and train their memory skills.

2. Teaching MONEY

Set up a market stall selling fruits, vegetables, meat, etc using kids’ cooking toy set.  Write down 10cents, 20 cents, 50 cents and one dollar on pieces of paper and place them on each sale item.  Give your kids some money with many coins of different denominations.  Start selling to your “customers”, i.e. your kids.  Guide them on giving you more than the price of items and give them back money change.  (My kids love this part of getting money change back.  They think they earn more by getting more coins back!)  Make it more fun by selling their favourite toys as well as reversing roles!

What is learnt here: kids learn the concept of money, how to count money and get back money change.

3. Teaching ENGLISH / CHINESE


Do a “SHOW AND TELL” with your kids!  You can take turns to play this with your kids starting with you! Pick up anything, it can be a pen, a tissure box or a favourite toy and start describing the object in your hands.  You have to speak proper English or Chinese sentences, add in some simple but interesting vocabulary.  Then when it is your kids’ turn, let them rattle on and DO NOT INTERRUPT or attempt to CORRECT their descriptive phrases.  Let them be proud of their “Show and Tell” moment.  After all, they are “on stage”!

What is learnt here: Kids learn English and Chinese words and build up their vocabulary.  The game boosts their confidence and on-stage performance.  While you also do a “Show and Tell, they get to learn more difficult and interesting words and phrases from you too.

4. Teaching MATHEMATICS

It is important to recognize patterns to improve Mathematics as many Mathematics concept revolves around patterns recognition.  I play board games like “Snake and Ladder” and any games that require dice throwing.  Such games enable my kids to recognize the dots on the die for each number.  If you use 2 dice, they learn to add the numbers too. Learning music helps on pattern recognition as well.  There are endless patterns on music scores.  I teach my girl to recognize the pattern of the composition and play on the piano without counting each note.

What is learnt here: kids are trained to get used to recognizing patterns so that they are able to apply them in Mathematics concept.

5. Train the BRAIN


To give a game of “Snake and Ladder” an interesting twist, we reverse the rules with the kids. With the Up the Snake and slide Down the Ladder, the kids have lots of fun catching whoever confuses with the rules. Same goes for the card games where the smaller number card wins over a big number card.

What is learnt here: kids learn to think in unconventional way and their brains are trained to switch thinking from different perspective easily.

Do you have great fun games to entice kids in learning? Share with me!