Tag: Simple Fun

List of Ideas For Bringing Kids Out During School Holidays

List of Ideas of Bringing Kids OutMy favourite source of school holiday fun is none other than Cheekiemonkies blog. So many of my inspiration come from his information sharing. When it comes to what to do with the kids during school holidays, I will start planning as early as during exams period. I want to ensure my kids are not deprived of playdates or outdoor activities even though I am working full-time. So, I will take off from work and bring them to interesting places to play.

Some of my friends around me also ask me for ideas and the funny thing is: it is relatively easy to rattle off a list to them which some we have tried and loved. But when it comes to my own planning, I have much consideration to suit all my 3 kids with their different age groups. The solution is really to separate one-to-one date with each of them or combination of 2 kids while one kid is with the daddy or find a place that suit all 3 of them.

Since I am searching for ideas, I will also share them on this post for my future reference and of course I hope you will find them useful too. I will be updating this list as and when there are new places that come to mind. If you have more interesting places to recommend, I welcome you to leave your comments and I shall add on to the list.

I have categorized into Indoor Places and Activities, Outdoor Places and Activities and Home Activities. I try to list most of the activities to be valid throughout the whole year round and not just customized to holiday periods. For those that are happening only for a short period of time, I will be updating this list regularly.

Indoor places and activities

1. Safra Punggol Splash Indoor Water Playground

Read review here.

2. Children’s Seasons (annually)
Date: 28/5 – 31/7
Suitable for age: 3-7yo

Website: http://www.museums.com.sg/programme-and-exhibitions/childrens-season-1

3. Imaginarium at SAM @8Q

Read review here.

4. Movies
If you have Safra card, then you must watch a movie using its 1 for 1 promotion on weekends! Promotion ends 26 June 2016.

Website: http://www.shaw.sg/sw_cinema.aspx

5. Kidzania

Book online is cheaper!

Review: http://www.cheekiemonkie.net/2016/04/kidzania-singapore-ultimate-activities-guide-review.html

6. Playeum

Do you know that Groupon or Deals.com have discounts for Playeum entry from time to time?

Website: http://www.playeum.com/

7. Bowling

Do call up and ensure the bowling lanes have kids bumpers, and most do!

Website: http://www.superbowl.com.sg/toa-payoh

8. Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

Read review here.

9. Theatres for Children

Act 3i Drama for Children (currently showing in May/June 2016)

Website: http://act3international.com.sg/act3ifestival/

10. National Gallery of Singapore

Website: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/see-do/tours

11. ArtScience Museum

Some past exhibitions

Future World

12. Philatelic Museum (Stamp Museum)

Read review here.

13. Trampoline Park, Kaboodle

Website for Kaboodle: http://www.kaboodlekids.com.sg/

14. Esplanade Pip’s Box

Read review here. Continue reading “List of Ideas For Bringing Kids Out During School Holidays”

West Coast Park Playground – Awesome!

It’s been a long while since I last share on the awesome playground in the East: Pasir Ris Park Playground. Now it is the turn for the equally awesome and huge playground in the West: West Coast Park Playground! It really caters for everyone: children, teenagers, adults and elders. Come here for the Play Area, to Skateboard, Roller Skate, Cycling, Frisbee, BBQ, Bird Watching, Kite Flying, Jogging or just a leisure walk to relax and chat. I am so proud of Singapore’s fun and free places to bring our kids to and perfect places for multi-generation bonding. You really cannot miss this one!

West Coast Park Playground is comparable to the one in the Pasir Ris Park in size. Something different is that there is a Mac Donald’s here which could get very crowded on weekends.

Let’s see what are the fun activities to be found here that Pasir Ris Park doesn’t have or have but slightly different.

Zipline Flying Fox

Who can resist this one? When we were there, there were parents on both sides who took turns to help the children to climb onto the tyre and give them a little push to zip across to the other side. It is an unspoken teamwork and all parents who were there were happy to help ensure safety of all the children. I see gracious parents here and such gestures create a happy playtime for everyone.

Zipline Flying Fox

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Balancing obstacles

There are many balancing fun for the children here. All in different levels of challenges. No wonder my kids went again and again to perfect them. Some may be too challenging for little ones. Like my toddler, who definitely needed some help and his elder siblings were happy to go through the obstacle for the nth time. Continue reading “West Coast Park Playground – Awesome!”

Simple baking with the kids – New York Cheesecake

I have found a great recipe for New York Cheesecake on allrecipes.com!

The texture is creamy and the kids totally love it! The reviews on this recipe actually rated it as THE BEST NEW YORK CHEESECAKE. I am not an expert in judging cheesecakes but seems like it is indeed very popular. I have baked 2 times so far with the same recipe. The second time was baked for Master 3’s 3rd birthday and we decorated and drew a car for him!

Birthday cake

Previously, I had made many No-baked cheesecakes as I did not have an oven back then. No-baked cheesecakes taste yummy too, but I find the cheese taste in no-baked version much heavier than baked ones. You can find out more on my Yogurt cheesecake recipe here, which is also a favourite with my children.

Recipe for Baked New York Cheesecake (modified by me, if you want the original recipe, please click here)

Ingredients Continue reading “Simple baking with the kids – New York Cheesecake”

Checklist for a simple birthday party

I have been so busy lately that even though I knew Master 3’s 3rd birthday was round the corner, I just simply had no time to plan for it! And guess what? This busy mummy only started to plan for the birthday party 3 days before the big day! It has kind of become a norm to me even though I do not like it last minute. Sometimes, I feel guilty that I have not been as conscientious as most other mummies who plan much in advance and take care of every aspect of the party many months before. Well, I am glad I did manage to put up a decent simple party in a short time anyway. No one would know that I had only planned 3 days before.

The following checklist is a mental checklist that I have mastered over the years with 3 kids. Ok, I am sure everyone has about the same list and I am going to share what I did for games, venue, ideas and resources.

Here it goes rolling:

3 days before madness

1. Guest List and invites

First the hub and I decided on a day, not that we have much choice anyway. Usually, we host birthday celebrations on Saturday nights. Then we decided on who to invite. This is easy as the list is usually our immediate families which totalled up to about 13 adults + 10 children. Lucky for us, all our guests were able to make it on the short notice, yet, again. I promise I would not do that again if I can help it, i.e. invitation at the last hour.

2. Party Venue

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We hold parties mostly in our small house. However, after Master 8’s lovely and cosy birthday celebration with his classmates in our favourite yogurt cafe “Frozen – a thousand blessings“, I decided on the same venue since it is new to our guests. A second time lucky for us, the date we had chosen was still available to book. We love this place as the kids love the Frozen yogurt, not to mention that the venue is basically FREE with $120 for a 2 hour slot which included $120 worth of yogurt for our guests! The place is cosy for an Continue reading “Checklist for a simple birthday party”

Children’s Seasons 2015 @ National Museum

June holidays are here! One of our most anticipated activities for our kids for this holidays is the annually held Children’s Seasons. This year, the theme is still Masak Masak, built on childhood games, but with totally different games to play.

To understand and appreciate how the Children’s Seasons are put together, you need to know the artists’ introduction of their installations. This year, there are 10 installations by six local and four international artists to feature familiar childhood games and interactive exhibits. Remember to read the introduction near each installation.

Spoiler-alert! I will share some fun exhibits and games that my kids enjoy. Oh, just a note that Masak Masak is suitable for kids 4-7yo although I would think my 3 yo-to-be toddler did enjoy himself and my 10 yo gal is beginning to appreciate the art too.

This oldie round swing greeted us at the big lawn outside National Museum.

playground

Spectrum of Paper by Mademoiselle Maurice Continue reading “Children’s Seasons 2015 @ National Museum”