Tag: Play

March Marvellous March

The word 'Marvellous' actually can be spelled two ways. One with a single 'L' and another with a double 'L'. Yeah..I know, very random. But whoever said that blogging was brainless. I do sometimes do spell checks when the words start looking a bit queer to me on the screen.

Is this something new that you have learnt today? If yes, then this blog have fulfilled one of my objectives of making this blog informative. This blog can be personal, sharing dribs and drabs of my life, my son Kyle, my interests, my musings but moving forward, I will attempt to make it more informative. It's boring to just read my thoughts most of the time. So its better to share stuff that I have learnt along the way, that could be really random or might elicit this thought of "Oh, this is useful" or "I never knew that…". It is just one of my weak attempts of making this blog alot more useful, to contribute to a better internet surfing experience for anyone who might come along and read my posts.

To jumpstart this March, I have just posted an article on myplayschool.net on LEARN+PLAY-worthy activities that moms/dads can explore with their preschoolers/primary-schoolers during the March school holidays. There is at least 1 place a day that u can check out from 9th March to 18th March in Singapore, from FREE activities to economical activities under $15.00. Useful, if you have little idea of what to do this March holiday with your kids, and if you are like me, with shallow pockets. Sure, I would love to go to Universal Studios, watch children's plays, sign up for drama or art courses, but I am sadly limited by my budgets for the month. Anyhow, this post proves that you don't need lots of money for your kids to have fun.

This March school holidays, Kyle and I will be busy checking out some new places and I will follow with reviews and pictures of our March adventures. Going to make sure it is a fun one for him, since it could likely be the few times I will be able to spend a full week with him for the school holidays.

So here's to a Marvellous March ahead!

No Comments by Rachel on March 3, 2012

filed in Things to do

tagged Fun, Play

In a mood for the games

Getting into the spirit of YOG, K wanted to change into his swimming gear and participate in his own segments;

Weight-lifting with my bolster

See the grit and determination in his expression…

His attempt at backstroke swimming on my bed.

The springs on my bed has taken a beating from his constant 'diving'…

1 Comment by Rachel on August 24, 2010

filed in Random

tagged Photo, Play

A great day for the outdoors

Beautiful day, clear skies….what is best way to spend the morning?

Outdoors, at the park with friends of course!

In the late afternoon, as the family was feeling a little rather adventurous, we took a walk in Dairy Farm Nature Park and went to explore Grand-dad's latest discovery from the park.

We ventured a little off the beaten track and took a short hike through overgrown grass and shrubs to the place where Grand-dad wanted us to see…

finally we trekked our way to a bridge over-looking these tracks.

While waiting for the train to pass, K kept himself busy,

And he was not the only one who was kept occupied while waiting …

K probably had more fun throwing rocks towards the train tracks, rather than anticipating for the train to pass.

Apart from this train discovery from the park, we have also discovered that K quite likes the challenge of seeing how far he can throw the rocks.

Finally, we got to see what we were originally here for…the train!

Which passed too quickly and was not that exciting, at least we got to see what we came here for that evening.

And K surely did not mind the wait one bit!

4 Comments by Rachel on July 31, 2010

filed in Experiences, Family

tagged Friends, Nature, Play

Sand Play

K has always seem to prefer playing with water to sand, and I tend to keep those 2 elements quite separate (for play at home) for the convenience of cleaning up thereafter. However, I did not know what came over me about a week ago when I gave him both sand and water to play with at home.

It was only then I realised that sand and water is a good idea at the beach or in Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, but it is never a good idea to be explored at home. I reminded him to restrict his area of play to the balcony and not to venture to my sofa or the living room, however forgot to mention the walls in the balcony. He is at the age where it is safe to leave him by himself while he plays, or so I thought. When I left him alone at his sand and water table for 10 minutes, he discovered the thrill of making mud balls and threw it all over the walls and the floor of the balcony. He made such a huge mess that my helper and I ended up scraping the sand off the walls and floor for the next half an hour. Being the budget conscious mom, I made sure that we collected the sand in trays put them out in the sun to dry, so that K could play with it again.

So for this week, I made sure that sand and water play is restricted to the outdoors at Jacob Ballas. He hasn't reach the age of building sandcastles and had more fun filling the buckets, mixing water with the sand, pouring it all out and then filling again.

We have been to Jacob Ballas countless number of times, however we have never ventured beyond the water and sand area. It never fails to rain every single time after K is done with water play, it is quite strange really, how we tend to go there when the weather seems perfectly fine in the morning but will be pouring in the early afternoon.

Will probably be finding more excuses (especially when dh is away and I have the car) to skip school in the mornings and visit Jacob Ballas a little more often in the next few months.

2 Comments by Rachel on June 26, 2010

filed in Experiences

tagged Play

Boy’s toys – PG only

I expected that this day will come.

The day that K finally embraces his gender stereotype and play with toy guns. I am really not surprised, since infancy, he has always been given to wear gender specific colours like blue, sleeps in a room with blue bedding and been provided with toy vehicles, tools and sports equipment. Well, at least he still plays alot with his cooking set, cash register and household cleaning set.

When he turned two, he became rather fascinated with swords and kept asking me to buy him one during our trips to the toy store, and did not stop asking for it until I finally got him two foam swords. After that, we spent some of K's play-time being swashbuckling swordsmen and playing dead.

I suppose I made the mistake of subscribing to the kids channel on cable when he was about 1 year old. It was through cartoon network that he discovered the concept of super-hero about 6 months back and lost all interest in Mickey Mouse thereafter. It did not help that his dad got quite fascinated by Ben-10 as well, and purchased the whole series of the cartoon online for him. I made sure that I was the wet blanket and reminded K, "You know Ben-10 is not real right, He is a cartoon and it is all pretend."

The fascination with toy guns started from the beginning of this year when we visited an extended family member's house, and he was exposed to my cousin's collection of Nerf toy guns. This interest is also further exacerbated by his dad who spends alot of his time at home with PS2 RPG games.

It was last week when he had to be dragged out of a shop bawling, as I refused to buy the toy gun that he badly wanted. Dh then exclaimed that he has to be the one that buy K his first toy gun, which he did earlier this week. Our experience at the toy store and K's introduction to toy 'gun-play' was almost akin to a modern rite of passage, as from a toddler to a preschooler.

I am definitely concerned about the influence of violence through this toy. However, putting a stop to it is not an answer, when dh totally approves of it. I try to manage his child angst to healthier levels but setting rules in 'gun-play'; no shooting people or animals, no shooting furniture or things in the house. So he is limited to aiming his gun at walls, toy figurines and matchbox cars.

Look on the bright side. He just might follow his father's and uncle's footsteps and become a marksman when he goes to NS. I used to think that super-hero/warrior play don't start till they are about 5 years of age. Just as well let him get it out of his system, maybe by the time he turns 5 years old, he will be into microscopes and board games?

Anyhow, I already told dh that he has to handle it all, if we ever get any complaints from school which concerns any of K's potential aggressive tendencies. In the meantime, we are still doing lots of pretend-play with his cooking set and cash register.

3 Comments by Rachel on April 16, 2010

filed in Growing up, parenting

tagged Behaviour, Child, Play

A good friday

Finally! Our home learning is back on track, right after I jump started my dwindling ‘engine’ last week.

I am quite pleased with myself to have drafted out weekly Literacy, Math and Science activities leading up to June. The challenge now is to consistently ensure that we do activities at least a couple of days a week. K’s response and enthusiasm for home learning has been extremely heartening. He wants to do more lap books and consistently asks to do activities every other morning. This is just an indication that he is so ready to learn, I do hope he shows the same enthusiasm at school.

I pulled out the water/sand table and got him to do some exploratory activities (start of beginning Math concepts); comparing more or less and experimenting whether items sink or float.Cleaning up has to be a crucial part of any home learning / play activity and K is more than willing to help…

After all that experimental and cleaning, he worked up an appetite and volunteered his help by preparing/eating the toppings off the pizza.

No Comments by Rachel on April 2, 2010

filed in Growing up

tagged Child, home school, Learn, Play

“Let me show you…”

The drama king feigns death, complete with tongue hanging out and a mangled limb pose.

1 Comment by Rachel on January 5, 2010

filed in Random

tagged Photo, Play

A great way to end the week

To be able to spend this evening playing with adorable mei mei Raeann was indeed a great way for K to end his week. K had a great time playing house with her fabulous kitchen set and was kept extremely busy with Raeann’s huge selection of toys (lucky girl has many cousins with great hand-me-downs). And just when I thought I could get him away from his vehicle toys this evening, he got absolutely thrilled when he discovered this motorcycle.

Thanks for being such a great host this evening, E. K and I had a wonderful time!

No Comments by Rachel on December 11, 2009

filed in Experiences

tagged Fun, Play

Meeting new friends and revisiting old ones

The last time Pauline and I met was a good 5 years ago. She was still working as a media planner and I was in brand management. We have came a long way since then, she’s now a fantastic SAHM (brilliant @ homeschooling her children and a good cook) to two lovely kids, Timothy and Joyce.

It was a truly enjoyable session for K this morning, he got along really well with Tim (he has been telling me he wants a kor kor) and had a fabulous time at Atlantis City indoor playgym. As for me, I enjoyed a good catch up session with an old friend.

‘Swimming’ around the ball pit

Getting Tim to jump into the ball pit

Acquired a new milestone : He is finally able to cross the balance rope without any help, but with lots of encouragement from me. This was done only after shouting “Help, Mummy, me cannot do it,” a couple of times.

Sat next to Tim during lunch and played ‘crashing’ toy cars.

Spontaneously held each other hands while making their way to the foyer

So looks like we will be seeing more of Atlantis city soon, as well as meeting up with Tim, Joyce and mummy Pauline!

3 Comments by Rachel on December 2, 2009

filed in Leisure

tagged Child, Friends, Fun, Play, Self

Boxing

K told me that he wanted to do boxing and needed to remove his shirt. Then requested for boxing gloves. I found an alternative; his socks.

Then he performed a series of punches and kicks in the air, coupled with nifty footwork. Wearing only underpants, sans his t-shirt and socks on both hands. Only when u are below 5 years old, one can be semi-naked in a photo, and get away with it by looking cute.

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