It's our first year joining the annual Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay, since we had no plans and admission was free, we decided to give it a try!

And when you've a child, Far East Organization Children’s Garden is a definite to-go at GBTB.



Evening came, so we quickly washed up and headed over to the event!




All-in-all, the decorations were pretty and the atmosphere was really jingle-bellish, but since she's still small she could only enjoy rides and carnival games. Ice Palace was really attractive but the prices were steep so we gave it a miss.

To be honest, I wouldn't want to visit again because there wasn't much for her to do and dining was quite a problem due to the crowd. Somewhere cozy and fun will sound much better for us!

Source : NTUC U Portal

That's like a super good deal because all other websites/places were selling the subscriptions at a much higher price. It's so insanely cheap that I was all heated up asking Papa to make the purchase ASAP.

I was anticipating to show the magazine to my little one because it's something new and I'm also curious about her reaction to such educational magazine. My mailbox acted as part-time Santa and she's so happy everytime she receives a new issue since it seemed like someone kept sending her presents.

In her magazine, there's Wild Cards introducing different animals with photos and write-up which was kinda too difficult for her so I kept it aside because apparently she had less than 10 seconds of interest with them. The content of the magazine caters to the 3-6 age group pretty well because it includes easier sections like Spot The Difference, Counting, Matching and also simple information on different animals on each issues. It actually has a good mix of materials to teach the toddlers based on their individual understanding level. She was able to maintain her concentration with the magazines and I'm so motivated to start introducing her to encyclopedias!

For the kiddos, we headed over to Suntec City for some Toys"R"Us therapy and I took the chance to visit The Polliwogs too!

Here's their Facebook page and admissions rates:

Source : The Polliwogs website

I delayed the visit to the much raved-about playground because most reviews mentioned that although it's a fun place for the kids, parents who were following around had backache issues due to the low ceiling structure of the active play area. Now that she had company, my neck and back will be safe!

When we got there, I was quite regretful because it was SUPER CROWDED. Even in the toddler area it was packed with small babies, toddlers and bigger kids. That was a big no-no because the big children were all running in the small area and I was so afraid that her bones might be broken by one of them or she might just fly off if they knock into her. Crowd-control was not done well because the big kids are not supposed to play inside. She was uncomfortable inside as well and requested to move on to other areas.

Bouncing castle is just beside the toddler area, and yes it was another nightmare. Less than 5 jumps and they both wanted to get out because they'll just knock into other kids.





As expected, the slides were the highlight and they were also having fun crawling around the different zones of the active play. However one step was too high for her to go down and she was too busy running after her cousin that she nearly fell flat on her face if she had not held on to the cushion. Scary sight when I was outside the structure witnessing and unable to go help her immediately. Mental note to self: she's still too careless to take care of herself.

   

I was pretty much deciding which to start first, sports or music. Music was my first choice because she always holds her own mini concert at home and her beats and rhythm are mostly accurate. So I asked around for recommendations of music schools and also googled for many websites, forums and blogs for reviews. In the end, I was left with 2 schools which I felt were most suitable for her in terms of curriculum, age and possibility of her interest

2) MYC - Music For Young Children

Facebook

Source : MYC Website

Shall update more about her MYC lessons soon!

 

When she got too sweaty and tired, we headed into D'Marquee for some indoor crafts and munchies since she'll need energy to perform later during the race!

It's parent-accompanied for her category, so as usual Mami participated with her. It was quite confusing at first because they changed the initial rules of the race to something easier for the kids after the trial run and some of us were still quite uncertain what exactly should we do or not do. Anyway, the final verdict was to run with the bean bag, throw at the line, and solve the puzzle pieces. Unexpectedly, we won the race with a timing of 26 secs! :O




The prize is pretty impressive, a Trunki Bernard Bee ride-on luggage!


 


It was quite a fun event but the waiting time was too long, the categories before her had serious overrun issues so at some point of time she was getting really impatient because she had nothing else to do while waiting. We still had to stay back for the prize-giving ceremony and the present/trophy were the only things that kept her going. Good experience to join at least once!

On a fine Saturday morning when I was busy googling for playgrounds to go in Orchard area, I came across this newly opened playground from Bumble Bee Mum's post and when I saw the farming play area and her favorite supermarket, I immediately showed her the pictures and off we went within like, 45mins! (usually we take years from preparing to finally stepping out of the house because she is the master of nua-ing)

Little Planet Playland is inside The CentrePoint which was still undergoing renovations when we went there, so we were expecting less crowd in the playground. To our delight, there were only 3 families there including us! Imagine the joy and peace with cute smoothing children songs playing in the background while having the whole place to just us. This is a real plus point because all other indoor playgrounds are always filled with people and I'm always so busy running after her to avoid knocking into other kids or prevent her from snatching. I suggest to hurry and visit the place now before the mall is done with renovations and the place will be packed!

1. Farming Area

This is the first area welcoming us when we stepped into the playground, my first reaction was to jump into the "soil" area and start planting my carrots but when I turned around to ask her to join me, I realized that she has already ran straight into the supermarket area and pushing her trolley of food........

Anyway, I really like this idea because I have never seen this in any other playgrounds and it is really creative and interesting! Little ones get to enjoy and experience the planting, watering and harvesting process without having to dirty themselves or work under the hot sun. Of course this can't be compared to the countryside real life farming, but it's a pretty good education platform as a start for the toddlers since it'll be challenging to put them in the urban when they're so used to city life. We parents get to be comfy too while teaching them through playing! There's sufficient toy farming tools/food inside the area so the kids were playing peacefully without having to snatch, and there's also wheelbarrows for them to transport food around.

Sadly, she wasn't keen to play here and I suspect that it's because she disliked the "soil". Throughout the time spent in this area, she didn't step into the "soil" even once. She only sat down on the stairs to play and that was only after I promised to sweep away the "soil" on the stairs before she agreed to come in. Oh well, at least I got her to touch it.

2. Supermarket/Cooking Area

Here comes her favorite area, just look at all those lovely and so-yummy-looking food!

Papa and I were talking about how real all the toy food looked, how colorful and yummy they appeared. The quality of the toy food is really different here as compared to the normal ones that other pretend play playgrounds have. We're also discussing on how much the maintenance cost will total up to just to replenish the toy food (especially the cakes/desserts/bunch of fruits) because we did see some of them already showing signs of abuse having little holes here and there, decorations/colors peeling off and parts dropping off or torn apart. Majority of them were still in very good condition but we were just being too eagle-eyed, as usual. Well we can't really blame the kids since the food really do look too amazing and curiosity must have caused them to explore a little bit. (:

So once again I stress that you should visit here now before the toy food gets lesser variety or poorer quality!

Oh just look at how excited and happy she was with her basket and trolley of food!




Further inside, there's a relatively big space of cooking area with about 4 cooking pretend play stations and many food, cooking utensils and kitchen stuffs for them to play. There's also really cute child-size outdoor wooden benches for us to sit down and wait for food to be served while the kids are busy cooking.

5. Fishing Area

so silly laughing so hard when we both got "attracted" together

I'd recommend this playground for toddlers only because there're only 5 play areas and bigger kids will get bored very easily so it's not worth it when you can get more active play for them in other playgrounds with the same amount of admission fee. So if you have toddlers who love pretend plays, do drop them a visit!

Here's their Facebook page and admission rates:

Source : Little Planet Playland website