[Playground] Little Planet Playland @ The CentrePoint
Saturday, September 19, 2015
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.
3. Castle/Role Play Area
There's a small castle play structure which is the only active play area in this playground. It's good to have it here because it can get quite dry after some time since all other areas are pretend play but with this castle, toddlers can have a little bit of active play session with the slide and tower.
For role play, it caters to both gender having the princess wear and warrior outfit. As expected, she refused to wear the princess dresses and only allowed us to put on the tiara for her. At least she still wanted to sit on the oh-so-cute Victorian-style kid chair to pose for a ladylike picture! After that the 3 of us fought one another like warriors fighting for survival.
4. Forest Maze Area
In the middle of the playground, there's a grass-carpeted area that's supposed to be a forest with trees and netting baskets in the tree trunks to put food inside. Not really sure what the area is for, though it looks super comfy to just lie down there for a nap while your kids are having fun. We had no desire to explore that area so we wasted no time to run away without even taking a photo of it. Sorry!
5. Fishing Area
This fishing area is also new to me as we didn't see this in other playgrounds too, though using a magnetic fishing rod to fish is a very old school game but I've never played in such a big pond of aquatic creatures while sitting in a boat before! I like it that there's a variety of magnetic creatures for us to fish; there's all sorts of fishes, crabs, lobsters, sharks. starfish, tortoise and many more! So it doesn't get boring too fast!
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| so silly laughing so hard when we both got "attracted" together |
Overall we had quite a wonderful time there as I felt that the play areas suited her playing style and pace; it was neither too boring within the 2 hours of playtime nor too tiring for her physically like other indoor playgrounds focusing on active play like The Polliwogs or eXplorerkid. Personally I feel that this place is most similar to The City @ Liang Court because they're both focused on pretend play areas. Hokey Pokey also specializes in pretend play but it doesn't have distinct areas marked out. It's a pretty difficult choice, but I'd choose Little Planet Playland over The City @ Liang Court even though it's more pricey but the location and environment is much better here (no crowds, cleaner) while the toys are also of a better quality.
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:
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| Source : Little Planet Playland website |
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