Rainbow Fish Play

I’ve always enjoyed children’s plays. You will be surprised to find that their standard is pretty high, with engaging storylines, colourful and innovative sets, wonderful acting and singing, well written original songs and local puns! Best of all, the tickets cost a fraction of what I’ve to pay for an adult’s play or performance. It doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg (2 arms and 2 legs, in fact) to bring the whole family there. The only drawback is, I’ve to book tickets way in advance. I hate watching plays from a lousy seat. Just a pet peeve of mine. 😁

I’m very blessed to have children who enjoy them as much as I do, with minimal fidgeting. 

Right, back to my topic. Rainbow fish. Well, it’s based on a well-loved children’s book with beautiful illustrations on pride and selfishness. iTheatre managed to expand it into an enjoyable 40 mins musical. 

The sets are thoughtful and innovative. 

Colourful under the UV lights. And very fine puppetry work we have here. The actors did a wonderful job in bringing the puppet sea creatures to life with their expressive voices. There’s the proud and selfish rainbow fish, witty Big Violet, excitable Little Green, friendly Small Blue, sociable Tiny Stripes, motherly Starfish, villainous (but cowardly) French accented Hammerhead shark (who’s mad about sushi and sashimi) and wise old Octopus. 

My favourite character is the witty Big Violet which is both abrasive and eloquent. Heck! He even speaks Shakespearean! 

“Any fish by any other name will smell as fishy!”- Big Violet. 

So if you haven’t watched it, get the tickets now at Sistic! Check out their website. 

Our wefie ritual, while waiting for it to start!!

Trying to selfie with the stage but failing miserably. I need to buy a new selfie stick. The last one went kaput!!

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Amped Trampoline Park – Bouncing Fun!

I’ve been a “single mom” for the last 2 weekends. I was running out of ideas to bring the kids out to places where they can be tired out in the shortest possible time. (ko so that I can have an afternoon of peace). I was toying with the idea of going rock climbing but 小小宝贝 couldn’t take part in it as he’s too young. I vaguely remembered from Shimian’s blog that there’s a trampoline place in the east.

Easy peasey. Did a google on it and yes!!! They allow young children into the trampoline area as long as they are able to walk, under the supervision of a parent.

So Amped Trampoline Park it is! I tried to book slots online but wow! It was full on sat! This place is really popular! So I settled for Sun morning.

And there’s free parking right beneath it!! Also a kopitiam on 1st floor. But it’s hard to starve in that area. It’s surrounded by good food.

As instructed in the website we brought along socks. Socks are sold at $3 for forgetful people. I was tempted to buy a pair for myself. They are non slip socks. It’s hard to find non slip socks for preschoolers and adults.

The 2 宝贝s couldn’t wait to get started. It’s a chore to get 2 excited kids to pose beautifully. Sigh!

As soon as we went through the net, 宝贝 abandoned us and bounced around happily on her own…

The next time I spotted her, she was drowning happily in the foam pit. I was so tempted to bounce around myself. But parental duties first. I had to shadow Mr 小小宝贝 around.

Initially he was upset that he couldn’t walk properly as everyone bounced around him and he lost his balance. He figured out that the easiest way to move around was to run along the adjoining blue strips. There he went!

Then he got a little bolder and started venturing onto the black trampoline surfaces.

Finally he couldn’t resist it and started jumping on it.

There he was! Landing with finesse after a baby jump.

And surprise surprise! Guess who we met there! My brother!!

His first time there too!!

I was conked out after 40 mins of running after 小小宝贝. Meanwhile I only saw flashes of 宝贝 hopping around. She sure has good stamina.

Conclusion : instant success! 宝贝 is already asking when I’m bringing here there again. And she wants to go with Jiu Jiu who can teach her tricks as he used to be a gymnast.

Proof of result :

✌️Peace reigns! That’s why I’ve time to blog now!

We are 100% going again! Anyone wants to come along??!!

Amped Trampoline Park
369 Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore 437126
(Level 2, above the kopitiam
*Entrance is up the staircase at the back near the carpark
*Free parking at location
Tel: 8669 4894
Email: info@ampedsingapore.com
Website: http://www.ampedsingapore.com

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宝贝 a-messaging

I wrote about 宝贝 learning words so that she could message all her friends (her friends’ parents, to be precise) and her favourite adults.

Well she has progressed to being able to carry a very simple conversation.

Not the world’s top conversationalist, but adequate.  It’s actually pretty repetitive.  She can spell the high frequency words and she can guess the words from the question so if she can’t really spell the word, she copies the word from the question.  Or if she can’t remember the entire spelling of the whole word, she will hunt down the story book which has the word, just like one of our open book exams.  It’s really fun for her as she gets a response from the other party. She gets the kick out of it. So she’s Miss Eager Beaver for new words.  It’s better that she bugs me to teach her words, than for me to hound her to learn new words.

So far, her jiu jiu has been the most responsive person on whatsapp.  So he’s one of her favourite whatsapping friend right now!

As anti-gadget-for-children I am, it does make a very good learning tool when well utilised.

I’m visualising myself teaching her how to start a simple blog next year.  That should be quite fun. 🙂

(Disclaimer: the adult conversationalist has lousy grammar!)

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Lopsided Giraffe

After I bought one of these PlayMais sponge handicraft thingy for one of her friends’ birthday present, she’s been bugging us for one practically everyday.

My parents caved in and bought her one for Christmas. We finally “open sesame” the box last weekend to start work on it.

It’s a very good craft for preschoolers, except for the exorbitant price.

Here’s what it looks like. They have it in various themes. Hers is a safari one, complete with boards and props for the final assembly. (If we ever get there… )

It’s filled with colourful foams. You cut them up into shapes according to the instruction booklet. And stick them together with water. Easy peasy!!

Here’s 宝贝 trying to assemble her giraffe.

The giraffe’s head and neck. The instruction booklet is in the background.

The final product – a lopsided mutant giraffe. Fully produced by 宝贝, with minimal help from us. Not the handsomest giraffe but at least it’s standing on its 4 wobbly legs.

It took her the entire morning for this. No mean feat.

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Spelling time!

Wow! It’s been some time since I’ve posted. And it’s been quite a while since I last sat down to do some revision with 宝贝. I’m the English oic and it’s all been very adhoc. As a result, her Chinese has improved by leaps and bounds, thanks to my Mom’s religious drilling everyday. But her English standard has fallen behind.

Although she’s not allowed to play with the phone but every night she’s allowed to send 2 whatsapp messages to anyone, on the condition that she spells the message herself. She’s been doing this since she turned 3. So she’s been building up her vocabulary. From single words to short sentences consisting of 3-4 words.

She loves to message her Jiu Jiu (uncle). He’s by far the most responsive “messager”. Messaging her father is like watching the message disappear into a black hole. But she still messages him quite often, hoping for his once in a while reply.

Today we started on very adhoc spelling. (I’m not sure if I can keep up. 😅)

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Beading for a Friend

Her beading interest started last year. I assembled a beading kit for her Christmas present. But we only do it for special occasions because she takes an awfully long time to complete one.

She’s come a long way from the day she started her first beading project. She’s learnt patterns in school this year and she’s been putting it to practice in her beading. I will still measure out the thread for her.

She plans her own patterns and colours without any prompting from me. She lays them nicely in a row before patiently threading them together.

Her birthday present for her friend. She spent the whole Sunday morning fashioning this. Matching bracelet and necklace. Good enough to sell… Haha… Evil mom thinking of ways to make her daughter pay for her own expenses. Maybe she can make enough to fund her own tertiery education??? Taking orders! :p

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Sunday Morning Snapshot – Puzzle Time

We found an old box of puzzle. 54 pieces. 宝贝’s been pretty pro at assembling the 20 pcs jigsaw puzzles. I’ve been meaning to buy more complicated ones when I’ve the time. So, as you may have guessed, time is never enough. This box was from Auntie Evelyn.

宝贝 assembled it all by herself. That means I’ve to go and find an even more “chim” one for her…

From sitting upright, posing with the floor puzzle to….

She claimed she’s all tired out from the intensive puzzle assembling. 😅 sigh…. Strawberry generation. 🍓

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Sunday Morning Snapshot – Calligraphy

We woke up to a cool Sunday morning. Dashed was our morning swimming plan. Alternatively, 宝贝 practised her calligraphy. Looked more like drawing to me though.

A very serious calligrapher she was.

My mom has been practising with her on this word for a long time. Can you make out what it is? Her surname – 梁. A lot of room for improvement.

She’s better with her ABCs.

Next year she’s supposed to be able to write her full Chinese name. She’ll need lots of practice. Thanks to her sadistic parents.

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Silly Triangle

It’s the once a term teacher-parent session. I don’t think my parents had ever stepped foot into my schools in the entirety of my studying career. Because during my time, only parents of naughty children were summoned to school. I certainly weren’t an angel but didn’t justify for parent summoning.

Now, parents want to see the teachers, to keep track of their children’s progress. Even pre schools are doing it now! Once every term. Parenting has indeed evolved. From the hands off parents of the past to over zealous ones of the present.

For 宝贝, it’s the usual stuff. No red flag. Good enough for me. No news is good news! No more weird feedback like her lining up for 3-4 helpings of food when she was in nursery 1. (Her n1 teacher must think that I starve her at home…)

Something caught my eye as I was leaving.

I almost burst out laughing. It’s so “her”. I call her Silly Sally whenever she does silly things at home. The rest of her friends were using the normal textbook adjectives. Maybe I should tone down on the “Silly Sally” usage… Hmmm…

This is her BFF’s. It really looks like the child, right down to her cute bangs.

Children’s art – a reflection of reality.

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Card Play – UNO

This post should have preceded the chess play post.

We taught her how to play UNO just before our Gold Coast Trip in Aug last year, before her 3rd birthday. The game box stated that it’s suitable for ages 7 and above. But since this game has been around for decades (I remember playing it when I was a wee kid and I’m not young), they probably should have revised the age recommendation as children are becoming smarter these days!!

We taught her that because we ran out of games to play with her. Haha! Ok ok, it’s actually to train her matching skills for colours and numbers. We were not expecting her to know how to use the special cards like reverse, draw 2, skip, wild, draw 4. But she picked it up easily like a fish in water and actually understood when to deal them out.

She started off holding the cards in one hand and she had to pick them up one by one to see them. Now she’s able to fan them out nicely – see! Improve fine motor skills!! She’s also able to deal the cards out to everyone, 7 for each player by counting out loud.

The only thing she needs to be trained is to develop a poker face when she plays. It’s so obviously written on her face when she receives special cards. It’s pretty amusing to see her giggle to herself when she gets good cards. No hurry for her to lose her childish innocence. There are enough years for her to ease into the masked society, hopefully, not too disillusioned along the way.

*Contemplating which card to throw out. Hmmm….

*The evil laugh just before dealing a draw 4 card.

*Watching Godma Eds closely to make sure that she’s dealing the cards properly.

*A snapshot during the game.

*A snapshot of the 4 players @ sakae sushi at Changi Airport. You simply must have self taken photos at an all girls’ outing. No girly outing is complete without this!!!

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