Jurong Regional Library – Kids Section

When I saw 1 of the reports saying Singapore is the best place in Asia to be a Mum, I kind of believe its true. It’s not the best in the world but not too far off, ranked in the 15th place.

Maybe my expectations are low or something but take a look at this renovated kids section at the Jurong Regional Library.

I think it’s not always common to have totally kids friendly and free of charge places around the world. Always appreciate it when facilities and amenities are built thoughtfully with kids in mind. Makes life easier for mums. Like a lot of the malls in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. 🙂

Melissa and Doug puzzles

When I first heard about Melissa and Doug puzzles I was quite unsure how the kids would learn from playing with it. It’s not exactly cheap to get from local stores just to test whether your kid will enjoy playing with it or whether they will learn anything from playing with it. So it’s really quite a good idea to have them in the library so we can try out before deciding to buy it for ourselves or not. Impressed!

Hand Puppets

I’m not sure whether the kids are allowed to just take one off the rack and role play with a hand puppet or it’s meant for some dedicated kids activities time but when I was there, the puppets were just there for anyone to take. Puppet show time!

Dress Up!

This was a major Wow Factor! Look at the costumes! I haven’t even seen army costumes at any kiddy indoor playground yet! Definitely make the kids go crazy. There’s only this rack here so I can’t imagine the madness during the weekends or evenings when the kids come in!

Musical Note Labelled Books

I haven’t seen this labeling before at other libraries so I was curious what they meant. Looked at a few titles and I realized they seem to be stories related to music. Like nursery rhyme books, stories on characters from children’s songs like The Itsy Bitsy Spider. How cool! Love this labeling. Wished I had more time to explore.

(Photos taken in a rush with handphone camera)
The overall design was very conducive and attractive for the kids. Hope to bring them here 1 day!

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Port of Lost Wonder (POLW), Sentosa Singapore

We gave the kids a treat last weekend to Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) which we were not able to get tickets the week before.

It was a super hot day and the kids ended up with a sunburn but endless fun for the day. The place was smaller than I had imagined but good enough size for us to just sit back and watch the kids from the shade while they zoom down that mini water slide for the gazillionth time.

Lunch from the Port Belly while the kids zoom off to play

Amenities

As usual, I like to check out the amenities to determine how kids-friendly is the place.

Toilet

Firstly, the shower room. The most important place in a water playground

Cute themed toilets

Well-designed door! The kids, especially Nat, loved the toilet so much she kept requesting to go toilet throughout! 😦 Because she gets to to toilet by herself just by locking the lower door and Mummy can monitor from outside

I super love the toilet design here. Most of the cubicles, shower or toilet, have this kind of door so that the kids can go in by themselves and they only have to lock the lower door and I can see them from outside. Nat love it so much she kept requesting to go to the toilet every now and then. Kept me so busy!

The shower also came with hot and cold water. Nice. And in case it’s too crowded, there are some open showers inside and outside the toilet as well.

Some open showers inside and outside the toilet

Lockers

We very much welcome the idea that lockers are totally free of charge here!

Free number-lock lockers

The downside was there are only so many lockers as seen here and some were spoilt. Do test them first before using! The lockers are keyless, so it saves the hassle of keeping the key safe all the time. It’s also not that high-tech kind of lockers using computers system to lock. Just a simple number lock mechanism which instructions are given at the top on how to set the password.

Gathering points

Sheltered seats around the play area. Can hold a picnic here too

Chill under the trees and on the grass with outdoor floor mattress provided

This group of folks have the best seats in the house. Real outdoor fun under the shady trees and floor mattress. So cool I felt like joining in.

The Play

The most important bits for the kids. The play area.

Water feature play area – Raining coconut tree

Water feature play area – lots of open spaces to run about

The play area was unexpectedly small. The water feature area wasn’t even as impressive as the free water play at the one at The Children’s Park at Garden By the Bay. They have this main water play area complete with the pirate ship which was the kids’ favourite, a sand play area, a party area, a foam play area, and an indoor studio for activities.

Some water features around the play area

For kids to explore

The kids favourite – the slide

The played here for so long that they got a sunburn despite I applied sunblock twice. There was 2 more higher slides when you go higher up the pirate ship but are not suitable for my kids yet.

Sand pit for soccer ball

Or just laze around

We brought the toys for sand play but the kids didn’t even come to the sand that day. It was simply too hot.

Indoor Fun

They have some indoor activities throughout the day, starting from 12pm. We missed the first one because the kids were stucked at the water play.  We gave this art and craft a try. using 2 of the curios (paper tokens that came with our entrance tickets). You can save the remaining tokens for the next visits and exchange for more activities. (They should have just provided the activities for free? )

Exchange for activities with curios (paper tokens that came in a booklet when you purchase the tickets)

It was a rather easy craft work led by 2 big guys but the kids had fun.

Food

There is only 1 place selling food so there wasn’t much options. The food was, erm, ok but don’t expect too much. We ordered these

Aglio olio, nuggets, beef nor fun, fish fingers

The fried food for the kids were not too bad, but they had no mood to eat. Ate a bit and dashed back off to continue to play. The aglio olio with chicken was ok, not too bad but the beef nor fun had a weird taste. Should have ordered something else. There was also an ice cream that came with it but the ice cream, sandwiched between 2 biscuits tasted weird too, especially the non crispy biscuits.

Tips:

1. You can purchase the tickets online at $10 for weekdays and $15 for weekends 1 day before your visit, in case tickets get sold out after you reach there. Additional $1 is applicable for online purchase

2. Kids under 12 need to pay, so I think 13 years old onwards is free.

3. The nearest carpark is at the Beach carpark.