New Tampines regional library at Tampines Hub

Got a chance to swing by this latest, much talked-about and exciting library today and I can say that the standard of our libraries here have gone up a notch yet again. 

The library is huge, that even walking from one end to the other feels far and there are five levels of it. Do we really need so many books? (Yes we do!)

Level 2 layout

Looking at the amenities they even have charging points and nursing room? Thumbs up!

Pardon the reflection on the picture. I couldn’t find this layout on the NLB website so I took a picture from one of their digital directory guide in the library. 

Starting from level 2, we can find all the books related to our every day lives. Be it sports, magazines, cooking, hobbies etc. I was busy admiring the displays and amenities on this floor than notice the range of books though.

The one and only stationary bike cum reading table

Firstly, the library faces the view of a large, inspiring soccer field. Then there is this one and only bicycle reading table that you can cycle and read a sports book at the same time and be inspired by the sportsmen out on the field ‘live’. It looks like there may be more of this bicycle though since there is some empty spaces here. 

Nice singapore heritage display here

Magazines section

 

Then you see nice, uncovered displays over the usual magazine racks that makes the magazines look more interesting.

Cooking studio under renovation

Then you see this under renovation kitchen studio where cooking classes would be conducted and you’ll be inspired to grab some cooking books home just outside the studio. 

Room for watching soccer together?

And there is this big empty room with a huge screen showcasing our National day parade. Wow.

Level 3 layout

Going up to the 3rd level is Early Reader and Baby Books section. It’s kind of unexpected that they stationed this section here because they usually tuck this section down at basement level, far away from everyone because maybe it’s expected that this would be the noisiest section of all with all the excited toddlers and babies. For this case, I would expect the noise level to be higher than elsewhere because of this 

Kids playground in a library?!

Seriously? Do we really need a playground in a library? It seems unrelated to encouraging reading of any kind. The only good reason I could think of is for parents to have some time for books while the kids have fun just next door. But maybe the library has some other playground idea instead. It’s still empty for now so let wait and see. Could be really exciting if it’s a new concept playground! And hope the glass is sound proof!

View of the empty playground from 1 level up

I love the layout of books and shelves at this level.

Tampines library has a huge collection of Chinese books and they are displayed along this stretch of road. Very visible and accessible. Could encourage kids to read more Chinese books

Bird cage seats.. so nice! The walkway is mostly wide and stroller friendly

Upon closer look the books didn’t look that new. Likely to be stock from the previous location

Love the seats! Feel like grabbing some books and park there to read

S

Every book is displayed with cover facing out instead of stacked together with only the book spine facing out. Parents and kids and easily choose a book of interest (although mainly judging a book by its cover). But then again kids this age can’t really read yet so the picture on the cover says a thousand words. Brilliant! When I pick a picture book for my kids I also tend to look at the pictures and decide whether this book is suitable or not then pick it up and briefly read the contents to double confirm.

Level 4 layout

Fully utilized

Level 4 is still for kids, but for Emerging Readers, juniors and teens. 

For the teens section, the emphasis is more on spaces for group revision and discussion. The rows of tables can be seen to be filled with teens and their laptops and notes, studying for the exams. This place is definitely more conducive than camping on the floor at Changi Airport, if you can find a seat. Only thing is you can’t eat here and blast your music on your Bluetooth speaker.

Finally for the adults, we have level 5 and 6 of books for us 

Half filled shelves. Warm lighting strips conducive for reading

Nice glass table!

 

2 levels of compactly packed bookshelves seem too much for now as can be seen, they shelves are mostly half filled for now. Should be expecting lots of new books to fill in next time.

The shelves here can be seen to be more closely packed on these 2 levels and some walkways only allow single file walking. There are still abundant proper tables and chairs and sofas for us though they are still all fully packed.

The media section looks quite cool with monitor screens this huge. This library really has quite of fair bit of electronics.

Outdoor garden to take a breather?

Then we have this cool looking outdoor space which is closed for now but seems like a good idea for groups since the noise level is not so restricted. 

Not sure if the crowd today is due to exam period or it’s going to be this crowded throughout the year, but I see that every single seat and sofa and table is taken up even though the place is huge

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Pokemon Research Exhibition at RWS

And so we caught on the Pokemon Go bug and the kids were introduced to pokemons who had been around for sometime and now revived by the game. 

We happened to be at Resorts World Sentosa Singapore over the weekend where the exhibition first opened, so we dropped by to take a look. The downside of this exhibition was that it was tied to the entrance tickets of the sea aquarium so you had to buy the tickets to both attractions.

Quite empty on a Saturday morning

First in queue on the first day

What to expect

We went there without reading up what was the exhibition about and had only some explanation by the staff there on what to do. 

The exhibition was basically a simple game where visitors were given a pokeball (to be returned afterwards) and some clues for you to guess what Pokemon was inside the ball. No prizes for guessing right though and no penalty for guessing wrongly as well.

Step 1: Pick a ball

Different difficulty levels based on the ball type

Each visitor gets to choose a ball and the level of difficulty is based on the type of ball. 

We picked 2 normal pokeballs, 1 great ball and 1 ultraball. The pokemons to be discovered is not restricted to only the 144 from the Pokemon Go game. For the regular and difficult course, the range is there in the brochure distributed to you. For extra difficult, you need to guess from the full range of pokemons displayed on both sides of this wall!

Didn’t know there were so many of them!

Step 2: Choose only 4 out of 8 stations to get clues

There are several stations to where you can get clues on what Pokemon you are having. Be careful which station you choose because the clue is very vague and disappears very fast if you didn’t take picture of it. Here’s some examples of how vague the clues were. 

Silhouette shooter

For this clue, you are given a few seconds to adjust the sharpness until you see this. You are only given 1 chance.

Facial analyzer

The worst clue. The facial features were so enlarged it’s almost impossible to tell, unless the Pokemon has a distinct colour or feature.

Outline shooter

The most tiring station. You are supposed to step repeated on the mat to generate enough power to get a good shadow of the Pokemon. The best is if you can hit the top of the energy bar on the right of the screen. *Tip: get 2 people and each stand on 1 mat. 

First try – not enough energy

2nd try – with 2 people stepping at the same time

Appearance analyzer

The best clue in our opinion. Straight forward and fuss free. The only trick is that you can only choose 2 descriptions out of 4.

The other stations like footprint collector, height and weight gauge, you probably find it useful only after you are more or less confirmed of your Pokemon, then you do a google search on their statistics to match. Another station is the cry analyzer which is least likely to help unless you know how each Pokemon cry?

After you finish your 4 stations, it’s time to check your answer.

Who is the Pokemon?

And the answer is simply given without letting you a chance to put in your guess..

The next highlight of the exhibition? Meet pikachu!

Too bad only got pikachu

We didn’t find the exhibition to be that fantastic and not sure why they didn’t go to other countries until now but kids had some fun and even requested to go back! Please consider showcasing somewhere outside the S.E.A Aquarium!

Show info from the RWS website

http://www.rwsentosa.com/Homepage/Attractions/SEAAquarium/Pokemon

Kidzania Singapore!

We braved the crowd and tried out this place.. Finally! The result? Bang head and cry out loud.. Major fail. 

We made it to the ticketing queue just 15 minutes past the opening hour of 10am on a weekday but school holiday for the primary school kids due to the PSLE oral examination. We started to feel the panic mode the moment we were near the building when we start to see people running towards the building. I managed 1 photo with Nic while hubby rushed to the ticket queue with Nat.

Peace before the chaos

The queue was expectedly long and we got to know that even if you bought the tickets online, you would still need to go through this snaking queue until you are almost at the counter and the staff will direct you out of the queue to the entrance. 1 mummy tried to break the queue to enquire but grumpily joined back the queue after being rejected by the staff as she was still far away from the counter. What’s the purpose of buying tickets online then? Strange logic.

Snaking queue under the aeroplane at 15minutes past 10am

We queued for around 40 minutes. According to the staff, this queue is actually not too bad. The record was 2.5hours! Ok if your kid is super patient or if you are used to this queuing time for other hypes like getting cheese tarts or getting a hello kitty from McDonald’s. >.<

And we finally made it in. It looked surprisingly empty at the first floor when we first entered.

Feeling chilled about the whole thing

Checking out the place

Panaromic view of level 1

To our horror, real horror I mean, if you don’t already know how exorbitant  were the entrance fees, BOTH kids complained of tummyache and said they weren’t keen of playing any of these roles! *Bang head and roll on the floor crying.

Ok in the end we managed to get Nic to try out 1 job. She was like turning green with tummyache but we asked if she was ok to go and she said ya she could try. So here’s photos for that 1 job that we did. Everyone was trying to queue for that hot cabin crew or firefighter job so there was not really any queue at this station

Briefing for the medics

Nat couldn’t join as they were already full. And she refused to go for any other jobs.

On the way to help a patient

The doctor

Taking notes

The pay – 8 kidzzos dollars

And that’s all we did for the day.. Major boo-hoo.. 

While Nic was at the hospital stop, I brought baby and Nat to the nursing room. Nat happily watched the iPad while waiting for baby to nurse.

Brightly lit nursing room tucked at 1 corner

Enjoying the peace here

Only 1 room here

The nursing room was nice and quiet and equipped with a basin. But it did not have any power socket in case you need to plug in to pump milk

Nappy changing area

There’s a nappy changing area outside the room with a sofa. Nat had some rest at the sofa while waiting for us. 

Then we came across this empty area that is specially catered for toddlers 3 years old and below. My girls were more interested in these places than the jobs.. Lazy girls!

Toddlers playroom

Ball pit. (Not very sure is the toilet bow there for use or not)

Toys area

Pretend play kitchen

Bouncy bed!

So if you have very young kids you could bring them along for their own fun too. 

They also have an art and craft cum music room for the toddlers, which the staff kindly let our big girls in as we told them about our situation 

Kiddy craft room, parents allowed

Happier inside here (read: wasting our $$)

Selection of toys

Parents can rest here

Next comes lunch. While most of the kids had their lunches in their queues, and the parents at the resting area, we had our lunch at the proper resting area together. Since nobody was queuing. The KFC had the longest queue. Might be advisable to bring your own lunch. I saw some kids eating their homemade bentos, definitely better than the unbelievably overpriced food there.

Conclusion and pointers

1. Make sure your kids are in good mood or understand the idea of it and are willing to queue to experience the jobs.

2. Go early to queue and hit the hottest job the first thing because that’s the only time it’s going to be least waiting time

3. Bring your own easy-to-in-the-queue lunch.

4. Check for promotions on the website before buying tickets. For this trip, we made use of the August promotion price that is only applicable for walk-ins. It’s even cheaper than buying tickets online. 

5. Activate your kidzania debit card as early as possible. The bank (where the kids need to personally queue to activate the card) is always super crowded and parents were not allowed to queue in place. There are 30 Kidzos in the card and only effective if you activate on the day itself. 

6. As a rough guide, the cheapest item you could get is around 100 Kidzos for a small hair clip. We left empty handed because the kids couldn’t wait that long to activate the card.

7. 1 staff told us that it’s usually quieter on weekdays afternoons, so you might like to try that timing although you only have got half a day left, but hopefully more fruitful.

Kids first debit card

And finally, this is the situation of the queue when we left in the afternoon.

We probably wouldn’t come here again, unless the kids requested. 



Splash @ Kidz Amaze Punggol Safra Review

Finally, after seeing so many posts on this much raved indoor water playground, we brought the kids here to check it out.

The kids were thrilled to learn that they were going to a water playground and that’s indoors! Means not too hot, regardless of weather, the plan will proceed. 

So we visited it on a Friday afternoon where it happens that both kids had the afternoon off from school. We were not brave enough to try on weekends yet.  And so the crowd seems manageable.

The main play area for bigger kids where there’s natural sunlight coming in

Play area for smaller kids with a water depth of 0.3m and antislip play structures

The Play Area

The first impression after we went in was “what? That’s it?”. But looking back at the entrance fee again, 28SGD(member price) for family of 4 for unlimited hours, rem, ok, it’s not that bad. But we probably can’t sustain for too long in here.

The kids didn’t seem particularly excited but of course they wouldn’t mind just splashing in for a couple of hours playing the same thing over and over again.

Stucked at this green slide for half the time

There were 2 open slides, 1 green wide and long slide, 1 blue narrow and short slide, 1 short tunnel slide and long tunnel slide.

Nic took the short tunnel slide and claims that its so fast, she hit her gums. She didn’t go for it again after this.

Short but fast tunnel slide

Mini slide with antislip flooring for small kids

It opens until 9pm on peak periods like Friday – Sunday, public and school holidays. 

Night view with changing lights

When I first read about this indoor water playground, I had the idea that it would be enclosed with no sunlight and no fresh air. Would the place end up with germs and viruses since its enclosed? But after seeing it for ourselves, it’s kind of nice to know that they had allowed natural sunlight and fresh air to flow in the design of this playground. 

Tentage type of rooftop with lots of free spaces to allow fresh air to flow in

You would be able to hear the sound of the splashing water and the kids as soon as you walk into building from the carpark and that’s enough the get the kids all hyped up. 

The staff here were not that particular with dress code. I saw some parents in singlets and exercise shorts getting wet and they were not disallows entry by the staff, unlike at POLW where dress code is strict.

Facilites

Next, is the facilities here. 
As similar to the Kidz Amaze at Toa Payoh Safra, there’s no food or drinks being sold here but they did not stop people from buying in and eating and drinking inside. 

There were 2 types (big and small) of lockers available for rent here at surprisingly expensive rate of 6SGD for the big one and 4SGD for the small one. Maybe it’s because of the low entrance fee rate? I remember that POLW at Palawan Beach, Sentosa beach had free lockers. Why is Kidz Amaze charging so much?

2 types of lockers available at surprisingly expensive rates

Only by cash payment and no change given, unlike the lockers at Sentosa Cove where payment mode includes payment by various kinds of cards

They had adopted the idea that I like quite a lot from POLW. 2 level door for all the shower rooms and toilets! Look at this cute kiddy toilet!

Kiddy WC for kids to use the toilet themselves but viewable by parents from outside in case they need help

They didn’t have kiddy basins though the ones they had was not too high and some kids should have no problem reaching.

Basin area

This is where you can park your strollers.

Pram parking Area

The shower room is equipped with hot water and has around 8 shower cubicles. Not sure would there be a long queue on crowded days but it was quite empty.

Showe cubicles with 1 long bench just outside for waiting and changing

Party Rooms

And of course, all indoor playgrounds would not miss out on party rooms for kids to celebrate birthdays there.

There were quite a number of rooms here and they looked spacious with spacious front area for guests to hang around and monitor their kids at the play area. The toilet is at the left most side of this photo and there is a party room at the right most side. If you take this room, you will need to walk the furthest distance to the toilet.

Quite a number of party rooms surrounding the toddler area

For the Parents

I strongly encourage parents to just get changed and get wet with the kids in the pool while waiting instead of hanging out around and trying to stay dry. Although it’s not sunny in here but the temperature and the humidity here makes you feel like you are having a steam bath fully clothed. I read that the water temperature here is regulated which means you will not get icy cold water at any time of the day, any day of the year. That probably explains the atmospheric temperature here. You will probably feel cooler waiting in the water. *Sweat… 

Another strong factor why you should go into the pool, look at the waiting area for parents. Hard, backless, uncomfortable and limited benches around the pool for parents trying to stay dry. But they are totally uncomfortable and there are no tables for you to do some work or eat your food while waiting. I can imagine on crowded days most people would be leaving their belongings on the ground instead. 

In conclusion, I feel that Splash@Kidz Amaze is more suitable for younger kids, which probably is a large number in Punggol, while bigger kids or kids who can swim, might get bored after a while. It’s a good idea to be indoor so we can come here rain or shine, but probably not so often as the kids get exposed to more fun places like Adventure Cove and Wild Wild Wet. 

Click here for the ticket prices and directions.

June School Holidays Kids Fun

It’s the mid year school holidays! Usually during the school holidays, there would be lots of kiddy activities for the kids. Ranging from paid enrichment school camps to free indoor and outdoor activities. Kids and parents will be spoilt for choices.

Recently I set up a diy calendar (Click here if you would like to download an editable copy for your own planning.) of schedules and events which I would pin up on the wall for the kids to keep track. The calendar for this month is full of  fun activities.   

Diy calendar of events

 Nic would refer to this calendar daily to notify me of the upcoming activity and whether we will be attending.

Most of the activities were held throughout the week through weekends, so we could only try to make it for the weekend activities.
28th SEA Games in Singapore

Singapore hosted the SEA games this year as part of the SG50 celebrations. It was such a grand event with load of activities to engage everyone who went. We didn’t want to miss such a special moment for Singapore, so we bought some tickets and brought the kids to watch their first SEA Games match. 

   
    

In aircon comfort

 It was a badminton quarterfinals match. We were enjoying the excitement when halfway through the kids got bored and started asking when the game will end, countless times. We gave in and left the match a while before all the matches ended. We managed to see the final score after all. Some kind of first SEA game match for the kids.. duh..

The game booths were too crowded so we didn’t manage to play at the booths. Just took some photos for momento.

   
 The atmosphere was great and the games spirits high. We didn’t have enough of the atmosphere, so we went back a second time and we glad we found the symbolic SEA Games flames. Proud to be hosts.

 

The torch

  

The lion was too bright

 

Images of Singapore and Madame Tussauds (RWS Singapore)

My mother-in-law got lucky and won some tickets to the Images of Singapore and Madame Tussauds this June holidays. Just nice to bring the kids to check out the 2 attractions that we haven’t been yet.

Photo-taking at Images of Singapore was not allowed, so we didnt have any photos there. The kids were rather scared due to the darkness of the attractions where we walked through to view different exhibits with guides explaining the different stages of Singapore history. It was nice but the kids probably didn’t really appreciate it.

Then came the boat ride we saw on the promotional videos all the time. It was rather cool but the big one broke down for no reason, not wanting to sit on the boat. Could be due to the darkness as well. Otherwise, we enjoyed the short boat ride and after the ride, we would enter Madame Tussauds.

 

On the boat

  

The must-take photo

  

Uneasy..

  

Totally awkward

  

The giant and the baby

  

As usual, looks awkward

 We had fun taking photos here but we were stucked for the longest time at ‘Yao Ming’s station’. Why? There was a really basket ball net and basketball for people to have a try at shooting. The kids can’t bear to leave until they get the ball in.

There was also soccer simulation game and golf practice at the sports stars area. We haven’t seen this at other Madame Tussauds yet. Thumbs for the Singapore version!
My Little Pony Picnic (Ang Mo Kio-Bishan Park)

First picnic

The girls are currently hooked to My Little Pony and they were thrilled when we brought them to this free Pony-themed picnic at Ang Mo Kio Bishan Park. It was the girls’ first picnic and it was a really really hot day even though we only went in the late evening. We packed some food (lazy us) and set up our picnic mat where we could find some shade.

The event was quite fun, despite the heat, and quite an experience for them. There were free games station, free snack booths (pop corn and cotton candy) and photo booths. There wasn’t even a single booth selling merchandise, seriously. Not that we mind though.

Many different booths set up

Big turnout

Game Station

Photo Booth

After playing at the games station, we were supposed to get chops and participate in the lucky draw of the day. Unfortunately the queues and the turnout was overwhelming and we couldn’t get to play at all the booths. However the organisers have decided to give all who turn up the chops and the chance to participate in the lucky draw anyway. The girls were quite disappointed at not having won anything so I have to explain to them a little about lucky draws.

Hi-5 Performance (United Square)

They are not that great Hi-5 fans now but still thrilled to watch their performance. This year we are not intending to attend their concert so I thought I would bring them to the mall to watch a short performance stint instead. I don’t usually like to join long queues to get something, but this time round, I thought I try my luck at the queue for a photo opportunity with the Hi-5 crew. It was a weekday and I guess the queue would not be that bad, so I made my purchases to hit the minimum amount required to get a photo pass, joined the queue and waited. Luckily I didn’t have to wait for 2 hours like some parents do during the weekend show. And I got the pass!

So here goes the excited kids with their favourite Hi-5 crew and I thought this is so much better than going for the concert. They sang their most popular hits and the kids get to take a photo with them. But for some reason, the kids there that day didn’t appear to be too excited during the show. I think the HI-5 crew didn’t manage to engage the little audiences enough though.

The kids had so much fun this month they almost couldn’t adjust back to homework and routine days by the time July came. The next event filled month would be December. Oh it’s going to be such a long wait.. 

Tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Being born in the era of peace and good life, honestly, it’s hard to imagine the transformation of Singapore. It’s also hard to imagine the transformation was mainly due to great leadership of 1 man with exceptional foresight and determination. 

Reading through various stories, encounters and events about him for the past week really made one feel totally humbled and full of respect for this extraordinary figure that puts Singapore on the world map. 

We decided that we had to make the trip to pay our last respect to this honorable man and thank him for all he did for us his entire life. 

We went on the last day after almost a whole week of mourning and managed to reach around 8am. 

We brought the kids along as we wanted them to also thank the great man and give their respect although they are probably totally clueless. And we were extremely thankful that we were in the priority queue because we had kids under 6 years old. 

Volunteers distributing drinks

We walked from Raffles City building, carried the stroller down and up the staircase via the underground walkway and were redirected to a different queue from this point onwards.

We really started queuing from this point onwards 

  

 We met many kind souls along the way who offered to help hold or carry the kids and also lift the stroller whenever there’s a curb. Deeply touched by the Singapore spirit at this point in time.

 

There were more food and drinks distribution points along the way and make shift toilets.

Bag checks

And we reach the bag check area surprisingly fast.

Stroller parking area

The next thing we know we were on our way in. 

 

  

We almost missed it until we started to see people bowing. It was quite rushed so we didn’t really feel the atmosphere until after we were out and settled down.

We were glad we made it here and expressed our most sincere thanks to great man, our founding father. 

Thank you again, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. You are the best thing that ever happened to us.

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!