Bishan Park Part 4 - sand play

As you may have already noticed, the ground underlying this playground at Bishan Park is sand filled instead of the foam overlays more commonly seen in HDB playgrounds. Sand is a great play media and I love it. It provides an overwhelming amount of tactile (touch) input necessary for children's sensory development. Young children first need to tolerate the seemingly uncomfortable sensation, they then learn to enjoy how the sand feels under their feet and in between their fingers.
For the under threes, scooping sand with various types of sand play spades, rakes or even a leave or a piece of cardboard can provide hours of fun. That said, the fun and learning does get more intense if you also provide some containers for them to transfer the sand, see the volume and feel the weight. For those yet to get that set of sandplay toys for your kids, fret not. Plastic bags, empty mineral water bottle containers, biscut boxes, leaf, and twigs are all easily available and provides just as much fun. After the kids get tired of transferring sand into the plastics bags and carrying them around, pinch some holes in their bags to turn into another fun activity and get ready to leave the sand pit!


I like these features at the play ground, the two holes you see at this "table" has tiny holes at the bottom to allow sand to flow away at different speed. Fun!

For the older kids, challenge their imagination by pretending that they are playing shop, maybe, they are baking cakes to sell at this shop of theirs? I once observed a group of kids setting up a whole entire processing line of a factory.

For the uninitiated kids, sometimes, it just takes an adult to suggest an idea and they can take it off from there. Your job is to refrain from telling them what's right and wrong in their play!

By the way, the sand at this playground, especially near to the above sand play feature, is really quite clean. Just remember to get there early in the morning so that it doesn't get too hot for the kids to bare their feet.

Bishan Park Part 3 - Climbing

This type of climbing fixtures offers great challenges to a child's praxic ability. This jargon term involves the whole process of coming up with an idea of what to do with this piece of equipment, planning each and every step as to how to make this idea work and then motorically (i.e. physically) executing it (i.e. make it happen!).

The idea can be as simple as "I want to climb up to the top!". The process: "What do I have to do? ummm... put my right hand on this rope, and my left hand on this other side, pull myself up and quickly put my legs here...." and so on and so forth. For most of us, really, this happens at a subconscious level, but I am sure we all agree that it had to happen. Then we use our muscles, which must be strong and flexible and under our control to make our plan happen.

Challenge your child to think of more complicated ways of playing with this equipment. How about climbing up on one side and going down the other? How about climbing into this square hole and coming out the other?

For those not so motivated to climb, bring along some clothes pegs or favourite character stickers, and have your kids play hero rescuing the poor Dora who was stuck up in the mountain /castle etc.

For those who want to offer their six years old a lesson on grids, you can name them A to D across the horizontal and 1 to 6 up the vertical and play a game of "Where am I?"!



These are other parts of this playground fixture at Bishan park which I will briefly talk about in this post. Although not terribly exciting, I do appreciate playgrounds that have more than one means of climbing up to the platform than just the plain old steps. Different height of steps, different width and depth of steps and different types of rails and grips that they may used to aid themselves to get up there, all offer the young toddler different challenges and hence more brain connections!



These steps just further emphasize my previous point. It's great, the younger kids can get on all fours to climb up and as they get better, challenge them to walk up using just one hand to help, and then, without using their hands. Lots of planning required to go from the last step and under the blue barrier! Getting them to transport pots of sand up and down these structures would keep them occupied the whole time while you are assured that their body and brain are being developed every of those minutes.

Bishan Park Part Two - Round and Round

In the last 3 or so years, I began to notice more and more of such new generation merry go rounds making their presence felt at public playgrounds. It's a great addition and I applaud the people who had decided to add this feature to our playgrounds. The children love it, it provides them with just the sensation that many children yearn for, precisely becuase this sensory input is necessary for the maturation of their nervous system (and that includes the brain)!

Children sit at the edge of this new-age merry go round and they get spun around, either by their parents or other children. The more "gungho" ones will attempt to stand or walk around the "spaceship" as it spins around. You can also lie down either on your stomach or on your back, this will help you experience movements in different planes. As you see, you can encourage the children to let their imagination runs as they play on this equipment...outerspace, submarines, carnival rides etc can be themes. You are building play ideas and facilitating creativity!

When there are more children playing on this equipment, their social skills get to be challenged. "Faster!" "That's too fast!" "Stop!" "My turn to spin!" Watch out for where your child falls about when interacting with others, do a mental record of what happens and this can be a perfect situation to be taken away from the playground and into the learning space. Sit your child down in a calm, relaxed and happy mode and you can re-play the social situations and teach your child various ways of responding to such social challenges as bullying, taking turns, and being assertive. They would love role playing the various scenarios!

I feel that children as young as a year old can enjoy this big flying saucer, just make sure you have a hand on them and run along... get some of that vestibular input yourself!



This is another feature of these 21st century playgrounds. Another item that I think adds to the varied sensory experiences provided by these playgrounds. Children stand on it, hold on tight and get either spun around by another person or if their ability to plan their motor movements are good enough, they can spin themselves.

Encourage your child to think of different ways to play with a piece of equipment before you go in and tell them what to do. This way, you get them to be active player and thinker. Active thinking is what we want as it builds neuron connections in the brain. And who knows, your little one may make your day by coming out with the most ingenous way of playing. Let him or her knows she's good, rejoince and celebrate!

Bishan Park Part One

BISHAN PARK



Bishan park is usually quiet and breezy on weekday mornings. Even on the weekend mornings, the vast amount of land allows for plenty of room between people. Children can enjoy a good run, practising their balance going up and down the slopes, running around the trees and in and out between the shrubs. There are also plenty of curbs and low walls for them to walk on and jump from, all with supervision.


I like the "giraffe" patterned pathway, as my daughter calls it. It provides for plenty of games. Children will love jumping or hopping (on one leg) from tile to tile or you may want to challenge them to jump from red tile to red tile. Siblings and friends may enjoy a jumping race along the stretch. If you bring along a chalk, you may can even label the tiles with numbers, alphabets or words, and have a jumping and literacy lesson outdoor! (Stamping away the chalk marks makes a great coordination activity!)



As you entered from the carpark along Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, you'll come across a bicycle rental kiosk; follow along the path and you'll come to this playground.



I like any playgrounds that have swings, you'll come to realise. Swings are great, all playgrounds should have swings if I have my way! Children need movements to develop a sense of equilibrium and balance, a sense of where their body is in space (technically called sense of "vestibular"). Swings provide for a great way to experience different intensity of movements.

You can swing your child the usual back and forth way, you can swing him or her sideways or rotate it (not so much on this one). This swing at Bishan Park is a bucket swing and is nice and safe for children below three years old. If you go before 10am, the trees provide a nice shade over the swings. If you look carefully at the picture above this, there are also two swings for older children who are better able at balancing themselves.

Well, that's all for Part One of Bishan Park. I hope you have enjoyed reading thus far. I have certainly enjoyed myself, sharing these thoughts.

Why read this blog?

We assume that children naturally knows how to play. They play at the playground, they play in the bathroom, they play with that drinking straw, they play with just about anything. Children learn through play, and so we are told. So, we want to find play ideas; play activities that can best stimulate our children's development. There are children who find it difficult to come up with ideas as to how to play. There are also children whose sensory, motor and cognitive ability are hindering their ability to play. Parents of these children struggle to find the right activities to do with their children so as to best maximise their potential. I have the luxury of working with parents and children who shared their play ideas with me over the last thirteen years. And thanks to my two children, I have been exploring various parts of Singapore. Hence, I decided to start a blog to pen all the play ideas that flows through my mind as I visit the various playgrounds and parks in Singapore. I hope this blog will provide you with lots of ideas as to how to best make use of the environment to stimulate the children's development. Remember, the most fun part of play is the company, enjoy your child!