Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

There was so much talk about the new Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at the Botanic Gardens I thought I should really bring the kids. Coincidentally their school took them for an excursion there and I followed along. Subsequently I decided to bring them there again as I felt the Garden has much to offer and the kids hadn't had enough of it!!!

The tree house playground is really kind of the highlight of the small Garden if you are there on a free and easy trip by yourself. Otherwise the Garden offers many educational tours, check out: http://www.sbg.org.sg/education/workshopchi.asp

As for the tree house playground, the children get to climb up to platforms which were build around the tree trunks. There's the usual slides thoughtfully build at two levels so that kids who are not keen for the bigger challenge can start out on the lower one first. These slides are enclosed "tubes" and hence exposed the kids to a different kind of spatial and visual experience.


Set amongst the trees, this big"spider web" is fun for the kids to imagine themselves either as the spider or the prey that's stuck there. When more kids are together, you can throw in the idea and let them suggest the rules to the game. It could be just a simple game of tag or an elaborate story with many plots.

There are the lower and smaller webs that children can practice their climbing skills first before attempting this big web.


Other than the webs and the regular steps that lead up to the platform, wooden ladders like these provide the children yet another way to get up. Make sure the kids try out the different ways!

There are many other features in the garden that provide for a huge variety of sensory experiences in nature's way. There's a fallen tree trunk laid across a mini river that can challenge the child's sense of balance and depth; there's a suspension bridge for movement and view, there's lots of leaves, flowers and pebbles and twigs and branches for touching and smelling, and you can even walk behind a water fall for that auditory experience. There's also another playground with merry go rounds and climbing features build on sand. There's even a sand digger on this playground. To top the list, there's a water feature area where children can play with water sprouting from the grounds and practise eye-hand coordination when filling up their watering cans! Last but not least, there's a maze made of bushes to test your child's sense of direction.