Room full of fun

Which playground shall we go this weekend, daddy and mommy?

2011-04-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some answers you may want to tell Junior in order to get a gleam in his or her eyes:
(And that's easy on the pocket too!)

Indoor:
1) Marina Square level 3 outside Kiddy palace
2) Paragon level 5
3) Changi airport T3 Basement
4) IKEA Alexandra and IKEA Tampines

Outdoor but as part of a shopping complex:
Dry only:
1) Hougang Mall
2) Suntec City
3) City Square Mall
4) Sommerset 313

Both Dry and Wet:
1) Vivo City
2) North Point Yishun
3) IMM
4) Lot One Chua Chu Kang
5) Sembawang Shopping Centre

Outdoor parks:
West:
1) West Coast Park
2) Choa Chu Kang Town Park
3) Jurong Lake Park
4) Biopolis, Buona Vista

East:
1) Pasir Ris Park
2) Bedok Reservoir
3) Tampines Sun Plaza

North:
1) Bishan Park
2) Ang Mo Kio Town Park (beside Mac Donalds)
3) Sembawang Park
4) Woodlands Crescent park, near to Northoak Condo.

Northeast:
1) Punggol Park
2) Sculpture Park

South / central:
1) Labrador Park
2) Tiong Bahru, before Tiong bahru Plaza
3) Jacob Ballas, Botanica Gardens
4) Hort Park
5) Hindhede Park (Bukit Timah Nature Reserve)

I wish there are more merry go rounds around!

2011-04-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

This is at a little playground in front of Blk 505 Bishan St 11.
It is just this a climbing frame, a few rocking equipment and a merry go round.
Yet, it offers such a refreshing change and add to the variety of playgrounds available in Singapore.

This climbing frame is made up mainly with ropes, not so easy for the younger ones but definitely a welcomes challenge to the "5 years old and above"s. Although when I was there, I did witness a little 18 month old enjoying himself exploring the texture of the ropes. He also went in and out, under and above the ropes, totally amazed by the spatial reality mother earth presents.

These children did not know each other at all. Yet, while seeking to feed their vestibular system (the sensory system that helps us to feel the sense of movement), they found great company in each other. They were there, playing for a whole hour, "regardless of race, language or religion" (quote the Singapore pledge). Thank you to the parents who had allowed the time for such beautiful memories to be engraved in these children's brain. Not only that, this movement break would have even provided these children with better attention to their academic learning and also better regulation and behaviour organization later!

More reasons to get a zoo membership?

2010-09-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

For those who were not yet enticed by my previous posts about the dry playgrounds at the zoo, here are more pictures of the wet play ground and ie. more reasons why family with young children should invent in a family zoo membership.

Remember to pack swimming gear and bathing stuff. The kids bath area is well equipped (though no warm water)and designed to be another fun experience for the children.

It's a fun playground for children as young as 2 years old to the 99 years old who is young at heart.

These pictures were taken in 2009 but a recent visit shows that they have been maintaining the place well... kudos to the team at the zoo.

I like this wet playground particularly for it's great variety to suit everyone's needs. For the young child who is scared of water, there is no need to rush him or her to the centre of the action. There's plenty of shallow water, mild sprays and pipes and button to keep him interested and yet at a comfortable distance to observe the ongoing fun.
If you live near the north, you can visit the zoo at anytime with a zoo membership. You can be there early in the morning or in the evening when the sun is just nice. You can spent an hour or two having fun at the playground and visit an animal a week. Not only will the young children be able to tolerate the short trips better, the older ones may be rewarded with such fun outings!
Really, I think it's worth the deal.

Still at the zoo...

2010-05-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

While we are still at the dry part of the zoo, the children can get more heavy work from lots more climbing activities, not necessary upwards but sidewards too! This part of the playground is suitable for younger children. This equipment below allows even very young children to have a go at planning and climbing without parents worrying that they are going too high and out of safety's reach.

The above is a huge see saw of its own class. I like how many children can play on it, sitting, standing, kneeling and lying down on various parts of it. It can be loads of fun! Needless say about the vestibular input (sense of motion) and postural control (ability to balance and control one's body position) that one can work on while playing!

These lily pads on a patch of blue "pond" are really enticing to the imaginative part of the brain. Children can pretend they are frogs jumping from pad to pad or dragon flies flying in and around the pads. Let your child tell you how they'd like to play and join in! The pads are quite far apart and can be too challenging for those 5 and below.

I like sliding poles, and the zoo playground's sliding pole comes complete with the fire engine! So much more meaningful and fun to embed this whole act of sliding down the pole while pretending that we are fireman coming to rescue (the poor animals that are stuck in a fire at the zoo??).
Meanwhile, to let the children take their own time to come down the pole. It can be scary and difficult to coordinate oneself on these poles. When they are ready, they will want to do it, and all you may need is just teach them how to position themselves properly as above.

My child thought the zoo is all about the playground...

2010-03-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

Many friends have commented that their children loved going to the zoo largely because there's a really fun playground there and really, I dun blame the kids for forgetting about the animals. The Singapore Zoological Gardens had always boasted "funtastic" play areas for children and the recent (well, more than a year by now!) renovation of both it's wet and dry play grounds have just further up the quality and volume of fun.

For some children, enticing them to learn about animals can be difficult when there are so much more physical exploration awaiting them. Let them play at the playground first. "Because you have behaved so well at the playground, mummy's gonna read you all about fellas and bellas." This way, they would have worked out the sweat and now all ready to absorb some animals facts without thinking it as such a chore.

Personally, I felt that it is better to start off with the dry part of the playground before going off to the wet part (next blog). Not only do you only need to clean up the children once and for all before they leave the place, it is also safer to attempt activities in the dry playground without water dripping from their clothes. Other playground users would also appreciate your considerate act!
For children who are overly active and for those children whose motor skills are not so good, the zoo playground provides with a great way to start by having this pull and tug boat. Parents can go onto the raft with their kids, position them well and encourage them to use all their strength to pull the entire company across to the other side of the "river". Such "heavy work" promote optimal arousal level in children and helped children increased their body awareness and hence primed them for motor learning!

After using a lot of their srength in the tug boat, you may want to lead your child just around the corner to engage in a game of cable swings. From my last visit at the end of 2009, the cable swings at the zoo are in great condition and as long as you have your hands on your child, is generally safe for anyone who can sit upright.
Once you are more confident in your child's ability, then run aside them as they swing across. Do not be too eager to push your your pre-schooler to go across by themselves as the amount of vestibular (see previous blog for explanation of this term if you are new) sensation can be overwhelming.

After getting lots of heavy work and movement sensations from the first two activities, it's time to explore the other skill building equipment.

I love this balance beam, it introduce a good component of motor planning and problem solving, not usually seen in playgrounds. As the child attempt to walk across the balance beam, he or she has to plan how to position their body again and again to weave through the bars. These beam areas are usually not crowded so parents do not have to feel pressured that their children are causing a "traffic jam". Meanwhile, do not forget that you can further challenge your child to walk sidewards, backwards, or even crawl along the beam!

This is a wobble bridge. Once again, not only can we encouraged our child to walk sidewards, backwards, or crawl across the bridge, we can get them to jump from plank to plank if you think they are ready. Remember, safety first, always tell them what are the actions they can do only when an adult is with them.

This is one part of the huge variety of playground settings at the zoo. I felt that many of the equipment here are more suitable for the seven and above. There are many other equipments suitable for younger children and I would suggest we leave the older kids to do their stunts without having to be worried if they are going to bump into yet another toddler.

The Digital Era encroaching our nature space?

2009-05-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

Hello once again. I have not been updating this blog for a long time and I apologise to those who have been waiting patiently.
I have decided to go back to full time work and there is now much less time to blog. However, I have not stopped bringing the kids to playgrounds around the island and I have really accumulated a lot of pictures of various places. I have uploaded most of them and I am hoping to share them with all of you in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, let's get back to Pasir Ris Park. The above picture was taken about 6 months ago and this equipment was the newest kid on the block at Pasir Ris then. This was a find right after the newspaper reported that Singaporeans may be seeing electronics being applied in their children's playground.
Well, I was kinda sitting on the fence. It's a fun piece of equipment for the kids. Lots of feedback to their actions and it introduced a competitive component. The lights came on for that spot and you squat, bend , stretch or jump to hit it. Lots of cardiovascular workout and it worked your eye hand coordination and response speed, not forgetting building your upper limb strength and overall flexibility. You take those spots and I'll handle these few and team work is in full swing. But alas, I preferred electronic sounds and artificial lightings to be kept to the arcade.
Well, that was just me.
However, if you have read the above and felt all excited about visiting the park this weekend to lay your hands on this fun toy, I am sorry you'll be disappointed. Since about March this year, I had discovered the disappearance of this equipment from its spot. Tried to find out what happened to it but in vain. Well, it was either just a trial or the players' enthusiasm had shortened its lifespan??!!
Anybody seen any other electronic play ground pieces in our great outdoors?

Playing it Right

2009-03-03T00:11:00.000-08:00

Click on the image for full-sized image of the program

Download this registration form:

What a find at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve!

2008-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Somebody once asked me how did I first started coming across so many playgrounds in Singapore and I was sharing with them that it was all so easy because my family and I love the great outdoors and we are always looking for the next place to hike and explore. National Parks Board has done a great job, most parks have playgrounds and guess what we found at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve???

Rather, I should say guess what we found at Hindhede Nature Park? Park your vehicle at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and walk towards the Visitor Center. The boardwalk to this Hindhede Nature Park is on the left of the visitor center as you walk towards it.

The gem at this place is the ingenious incorporation of two long slides into the slopes of the area. See below:

This slope with a rope attached adds to the variety of ways that one can get up to the top. You can see that there's a slide going down from the left, admist tropical plants of all sorts!

This is the other slide that is to the right of the steps, and mind you, this is only half way down the slide. So exciting, I wonder why we are the only group of people there at 5pm on a Saturday???

This playground is not just about the two slides but there are even more climbing features at the top of the hill. This rikety bridge above leads to more rickety bridge below, which leads to the slide.

As mentioned, there's more to this playground, you can find ropes to climb as featured above. There are also balance beam, trampoline and more climbing equipments.

Walk another few metres and you can find this flying fox or T swing. Sit or stand on the T bar and swing yourself across. Enjoy the movement through space.

Another few metres away, there's the must have of all playgrounds: swings.

I really love the ruggedness of this playground. It's so close to nature. It has all the touch, sight, smell and sound that our city children hardly had the chance to experience and much as I want to keep this place secluded for myself and my family, I really wish more children would have a chance to enjoy it. So if you are reading this, spread the news of this lovely place and I hope the next time I'm there, it would be a little busier!

Playgrounds in shopping Malls

2008-10-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

Recently, I am seeing more playgrounds in shopping malls and am excited about them. Here's a run down of the shopping complexes that I know of that have a FOC playground in their compound:

Outdoors -
1) IMM (3rd floor, there's also a water featured play area as in photo below)

2) Hougang Mall (5th floor, featured above)

3) Bishan Junction 8

4) Suntec City (exit from door beside Toys R Us)

5) VIVO City (2nd floor, large, crowded on weekends, water features also available)

Indoors -
1) Paragon (small, beside escalator leading to Toys R Us)

2) United Square (a really small one outside Colds Storage)

Look forward to my reviews on each and every of these play grounds!

More reasons to love Pasir Ris Park

2008-09-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today's feature on Pasir Ris Park (again!) is going to focus on climbing. Climbing is really important to a child's development especially in promoting the coordination of both side of their body. This integration of both side of the body needs both our left brain and our right brain to talk to each other and hence enhances our brain processing. The below are some excellent climbing equipments you can find at Pasir Ris Park, all for the fee of $0.00!!

A Climbing wall that challenges the very young (they can just plan how to crawl through the hole!) to the very old. Your child may need a little encouragement to get started as it can look quite scary and they may not know what to do and may think that the only way to "play" is to climb all the way up so high!

Yes, one of the way to play with this is to climb.

Don't fret if the little one is too scared to climb on this. They may want to just try bouncing on the black "trampoline" in the centre or if they are less than six, you may want to skip this equipment totally.

I did not take a picture of the entire piece of this equipment but it's actually a huge fake mountain with slides and such rock climbing studs all around it. An unusual piece of equipment but I love unusual stuff, the more novelty there is, the more stimulating it is to the child!

You can climb up via the "rock path....

Or you can walk up the slope of this fake hill.
Oh, you can slide down the proper slide Or you can slide down on the slope Or if you are daring, walk down the slope.

And if you think that's quite a fair bit of things to climb at Pasir Ris Park already, here's more!
An entire playground with a variety of steps and ladders to get to higher ground and there's this new climbing frame that was recently added on:

The "proper" way of playing is actually to stand on the frame below, hang on to the parallel bar on top and walk across. Then again, as I always say, there's no "proper" or "right" way of playing, just remember SAFETY FIRST.

About climbing: The picture tells a thousand words.
For those eyeing the huge colourful playground behind: this is the largest such pre-fabricated composite playground I have ever come across in Singapore.

Yet another feature that I love, this equipment requires a child to visually guide her body as to how much space there is in between the blocks and hence know how far apart to raise her legs. She needs not only to coordinate her eyes and legs and hands but also the moving blcoks challenges her balance!

There's so much more to show around Pasir Ris Park but I'm going to take a break from it. Discover this wonderful park for yourself by making it the must go this weekend! If you see me there, come say hello!

The Promised English version

2008-09-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

To all who have been waiting patiently for the English translated version of the report on zaobao, this is it:

Click on the images to enlarge for full size

Acknowlegement: KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

I simply love Pasir Ris Park

2008-09-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the educational side of Pasir Ris Park. This new addition is in the form of a maze and it appeal to those who are very young to the older kids looking for a game to play with their friends.

Not only can you get your child to point out the spelling of his name, you can also teach your pre-schooler all the letters of the alphabets. I like how the capital letters and the small letters are all jumbled up. Get your child to point to all the big letters (uppercase) and then all the small letters (lower case). Hone their concentration, scanning ability and perseverance through this activity! Have a race to see who can find a letter faster if you happen to have more than one kid with you (it doesn't matter if you don't know the kids, get them to join in the fun that you are having with your child may help your child make a new friend on the playground!).

If your chid has yet to learn how to write the numbers and letters, this is a great board to teach them to trace around each number. Moving his entire arm to write it big help to enhance a child's memory of how a letter is formed. Why not head over to the sand area after this to do some writing on the sand with a stick? Write a big 8 and get your kid to walk the shape of the infinity! It'll prove quite a challenge!

Keep that stick that you find to write on the sand as you can change it into a drumstick (this help children to see that an object can be of multiple usage and develops their creativity and flexbility). Now for those staying in the east, you do not have to go all the way to Science Centre to let your child try out how different sizes of percussion instruments make different depth of pitch and tones!

Pasir Ris Park: more vestibular input anyone?

2008-08-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

The playground at Pasir Ris Park is really my new found love. Well, I had been there many times in the last few years but stopped going about a year ago as I found other new interesting play dens. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I visited it again about a month ago. The park (especially the playground) had undergone a new face lift and new features had been added while old ones replaced, repaired and "renewed". I had to say it's the King of Playgrounds for young children now!
You can visit this royalty at http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=26&Itemid=73 for the map of Pasir Ris park. To get to the playground, go along Elias road and follow onto Pasir Ris Road. You will soon see the playground on your right and you may park along the road side for free.

Remember I talked about the wonderful sensation of vestibular the last time? Well, you can really get even more of this sensory input at the following equipments. A good dosage of it enhances children's ability to balance and coordinate both sides of the body. It is even said to be one of the foundation for good visual and auditory processing and hence academic skills.

The new age see-saw.

"I can sit to make this toy move back and forth and then I can stand. I can make it bounce up and down while trying to look at mummy in front. I have to try hard to keep mummy looking clear while bouncing ... I need to work my eyes really hard. Ok, I had enough. One, two, three, jump off!"

"Ho, ho, after so much moving around, I am ready to show off my balancing skills on these. Wow, it's shaky. I like standing on this beam, see, i can balance balance and then, jump off. Show you one more trick, I can walk on tip toes along the beam, arrgh, mummy, hold my hand!"

"Hmm, dun like all these big boys. They are shaking the bridge and making it too hard for me to balance. I shall try again later. When they are not around I can run really fast along the rope, I can do it without my shoes too! I can also climb along the ropes at the side and hang on pretending I am a spider!"

"You know what, this is a fun slide. It feels nice and cold and I can see myself in it. Down I go, I will show you how I can also go down on my tummy!"

" What? Time to go home? Well, mummy and daddy can walk on the pathway. I am going to walk along the big roots of these trees.... balance, balance, balance, jump!"

Pasir Ris Park - It's all about the vestibular system

2008-08-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Close your eyes and feel yourself moving forward, squatting down, turning around and trying to balance on one leg. The vestibular system was the sense organ that had just helped you to know where you were in space! Unfortunately, most of us did not learn that we had such an important "sixth sense" when we were in school. It's not too late, make sure your children have a good time practising using this crucial sense organ of theirs. You can do it all at Pasir Ris Park!

Swings are aplenty at Pasir Ris Park. For most part of the day, they are under the shade and if there are not so many people waiting, do let your child swing to his or her heart's content. Most children knows just how much their body need and would stop when they have enough. Stopping too soon may deprive them of ever getting to the point where their body can make sense and organise that vestibular sensation.
(If you are working with a child with autism, do speak to your therapist before letting your child "swing to his or her heart's content". For the matter of fact, do not take for surface value all mentioned in this blog as the sensory system of the child with Autism works differently.)

For those who are with children who are scared of the swings or who stay less than two seconds on a swing, try standing in front of them, go down to their level, make good eye contact and reassure them as you perhaps even just let them sit and talk to you. We can put them in the bucket swings which provide more support and play "kick daddy's tummy" as the swing gently bring their outstretched legs to touch your bouching belly.

This roly poly merry go round is great fun for the kid when he can have it all to himself. Sometimes, children need time to just explore on their own and feel how their body is going to react to all the movement challenges that this equipment is going to offer. Especially if your child is hesitant with such spinning equipments when there are many children around dictating the speed and movement of this monster, do find a quiet time of the day and encouage him to push, pull, sit, stand, crawl, sprawl on this lovely spaceship.

This piece of equipment is quite a new find on playgrounds, but it is making it's presence felt in more and more playgrounds around the island. I have seen parents puzzling over how to play with it but as usual, stand back and observe the kids and they will be teaching you tens of ways of how to play with it in minutes. For your young children, you can carry them up to hold on to the railings and they can go for a merry go round ride hanging on for their dear life with their tiny hands. Quite dangerous if you are not sure if your child's gonna have the strength to hold on for the round... unless you are going to be running around with them.
For the older kids who can reached it and make themselves hang and spin around, they are on for a whole lot of great vestibular stimulations.
So, if you have a young one and want to make use of this equipment, bring along a towel, a rope or the like and tie it to the railings. your child will have a good time holding on and running round and round, spinning the big big wheel! Lots of vestibular input and most importantly fun factor ++. BEWARE: flying ropes can hit eye and cause blindness.

I took the ZaoBao reporter for a tour to 5 playgrounds!

2008-08-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

This article was published on the 4 August of the Lian He Zao Bao. If you are visiting this website after reading the article... I would like to extend a warm welcome to you! You are most welcome to comment and let me know how useful this site has been to you.

The five playgrounds were 1) Sculpture Park at Seng Kang 2) Hort Park 3)Sun Plaza Park at Tampines 4) West Coast Park and 5) Jurong Lake Park.

If you do not read mandarin, fret not. I will be getting a copy of this article in English and will publish it on this blog. Look out for it!

Where is Hort Park?

2008-08-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hort Park is located along Alexander Road and you can find out how to get there from the following link:
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=17&Itemid=73

Hort Park: the new kid on the block

2008-07-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Hort Park has been around for a while but not many knows about it until the recent launch and publicity. Whatever it is, I love its newness, its tidiness and its cleanliness. Most of all, its my new found play ground! There's so much for the kids to enjoy, they don't have to be nature lovers, there's so many features in the park that you can use to entice their natural desire to play and explore.

Actually, the park has put in a lot of playground equipment in its enclosure to appeal to the kids. May be they are doing so with an intention to provide additional incentives for them to visit and hopefully appreciate the beautifully landscpaed park and develop an interest in horticulture. Whatever the reason, these play grounds equipment were certainly well selected and provided our children in Singapore with yet another wonderful place to develop themselves through a meaningful occupation. My next blog will share with you some features of these equipments at Hort Park but meanwhile, I'd like to explore how else our children may enjoy the other features of the park...

There are many such small pieces of landscaped gardens in Hort Park, showcasing the efforts of various companies and organisations. As you walk your children through these little gardens, encourage them to explore the different texture of the ground, the grass, the pebbles, the leaves (dead and alive). They may want to jump from stepping stone to stepping stone and indeed, if you look below, you can see that there are various shapes and sizes and distances between stones to challenge your childs motor skills and spatial (space) awareness.

I was really quite excited to see the variety of textures that the children would be able to walk/jump/run/gallop/hop/sit/crawl on in one given setting. There's wood, there's the usual wild grass (you know what I mean?), the well-kept carpet grass, the synthetic grass, pebbles of different sizes, man made "stones", sand, road, foam and so on. There are also steps of different width and slopes of different gradients, all within a few steps of each other. Where else can you find such a well equip gym??

Go to Hort Park one of these days, it's worth the trip, if nothing, it's beauty will surely unwind your soul. BTW, there's not much shade, so choose a cloudy day or not so warm part of the day.

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

2008-07-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Playground at Punggol Park

2008-06-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Moving to the Northeast, I'll like to bring you to the playgrounds of Punggol Park. What I have been doing in the past few posts has been to concentrate on various features of the playgrounds; however, as I venture around, I really felt that I would like to write more about the other features around the playground as kids often see them as just extensions of the playgrounds and they have just as much fun and learning to offer.

Meanwhile, for today, I'll start with the playground at Punggol park. It looks like the usual not so exciting playground but look closer and you'll find some interesting features.

Do not forsake the importance of ramps like this. It provides young children with an opportunity to explore gradients while high above the ground. Children as old as four may still lack confidence so high off the ground and caregeivers often have to follow them up the playgrounds to give added support. Stand at one end of the ramp and encourage your child to walk to you. Pick up some leaves on your way to the playground and as you are up there, encourage your child to come take the leaves (one at a time) from you and bring it to another end to stack it up or display.

This playground is really quite suitable for four years and above and continues to be a challenge for the older kids. There are many different challenging ways of getting up to the platform and the whole system is quite a maze. Excellent for challenging a child's sense of space and problem solving and planning. So, observe and see if your child is always going up the same stair way and coming down the same slide. Discourage such patterns and challenge them to find other ways to get from one point to another.

Remember, ladders and slides are as much for climbing up as it is for climbing down!

There are also various types of "bridges" for crossing and this is good training again for planning and also for balance.

And if you think that these ropes can only be bridges, then sit back at one of the benches surrounding the playgrounds and observe how the kids play for 15 minutes. The below simply illustrates one of the many other ways...

More to come on Punggol Park....

Boon Lay playground: cycling

2008-05-20T00:26:00.000-07:00

Playground at Boon Lay is really quite big... just the right size for your preschooloers to cycle around and it provides just the right length and gradient of slopes for your 3-4 years old learning how to cycle with those training wheels. A gentle slope is great for learning how to brake, up the challenge of balancing and definitely is an adenaline rush for the kids and a great confidence booster. Don't forget about the hard work going up the slope.

I like foot reflexology paths... I guess the people who first decided to build them in Singapore parks probably never knew that there could be so many uses for them other than stimulating acu points in the feet!
Cycling on these paths are not only great fun but work out those leg muscles and demands lots of balance, coodination and patience.
Toddlers gets a good workout too when they walk on these "poke rocks" with their shoes on, better their balance! The two tones of the rocks add extra fun as we challenge our little one to stay in just one of the colours as they walk, run, jump and crawl on it. That's teaching early colouring within the boundaries and tracing skills.

Playground at Boon Lay: Learn your ABC

2008-05-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

I really love this playground in Boon Lay. It is so simple yet full of thoughtful delight, hopefully intentional.

The playground structure that you see in my earlier posts is built on this shock absorbing rubber foam. Since we are going to take away the wonderfully creative media of sand, we better make sure that we gave playground users something not just safe but just as fun.

Forget about flashcards! These huge alphabets printed on the foam are going to be more fun and effective to teach our children letters recognition. Children can "trace out" the alphabets by walking, hopping, marching, crawling, galloping or using their whole palm. Make sure you get them to shout out the name of the letters as they move through it. Such multisensory teaching will make letters recognition a breeze for your kids.

As they got better at recognising the letters, we can play a game by calling out the name of a letter and the children can race each other to spot, run and land on the letter!

As your children 'trace' the alphabets, make sure they do it with the correct strokes as this can ensure proper letter formation on paper... wrong letter formations are hard to correct in later years and significantly slows down writing speed.

Oh, cycling and jogging along the alphabets as we sing the alphabet song is fun and teach the kids to sequence their letters...

I just wish they have these letters in lower case too!

Playground at Boon Lay: The Space Underneath

2008-04-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

See those space underneath the platforms and slides... perfect for little children to run underneath and out and about, and excellent for builing body awareness. So relax the next time your child crawl, run or cycle underneath the platforms, they are learning about their body and how it relates to the space around them.

Playground at Boon Lay: Slides

2008-04-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

These are typical slides found in most playground. There are many many ways of playing with slides .... this learnt as i sat observing children playing on them. You can slide down the trough sitted or lying down. Sit on a piece of paper and slide down or arrange a pile of dried leaves, sit on them and slide down!

Lying on the tummy and coming down is fun but make sure that feet goes down first especially when not closely attended to by adults. You may want to encourage your child to "swim" down head first to experience the sensation but make sure you tell them not to do so when you are not around. You know your child best, if you cant trust them to be safe, dont teach them unsafe "tricks".

Children can walk or crawl up or down the slide, they can also go up backwards or sidewards by running, jumping, crawling or squirming. There's no need to keep to the trough, children can further challenge their own motor skills by walking or sliding up and down the divider between the two slides!

Some children would not need an adult to suggest these ideas to them, however, if your child have limited ideas as to how to have fun on the play ground, you may want to drop a few hinters. Show them what others are doing, demonstrate the trick and show lots of enthusiasm. Do not force them. Their little bodies may not be ready to be that adventurous.

Playground at Boon Lay: beware of the monkey bars???

2008-04-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's time to move away from Bishan Park in the Northern part of Singapore and over to the west - this playground is situated in between Blk 203 andBlk 201, Boon Lay Drive. The lucky residents in this area have a great play area for their children just at their own backyard! I chose to review this playground because from my observation, it seems to represents many features available in playgrounds of newly upgraded mature estates.

This is the main playground structure of this play area. It has the stairs for your toddlers to go up to the platform, and it also has this unusual climbing frame for older kids to climb up. The more atypical a climbing structure is, the more problem solving it would require of a child and so it's geat. Remember though, once a child has mastered it, you would have to challenge him to do it another way to further develop his motor planning skills (refer to previous post for explanation of term, or if you'd like me to start a glossary of all these jargons that I use, drop me a comment, thanks!).

This is a type of monkey bars, excellent for building grip strength, shoulder stability, and coordination of the two sides of the body. However, it is also the pet topic of many orthopaedic surgeons and children emergency doctors and potential nightmares of parents. In an article in Today (dated 28 march, pg 2), a doctor was quoted saying that he sees several children each day with playground sustained injuries by which many were elbow fractures as a result of falling from monkey bars.

I certainly hope such a fact as it is, does not deter parents from encouraging their children to try out the monkey bars and/or result in the authority removing them from playgrounds! I would like to suggest alternative solutions.

Children need to be educated on the potential danger of the monkey bars. Parents of children below ten should help their kids determine if they are strong enough to hold through the entire course of the monkey bars before turning their heads away when their kids are playing on the monkey bars. Encourage them to practise many times in your presence, with you just right next to them ready to catch them. Be sure you are there to assess their ability, to cheer them on and if necesary, to catch them if they fall. Teach them not to use the monkey bars with oily hands, tell them not to compete on the monkey bars and that rules for playing catching at the playground includes not using the monkey bars! Yes, I'm nagging, but please, teach the children to be safe on the playground before essential features like monkey bars are being removed. Our children have already no trees to climb.

Bishan Park Part 4 - sand play

2008-03-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

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!