Rise & Shine Parenting Expo - My Experience

The Massive Electronic Billboard in Suntec

The last weekend of September saw excited parents thrronging to the Suntec Covention Center, the venue of the most anticipated parenting expo of the year in Singapore- the Rise & Shine-Expo! There seemed to be something for everyone... pregnant mums to-be to mums with 3 kids in tow; cute babies to spirited toddlers and bright enthusiastic preschoolers. There were contests, workshops, seminars, products, brands, stage performaces and a lot more.

The expo was touted to be fun, informative, educative and useful (in terms of shopping experience). Spread over 3 days, the Rise & Shine -expo proved to be all of this and much more. Crowds were better managed than in most expositions I have attended in Singapore and though Saturday was the most rushed, by way of simply spacing out the contests, calling particpants to register at least half an hour before the events by way of email reminders and arranging keynote seminars and workshops on an entirely different level than the exposition halls made the difference between packed and over-packed! In fact I was expecting long queues for the door gift and goodie bag redemption but that was pretty cool and surprise, surprise most of that freebie stuff in those bags was actually useful!! 

I had registered my older son for the 'Color my Feelings' drawing and coloring contest. The contest was sponsored by the Fish book company and the contest entailed a very novel concept- expressing emotions through a fish's body  language and expressions- so there could be a happy fish, an angry fish, a sad fish ....I am sure you've got my point by now....sounds easy but ain't that easy!. Anyways, my son enjoyed the contest even though he didnt win a prize and he was happy with the extra 3 black drawing sheets and crayola crayons (its amazing how kids can really find joy in the most simple of things)!

My son at the contest - Fishes Galore!

Later, I heard that the Coloring Contest set a new record of the largest number of contestants across various age groups to have participated under one roof! Kudos to the Rise & Shine team. See the children hard at work here with parents and siblings in tow!

After the coloring contest, we roamed around in the Exposition hall and he came across these interesting block sets by Triquo which he tried his hand at and then coaxed me into buying.....I didnt need much coaxing as these do seem interesting and creative. 

On our way out he spotted the Wall-climbing (Rock climbing) and we let him try his hands and feet with it. I can proudly say he was pretty good at it  and in fact did two rounds then and there. We might sign him next year for rock climbing classes. 

While Daddy took the tired boy home -content after the contest, purchases and adventures, I headed down to level 3 where I was to attend a Workshop on Multiple Intelligences by Dr. Thomas Armstrong.  Though all the workshops by Heidi Murkoff (best selling author of the What to Expect series), Dr. William Sears (the Attachment Parenting advocate) and by many famous Specialists and Consultants from Singapore hospitals seemed interesting and educative ...if I was to choose one workshop that would enhance my knowledge and my parenting - that workshop had to be Dr. Thomas  Armstrong's Workshop on Multiple Intelligence. 

I had heard of the concept of Multiple Intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner but wanted to learn more. Dr. Thomas Armstrong not only introduced the 8 intelligences (what he called 'Smarts') to the audience but kept us captivated with his witty life- examples and engaged the audience with little hands-on, to-do exercises like. I had the opportunity to meet him for a few minutes after the session and to my delight he passed me his card. 

To those who are curious, the Multiple Intelligence theory proposes that one way (or only the academic way) of measuring intelligence in every individual is a faulty one. According to the proponets of this theory, there cannot be one, single standard way of measuring every child's intelligence and every child possess one or more of the eight intelligences - namely, 

• Logical (Number smart)
• Lingusitic (Word Smart)
• Spatial or visual ( Picture Smart)
• Bodily or Kinesthetic (Body Smart) 
• Musical (Music Smart)
• Interpersonal (People Smart)
• Intra-personal (Self Smart)
• Nature smart  

Dr. Armstrong's Workshop at Suntec Convention Hall 301

To find out more visit Dr. Armstrong's website @ http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasArmstrongPhD/september-28-2013-singapore-eight-ways-of-teaching-handouts-revised

I am sure Rise & Shine which has done a spendid job at this exposition will tie all the loose ends and come back with a smashing, improved version of their exposition next year. Looking forward to it!