Summer Holidays- Keeping the Kids Gainfully Engaged!

Vacations over....kids are back to school...and I am back to some serious writing n (not so serious) blogging.

This vacation we decided not to venture outside Singapore...husband is super busy, it's extremely hot and we have been travelling a lot in the last 2 breaks of  December and March....so we decide to save some money and the sweat and make do with what is within Singapore ...which is a lot actually!

This left me with the onerous task of planning activities and events that could satiate (read as: exhaust) my boisterous boys and maintain my sanity. This is not easy - it is in fact tougher if you are staying put and not travelling than if you are travelling where in you just pack your bags and go......so my planning started a month ahead of the vacations.

I planned for a combo of activities - some inclined to enhance knowledge, some that gave them the needed adrenalin rush and some pure, innocent, family fun (the last one keeping the younger one in mind since he is too young for many adventurous/ knowledge based activities)! My hubby took a couple of days off from work so we could have some family bonding time but the rest of the 28 days was my sole responsibility. 

First Stop- 3 day Space Robotics Camp / 3 day of Royce Kids Gym fun 

I was looking for a short Camp for my older son something which he would find interesting and which would feed his insatiable sense of curiosity! Last year he had attended a Lego Robotics Camp at Orchard which he thoroughly enjoyed. But this year I needed some place which also had an indoor playground/ gym area nearby to keep my 2 year old occupied as well. I chanced upon the perfect place - Liang Court at Clarke Quay. 

Though it meant a whole lot of commuting for me as well as a whole lot of coffee (I carried my laptop along and worked on my writing assignments at Starbucks or Coffee Bean), it was the perfect place because it had WondersWork which was doing this Space Invention Camp and on the same level there was Royce Kids Gym- a fully equipped indoor playground- any preschooler can happily spend hours in!

In his Space Suit - which was definitely one of the highlights of the camp!

Explaining the invention to Mama!

With his creations at the camp

As you can make out from the pics, these were 3 well spent, exhausting but memorable days for both the kids and me! Akshobhya got a certificate for being a Space Inventor, a space suit and  his taste buds got a treat of astronaut food- Neapolitan dried ice cream ! 

Enjoying his favourite play- Thomas & Friends Engines

Enjoying Cheese Pizza at Shakey's

Akshit at Royce Kids Gym

Akshit loved playing with Thomas & Friends engines and learned a whole lot of engine names (the flip side he keeps asking for them at home and has even learned to say, "Mama, let's buy Gordon and Emily"!  

And for all the 'hard work', the kids were treated to chocolate sundaes at Mc Donalds every single day and my elder one also insisted on trying out the Shakey's Pizza which he swore was the bestest pizza he had ever had !!!

Hey! Mothers deserve some downtime too don't they? So for all my hard work- I got myself a luxurious body massage at the Spayuri Spa after packing off the younger one home post his gym fun on the last day!









Stop 2  - Tampines Regional Library - Bonding over Books!

One good habit that I have managed to inculcate in both my kids is their love for reading and love for books. Even my younger one can sit patiently turning the pages of an interesting picture book or listening to an older person reading to him. My elder one is blissfully as addicted to reading as he is to his playstation and this is one addiction I don't mind- in fact I do all to encourage it - I know once a book lover, always a book lover!

So for 2 evenings in the hols, I took them to the library where they spent hours browsing, reading and selecting books and CDs to be borrowed. The elder one explored the e-kiosks and learned how to check in and check out books while the younger one patiently waited for his turn at the stationery toy train which is a sought-after treat for all young kids visiting the library. Both my otherwise hyperactive boys were pretty well behaved in the library and I was really proud of them! And it is no secret that I am a certified bookaholic too so this was like an indulgence for me too- books all around and 2 surprisingly toned down kids - pure, unadulterated bliss :)

 Stop 3- Rise and Shine Breakfast Carnival @ Lawn-Marina Bay on June 14th, 2014

Ever since I learned about Rise & Shine-expo's very successful record breaking breakfast carnival held in March 2013 ; I had vowed to take the kids to the next one wherever and whenever it was held. So I jumped when it coincided with the kids' school holidays. Kiddos and me were both looking forward to the event and the late risers woke up on time and got dressed to join hundreds of other families at the Lawn, Marina Bay!

But the fickle Singapore weather had other plans. When we reached the venue at 9 am it was terribly terribly hot and humid- the kids forgot all about enjoying and everyone was trying to fight the heat! Anyways we braved the registration queue, collected our mats and hampers, lay down our mats and were just spreading Nutella on to the bread slices - when the skies suddenly turned dark, there was a dusty, strong gust of wind which blew away our hats, umbrellas, picnic mats and the assorted balloons kids had collected on their way in. While we tried to retrieve these, it suddenly started pouring and everyone was soon scrambling towards  the exit with kids in strollers and picnic paraphernalia in hands!

So much for the plans to participate in a record- breaking event! As  disappointing it was for us, I felt really bad for the Rise & Shine team who I knew had spent months and months in planning and organizing the event - and it was just tossed out by a sudden change in weather...too bad! Though I vouch for the sudden change in weather and sympathize with the organizers, I think they should have been prepared for this eventuality given that it was an open-air event and given that Singapore weather can be very unpredictable.

We had a similar situation at the Cold Storage Kids' Run last month when it suddenly poured but there were these provision tents everywhere where families took shelter and the staff ran around handing out umbrellas and ponchos. Perhaps it would have made sense to give caps and ponchos in the door gift packets- would have been appreciated by the families with young kids!

Stop 4 - River Safari - Visiting the River Safari was something the whole family was looking forward to. So we used one of my hubby's leave days to venture for the river safari. The weather thankfully was good - neither too hot, neither did it rain so we all enjoyed the wild life associated with all the major rivers of the world. The star attractions were definitely the pandas- two giant ones -Jia Jia and Kai Kai and two small red ones and the giant manatees (cow fish) at the large aquarium. Truly, a day well-spent!

Stop 5 - Revisiting Singapore - Open -top SIA Sightseeing Bus and River Cruise - 

We've done both these activities before but this time round it was especially for the younger one. He loves riding in the bus- and so sitting atop a double decker bus was doubly exciting for him and he thoroughly enjoyed 'being as high as the trees' and 'almost as high as the cranes' at construction sites we passed by. My elder one kept changing seats on the almost empty bus and thoroughly enjoyed the wind in his hair!

We also took the river cruise on the Singapore river - this was a bummer of sorts since families shockingly split up inside the boat such that each member of the family was at the window.....so families like us had no choice but to take the non-exciting aisle seats and that too in different rows!! It was disappointing except for the breathtakingly beautiful sound and light show which we were able to see from the boat.

Stop 6- Beach & Fishing Fun - East Coast Park - This was the family fun I was speaking of. The plan was to go to Sentosa but since the plan was made quite at the last moment, we opted for the nearby East Coast Park instead. The kids had a blast catching the fish at the Fishing Center (which we encouraged them to return to the pool as they would have died by the time we reached home after dinner). Then they played in the sand ( I think there is nothing more that makes all kids happy than to play in the sand and water) , built their pools and sand castles, played ball and disc and everyone was happy having good old fashioned family fun :)

At  the beach

Fishing Fun!

Stop 7 - Movie - I pestered my husband to take Akshobhya for a movie and he obliged. Akshit is too young to enjoy a 2 hr movie and I think its a torture both for the young kids and the parents to be taken into a cinema hall when they'd rather run around and play. So only one of us from my husband and me could accompany Akshobhya for the movie....he had actually wanted to watch Spiderman -3 but after reading the reviews on its violent content - we had given it a miss.

So they both took off on a Sunday afternoon to watch, "How to train my Dragon -2?" while I caught on some sleep as the younger one luckily slept that afternoon! More than the movie, Akshobhya enjoyed the Fanta (a rare treat as we don't normally allow him soft drinks) and his caramel popcorn!

Stop 8 - Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum at Chinese Garden, Jurong - This had to be the most unlikely places to visit but I chanced upon a review of the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum - a privately owned museum housed inside the Chinese Garden at Jurong....which is surprisingly quite famous - it is mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records and believe it or not houses more than 1000 live specimens of terrapins, many of which are rare. So we tied it up with the scheduled visit to the Science Center as they were both in Jurong. The museum is fairly small and it did not take us too long to cover it. But the kids enjoyed petting the turtles which were moving around freely and feeding them. My elder son was quite tickled by the fact that they were being fed ladyfingers :).

Stop 9- Science Center- Human Body Experience and Star Gazing/ Planetarium - So after the Turtle Museum, we all trundled to the Science Museum on a hot and sultry afternoon. While the younger one played around and saw the various exhibits (the Kids Stop was unfortunately full), Akshobhya was accompanied by his Dad into the real-life 'Human Body Experience' exhibit which he declared was 'awesome''! 

Later they queued up to see the planetarium and see the planets with the help of a large telescope. Again the feedback was that it was an awesome experience except the fact that the snaking queue took 3 hrs to reach the telescope and the viewing time allowed was barely 45 seconds. Nevertheless he did manage to see Saturn and its rings as the sky was relatively clear. I have heard stories of how people queued up to see nothing but clouds as the sky turned black! Akshobhya was so exhausted that ''surprise, surprise'' he slept off in the back of the taxi.

Stop 10 - Indoor and Outdoor Playgrounds- The fun did not stop here as I made sure they get plenty of outdoor and indoor fun. Every morning I took them to playgrounds outside the condominiums, far enough for them to get exercise but near enough to get back if the little one was too tired or it rained! They rode their scooters and played on the swings and slides.

Two evenings were happily spent at Terminal 3 of Changi Airport which boasts of the tallest (4 floors up) indoor slide in Asia, followed (by popular demand) by Pizza at Pastamania! On evenings when nothing else was planned I took them to Changi City Point where they played in Timezone and rode on the motorized animals.

Stop 11- Home Fun with Indoor Games, DIY Experiments, Movie and Recipes- And for those lazy lazy afternoons / rainy evenings, we played carom and monopoly, spinning tops and beyblades, read books and even had our own theater- movie experience with Tom n Jerry running on the DVD player and DIY sandwiches, popcorn, cookies and juice :)

Carom- the only game I can beat my son in !!

Movie/Picnic time at home

Aren't holidays the perfect time to try some new recipes. In fact I tried quite a few but the one that the kids were most interested in was that of 'Kulfi' which I introduced to them as Indian Ice-cream!

My maiden attempt at making kulfi was quite successful and the kids finished off all the moulds in 2 days flat! Yipee! The tragedy was that I could hardly eat them as I had a terrible, persistent cough.

Stop 12: Achievements and Accomplishments...We did it!!!

So I had an 80% success in executing the activities planned- we just didn't manage to take the kids to the Trampoline Park and Sentosa from the list but hey there's only that much you can do!! I do get a feeling of deja vu since we did cover practically everything else on the list including my son's demand for science experiments at home (yes despite my scepticism we did one in which he observed the formation of crystals using Epsom and common salt and another one displaying how an electric circuit is formed using 9V battery and pencils and another one where musical instrument can be made by using simple drinking straws!!!).  

Akshobhya trying out the electrical circuit formation 

In the baby pool 

And yes (Pat on my back) I managed to make my elder son study for 1 whole hour in the day on at least 20 days out of 30 (barring the days when we were out for the whole day or had guests)....even though he complained over and over again that I was the only Mama in the whole world who made their kid study in the holidays...but I held my ground. To make things easier for both of us I let him 20 mins of fun studies which translated into IXL Maths (which he loves) or writing a diary (We even named it 'Diary of a Whiz Kid' which really did the trick as he is reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series these days) in which he wrote about all the activities he did in the summer hols (for me it was a perfect way to test/ improve his handwriting, essay writing skills, punctuations and spellings without him realising it.....yes I can be a cunning mother when I want ha!ha!) 

And we also achieved success in potty training my younger son and weaning him off 1 bottle feed out of 3 that he takes in the day. (flip side- we spent a lot of time reading and singing to him while he sat on the potty 4 times a day before actually doing something :) and it's difficult to convince him to take his afternoon nap without the bottle feed) but I know it's a transition phase and it will be better soon.

Reading while sitting on his potty seat :)

Whew! Isn't that a whole lot of work done in the span of a 1 month vacation- and  you still have the nerve to call them vacations...lol???

And if you are wondering if I, an advocate of the beauty of nothingness, didn't allow my boys a moment of unplanned, holiday nothingness.....the answer is that I did - I ensured they had plenty of downtime......actually despite all these activities they still had a good share of unscheduled, unplanned time in the day when they were free to watch cartoons, play with their friends, read books, draw and create or just idle around....I let them sleep in late on days we didn't have to venture out early because what's holidays without some extra hours of sleep and some lazing around??  But here we are talking about approximately  14 hrs of engagement per day *30 days (for the elder one) and 12 hrs of engagement per day * 30 days (for the younger one) so I don't think we could have survived the holidays without some amount of planning.

How about you? Do you plan the kids' vacations from before? Do you believe in keeping them fruitfully engaged or allow them to spend the holidays carefree? Do write in with your comments....