5 Cool Things To Do With Your Kiddos These School Holidays
Skip tuition camps and do these instead.
From art exhibitions to beach fun to virtual reality — here's how to be a cool parent in June.
Photos: Courtesy of Sentosa Development Corporation, Changi Airport and @celine_tan_ on IG.
Skip tuition camps and do these instead.
Introduce them to worlds wonderful and whimsical at Imaginarium.
Take a wefie or 10 with your mini-mes at this always-fantastic (and often surreal) annual interactive art exhibition for kids. Pre-schoolers will squeal with delight in the Wanderland room, where textile birds, fabric raindrops and cloth tents hanging from the ceiling invite them to play peekaboo and fly away on a dream. This year’s “To the ends of the earth” theme encourages kids to explore their surroundings. Instagrammable highlights include the cool Lizard Tail installation, the bizarre My Wonderful Dream exhibits and the awesome Floating Mountain. For older kids, discuss questions like: Is a harmonious world achievable or is it just a dream? Cheem. Also, don’t forget to find all the tiny mushrooms…
Imaginarium is on till August 27 at 8Q at Singapore Art Museum. Entry is free for Singapore citizens. Find out more at www.singaporeartmuseum.sg.
Photos: Imaginarium & @celine_tan_ on IG.
Push them down a 10m inflatable slide.
Put aside the iPad and assessment books and hit the beach for some fun in the sun. The island of Sentosa is prepped for Mega Fun this June and one of the highlights is inflatable fun at Palawan Beach. Pack your mat, your swimsuits and a picnic basket, and spend the day getting salty and sandy, bouncing around stations such as the Mega Ball Pool (hello, 200,000 balls), the Foamy Maze and the behemoth Triple Slide, Singapore's largest inflatable slide, which towers over beach goers at three-storeys high. For younger kids, there are baby slides and a foam party (not the kind you remember involving bikinis and copious amounts of alcohol). Also, the Palawan Pirate Ship water park, which used to charge for admission, is now free. There are also free movies by the beach. Free, free and free? We’re so there.
More info about Sentosa's Mega Fun is at http://www.sentosa.com.sg/megafun.
Photos: Courtesy of Sentosa Development Corporation.
Explore virtually anywhere in the world with Google Street View.
No time/moolah to go on a real holiday? No time to even get out of the house? If you only have one hour, a smartphone and a Google Cardboard VR viewer, you can have loads of cool fun with the little ones. Download “Google Street View”, search for a cool locale (try “Great Barrier Reef”, “Machu Picchu” or, um, “Haw Par Villa”), pop your phone into the VR viewer (buy from https://vr.google.com/cardboard/ or just Google “Google cardboard”), tap the VR icon, and enter a whole new world of endless possibilities. Our little one wanted to ‘see’ “Ion Orchard” so she could ‘go shopping.’ Yikes.
Search for “Google Street View” on the app store.
Photos: Google and @celine_tan_ on IG.
Get spotted at the National Gallery.
In case you haven’t already seen it 273 times on your Instagram/Facebook feed, Yayoi Kusama and her surreal dottiness have set up camp at the National Gallery. We hear the queue for her just-launched Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow exhibition is madness, so until the crowds ease up, check out Yayoi Kusama: the kids’ edition. Her Obliteration Room is part of the National Gallery’s Children’s Biennale. The idea is to obliterate the white space and white things in the room with colourful spotted stickers, which you can buy for $2 a sheet. Must do: Stick the dots on yourself/your kid and try to blend in.
The Children’s Biennale runs till Oct 8, and includes lots more interactive exhibitions and art works. For more info, go to https://www.nationalgallery.sg/see-do/highlights/childrens-biennale-2017.
Photo: @celine_tan_ on IG.
Still stuck? Head to the malls to meet Barney, Gudetama, Tayo and Gru.
Yes, free air-conditioned activities are always a win. To keep the mini-mes entertained for at least a couple of hours, head to your nearest mall. Parents desperate to get the kids out of the house during the school hols would do anything, including spend money at shopping centres to give their kids a chance to meet their favourite cartoon characters. Junior loves Paw Patrol? Head to City Square Mall. Baby is a fan of Barney? Hotfoot it to One KM and United Square. Wanna take photos with Hello Kitty, Gudetama and pals? Make the trip to Changi Airport. If boy-boy likes dinosaurs, it’s Plaza Singapura or bust. Lego fans can check out Parkway Parade’s basement atrium, while kids and kidults who are amused by the minions can shop at VivoCity. If your pre-schooler is taken with Tayo the bus, vroom over to Square 2. Phew. That’s a lot of malls (and moolah).
For details, check out the individual malls’ websites.
Watch Now
Shopping
