The last few weeks has been really busy for me and the blog. We have had the chance to try out many new things and to attend many media events.

On 1 October, we had the chance to go down to Wild Wild Wet at Downtown East for a Children’s Day event.

Swimming is certainly an activity that the kids enjoy! Besides it being a great outdoor activity, swimming is also proven to improve babies’ cognitive and physical development while strengthening parent-child bonding.

We were therefore looking forward to the event!

What’s more, the event was a private event. This meant that the park was closed just for the 100 parents that attended the event! Cool right as it means No crowds!

Besides the swimming activities at the party, the kids also got to enjoy a water tele-match, aqua aerobics, cup-cake making, and there was even a baby crawling competition for the young ones!

 

Nathan and Nadine was of course attracted to the Free Food! They grew up on Gerber’s Graduates Puffs, and so when they were giving out free samples! They were busy “stuffing” the puffs down! So Singaporean right!

 

Here are some other pictures of the kid’s enjoying themselves:

We also loved the Free samples of Huggies Little Swimmers that we got!  This product is certainly useful! 

If you are a parent, I am sure that you have tried Little Swimmers before! In fact, we always keep a few in the car.

They are indispensible when we suddenly find ourselves at a relative’s swimming pool, and when we realize that we don’t have any swimming attire.

That’s when we take out the Little Swimmers and let the children enjoy their swim fuss free!

So many thanks to Roszana and the people from Aonia for inviting us to the event. Hopefully, there will be more such fun events for the kids soon!

Parenting Activities:

if you are thinking about bringing your children to Wild Wild Wet, you will be glad to know that there are water slides for the kids!

The slides allow you to accompany your kids, and they are very “Slow” and safe! However, the park can get really crowded on weekends, so try to go on a weekday!

I feel that the Park is on the more Pricey side though. Tickets for the Public are priced at $15.50 for adults, $10.50 for kids (Ages 3-12). There are discounts offered for NTUC members.

The month of May was a real hectic month for the Family, as we had tons of activities to attend.

One of the highlights for the kids, was attending the May Day festivities at Down Town East.

Being a resident Blogger for Ufamily, our friend Billie was kind enough to extend to us some complimentary tickets.

And the Day was really FUN!

We woke up early in the morning to take part in the festivities.

As this was not the first time that NTUC was organizing a family event, there were lots of signages and ushers to make sure that we did not get lost!

We started the morning early by heading down for the launch of the celebrations!

The marquee is a common gathering place for all events at Down Town East, as it is protected from the weather, and Air Conditioned as well! (Air Conditioning is really God’s Gift to Singapore!)

It was only 830am, but to my surprise the Marquee was really packed!  Families were into the morning exercise as one of the ministers kicked off the program for the day.

To tell you the truth, Daddy was interested in the Lucky Draw, as I had a sudden feeling that today was going to be my “Lucky Day”.

I was right….I won a …..

Oh…How I wish!

I actually Won this:

Yes….$20 dollars only… at least I did WIN something!

As NTUC actually own the whole of Down Town East, one of the perks of family day is that you get to watch movies for FREE as well.

We wanted to watch Shrek Forever, but the queue was just too long! (Do line up early, if you are heading for the 2011 May Day Festival)

 

Instead we went to Wild Wild Wet…which was really FUN! This was my 1st time in the water park (I know..I know…and I call myself a Singaporean) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There were lockers to keep your belongings and slides for all ages. We enjoyed the water play at the Singapore Zoo, but this water play is much bigger!

It has more slides, tubes, and a bigger bucket which dunks an obscene amount of  water at you periodically!

I will definitely be going there again!

But to top it all off – the complimentary coupons included  food coupons as well!

This meant that we could go around to the Kopi Tiam Food Court and other neighbouring Eateries for FREE FOOD!

Those coupons are a real Life Saver!

Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves and we are anticipating the 2011 May Day events!

And before you go….Don’t forget to VOTE for ED today!

Every individual account is allowed 1 vote per day!

As a Daddy Blogger who is finding out more about Parenting everyday, I am always looking to learn from other Parents.

Family Night Out – A New Parenting Initiative by NTUC seems to be perfect solution to all our Parenting Solutions.

Last Friday, NTUC had its Inaugural Event at eXplorer Kids @ E!hub in Downtown East.

With the event held at the largest Indoor Playground, the location was a definite hit with my kids!

In fact, upon entering the Playground, they quickly forgot about my existence and they headed for the slides and obstacles.

Meanwhile, as the kids were playing outside, the Parents were learning from:

Mr. Lau Tat Chuan (Director of the Centre for Fathering)

The talk was designed to help us explore practical methods to balance career and family aspirations, and discover new approaches towards successful living and parenting.

Mr Lau is a father himself and with his oldest child in his early teens, it was really informative to hear from someone who has had a lot more experiences in Parenting.

Here are some quick issues he brought up:

1. Quality Time Vs. Quantity Time

Many working parents “harp” on the fact that it is not Quantity Time that is important but it is Quality Time that really counts.

Eg. No point getting your kids out for breakfast, if you are just reading your Newspapers and ignoring them at the breakfast table.

However, Mr Lau pointed out that when it comes to Quality Time, there is a certain intangible Quantity Time that must be invested. I thought this made sense, as we need to give them a certain amount of Quantity Time, before we can hit this threshold of Quality Time.

2. Different Roles of Men and Women

Women tend to be generally more physically protective of their children rather than Men. At the playground, Men are more relaxed, while Women tend to worry more when the kids are up on the slides and on the swing.

Women are also just more detailed and more emotionally connected which makes up for the shortcomings of most Men. 

Overall, I think that Mr. Lau was a very sincere speaker, and his stories about How he Shouted at his eldest kid too much really displayed honesty and openness.

I think as Parents, we must understand that it is basically On-the-Job Training, and most importantly, we must be willing to change our Parenting Styles whenever it is not working.

If you are interested in Parenting Talks such as the one discussed here. There will be more talks coming up on 14 May 2010.

It will still be at eXplorer kids, so you don’t need to worry about baby-sitting the children.

Date:

14 May 2010

Time:

8.00 pm to 9.00 pm (talk)
7.30pm to 10.00 pm (children’s playtime at eXplorerkid)

Venue:

E!Hub @ Downtown East, 1 Pasir Ris Close, 3rd Level, Singapore 519599

Get more details from the U Family website!