The little Singaporeans Discover the Quays

June 25, 2012 · By ·

How much does a pre-schooler know about Singapore?

From what I can gather from Kyle’s understanding, he has very limited knowledge beyond Singapore’s flag, National Day and the races in Singapore. Information that he has gathered from celebrating the nation’s birthday in school twice the last 2 years, watched glimpses of the National Day Parade from the TV screen last August and experienced Racial Harmony Day in school.

As a pre-cusor to celebrate Singapore’s National Day in August and in an attempt to help our pre-schoolers to learn about the country that they live in, Pauline and I brought our kids to visit the Quays for the first time. This post jumpstarts this series of ‘The Little Singaporeans Discover Singapore’ on this blog.

 

3106 2Smug smiles for the camera

 

3106 6This photo was taken right after Kyle asked me if they could play tag while waiting, and looking at their expressions (except for Joyce), you can probably guess what was my answer.

 

3106 9Could this be the bumboat that we will be taking?

 

One of the best ways to visit the Quays is to take the River Bumboat rides from Clarke Quay, which travels along the Singapore River for 60 minutes and passes through the 3 Quays of Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay and Boat Quay.

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1906 01Sights on Robertson Quay

 

So what are the sights that we can spot on this river bumboat ride?

Riverbb2Top – Clarke Quay, Middle – Asian Civilisations Museums from http://www.travelstripe.com/ , Bottom – Boat Quay from http://images.travelpod.com/

 

3106 11Taking note of the places of the sights of he saw along the way

 

3106 16Some of the key landmarks are found on the map we have

 

Riverbb1Top left – Merlion from http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Bottom left – Victoria Memorial Hall from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/17031775, Right – Sir Stanford Raffles Statue from http://upload.wikimedia.org/


The river bumboat ride felt like a typical touristy experience, especially since we were the only group of locals on the boat, but it was an informational experience for the kids nonetheless. It will make a good excursion for pre-schoolers to learn about key landmarks in the Quays of Singapore, added with a gentle immersion of the history of Singapore using the activity sheets that we developed. So how does this river bumboat experience compare to Duck Tours? These bumboat rides were alot more comfortable than the Duck Tour activity that we did with Kyle’s kindergarten a while back. In comparison, Duck Tours seemed more kitschy and gimmicky.

We will be exposing the kids to some cultural experiences in and around Singapore the next couple of weeks, so stay tune for the second part from this series, where the little Singaporeans will check out a place bubbling with cultural heritage and a distinct ethnic personality…

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Stark Reminder

June 12, 2012 · By ·

Screen Shot 2012 06 11 at 7 01 13 PMPhoto from http://exipiosingapore.blogspot.sg/

Have you heard about the concept ‘Cycle of Poverty‘? For some, it’s a never-ending cycle and you wonder if they will ever get out of poverty.

Picture this, a single mother in her early 20s, with 5 children, oldest at 7 years old, with her other children who are at 6, 4, 2 and 4 months old. One day, her husband just decided that it was all too much to handle and left the family for good.

Why doesn’t she help herself and her kids by getting a job, you might wonder…

For her, a job is simply not an option she can consider. Her children are young, she has no other relatives in Singapore and no one who is able help her to take care of her kids. As for child care? It is totally out of the question, when having 3 square meals a day is already a challenge.

My parents got to know about her situation through the MCYS recommendation to Methodist Welfare organization. And when they first met her, she had just been discharged from the ICU unit from the hospital after giving birth to her youngest child. All they saw was a stick thin woman, with hallowed cheeks and dark eyes who lived in a dark and dimly lit government welfare flat in Jalan Besar with her children.

K and I got to visit her and her kids at her home on Saturday, with some of K’s pre-loved toys that he did not play with anymore, together with some snacks and cakes.

It was like Christmas for the kids for the first time.

It was a sobering sight, to see the children so excited over old toys that K has no interest for anymore, and fighting over the simple snacks that K eats every day. As I watched and talked to the kids, I had to hold back my tears numerous times.

I have heard about families like that but only seen it for myself for the first time on Saturday. I realized that It is only when I see real life families living in poor conditions like that, then I will learn to be content regardless of the state that I am in.

Have I ever gone hungry? Never.

Do I still have a room over my head? Surely, and I even have my mom’s helper to do laundry and iron the clothes for K , hb and I.

So if ever you feel discontented in the state you are in, think about the many out there who are barely surviving with a lot less than you have. Consider even extend a helping hand monthly to a less-priviledge family, spend some time in their home and it will be a stark reminder to how blessed and how much we need to be content with the plenty that we already have.

Screen Shot 2012 06 11 at 6 52 15 PM

 

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Wandering Wednesday

April 11, 2012 · By ·

Decided this morning that I should get my butt off the couch to do something about my exercise regime, so I took on the challenge to walk up Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

So I put on my sports shoes, carried a haversack with my camera and 50mm lens, together with the my smart phone and ‘tracked’ up the hill. Actually it was not such a good idea to bring the camera, I sure worked up a sweat tracking up the hill and got the heart rate beating a bit faster than usual, but was really distracted by what I discovered along the way.

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It got progressively worse as I walked higher up the hill, I started to slow down, as my attention got a lot more distracted ‘micro-wise’ with the details that I noticed around me.

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Wanted to kick myself for not bringing the other camera lens when I spotted this spider web. This was probably the best the 50mm lens could do :(

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IMG 6149Wild Fungi everywhere

 

IMG 6164These small wildflowers were everywhere too, known as Common Asytasia

 

IMG 6173Did u know that we have our own form of daisies locally? Which is another common wildflower, known as the Yellow Creeping Daisy

 

Screen Shot 2012 04 11 at 2 54 32 PM

So then, what happened to the exercise? I made it only to the halfway mark, with aching knees (well I fractured my knees before!), while many other senior citizens brisk walk passed me really quickly…

So I sort of got my exercise started this week 😛

Do share when was the last time you exercised or took a nature walk in one of our local parks?

 

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