Dropping In at the Peranakan Museum

At our desitnation! The obligatory "we were here" shot.

We made it to the Peranakan Museum last Wednesday with Sophie & Zoe to check out the Drop-In Wednesdays programme that they are running for Children's Season. I have been meaning to visit the Peranakan Museum for a while so I was quite excited.

What I didn't expect was for it to be so crowded! We arrived at about 1.20pm (the programme runs from 1pm to 5 pm) and I was sorely disappointed that by then all the spots for the t-shirt silk screen printing had been taken up. "You should have come earlier," said the lady at the ticketing counter. Apparently folks had come early to queue up for slots? Geez. This mummy is obviously not kiasu enough.

I trooped into the children's room on the ground floor and it was packed to the gills. Yikes. I beat a hasty retreat with Noey and when Sophie and family arrived, we decided to tour the galleries and sit in on the story-telling sessions that were on-going instead.

A giant kam cheng which Noey was quite tickled by. I thought it looked so cute in pink!

Silly me thought they would actually be telling stories of the "once upon a time" variety, with books, but what it actually was were little stops in different sections of the museum where lovely Bibiks and Babas role played characters involving and explaining the exhibits. It was done interactively and I thought it was a creative way to tell the kids about the museum exhibits. Without pictures to hold his attention however, Noey quickly lost interest and started dragging me around to galleries to look at other exhibits. Sophie stayed a while longer, since they were talking about the sarong kebaya. As her Mum said, she's a real little girl in this respect: she loves clothes!

Our little nonya! The dress-up corner in the children's room downstairs was a big hit with Sophie. They had the cutest little kebayas! And matching shoes which I found most adorable. Even little Zoe put on a pair and was happily admiring herself in the mirror. There were some clothes for boys too but alas, Noey wouldn't go near the area. "I want to wear THIS shirt and pants!" he insisted, when I tried to interest him in dressing up. Ah well!

Noey and I took a look around the galleries and we (or rather, I) oohed and ahhed over the lovely and elaborate dinner settings and the many displays of colourful kam chengs. I would dearly love to own a set of such crockery! There were many pretty kebayas on display too but alas, Noey wouldn't let me stop too long to admire them. What he did love were the little embossing machines that were scattered around the galleries. The kids were given discs explaining the different symbols and motifs used in Peranakan culture and these could be embossed with the embossing machines. It was fun getting the prints -- even I wanted a go!

We decided to brave the children's room downstairs after a while, hoping that there would be less of a crowd but nope, it was even more crowded than before! We headed to the dress-up corner, which was relatively less packed and while Sophie got decked out, Noey spent some time checking out the scent boxes.

Drawers! What fun!
He opened the belachan drawer and I quickly made him close it. Phew!

We tried to make an exit thereafter but Noey had caught sight of the mosaic tiles on the craft table and insisted on doing the craft. As I tried to shepherd him out, he actually managed to find a seat of his own (I thought there were none available), plonk himself down, and asked me to go get him a blank tile to decorate. Since he'd found himself a space, I couldn't say no. I grabbed a coaster and spent the rest of the time trying to persuade Noey to stick the mosaic tiles on the coaster instead of sprinkling them all over the table.

Still following instructions and trying to put the little tiles around the border.

Really more fun to mess with the little tiles on the table though.
The boy next to him, who looked to be about 8 or 9 years old, kept patiently trying to point out that the tiles that Noey kept reaching for in the containers were already on the table and that Noey should use them instead. Of course his good advice went unheeded.

When we went to the grouting table, who should we bump into but little Sean. The boys had some fun messing with the blackboard nearby while us Mums both agreed that we should have come when the school holidays were over! I looked at the long line and decided to grab a pack of the DIY grout instead before making a quick exit.

The finished product! As you can tell, aside from the border to give it some semblance of structure, the design consisted entirely of fitting as many random pieces of tile into the space as possible. Hah. It's looking a little rough because Noey decided to wash away the grout when I walked away to change Naomi's diaper. Had to save it with some left-over grout!

All in all a fun afternoon. There's a final session this Wednesday, 29 Jun, from 1-5pm. They are making kuehs, which sounds quite a treat!