Child's Play at the National Museum of Singapore {Giveaway}

In addition to Masak Masak, Children's Season at the National Museum of Singapore this year also saw the launch of Play@NMS, the first dedicated area in the museum for young children. Tucked away on Level 3 of the museum, Play@NMS, unlike Masak Masak, is a permanent gallery designed with the purpose of helping children take their first-steps towards museum-going, with interactive exhibits and special activities that encourage learning through play. 

Stepping into the Concourse at level 1 of the museum, you will spy Play@NMS right at the top of a flight of stairs. Take the climb and this is what you'll find:

The EXPLORE gallery is the main play area, and this is divided into four sections, modelled after a home. Immediately past the door you'll find the Living Room, with a huge TV - and you as the star! The few times we visited, my little Miss enjoyed her "on-screen" opportunities, but what really got her attention were the comfy chairs, particularly the little one which was just her size. The big sofa on the other hand is an ideal slouchy spot and a great place to curl up with a book when you need a break from playing.

Not much my Mei loves better than to put on a show. Though she prefers it if no one's watching.

Puppets, to help you tell your own story!

Getting comfortable on a little chair made for little people.

Noey and his friends Dana and Isaac get comfortable.

Another popular area was the Kitchen. I don't know any child who doesn't love masak-masak, or pretend cooking, so as you can imagine, the kids were very happy messing in this area. There are two cooking stations, with one set a little lower for the smaller kids. You can also emboss a picture of a favourite Singapore dish, choosing between ice kachang, roti prata, chill crab and nasi lemak. You can later bring the picture over to another room to colour it. Personally I thought it would be better if they just set up a small table nearby for the kids to colour, that's exactly what they wanted to do once they embossed their pic.

Little T ponders the next dish he is going to whip up.

"Let's make Chilli Crab!" 

Getting familiar with the ingredients for different dishes.

Emboss a picture of your favourite Singapore dish.

The kitchen play area.

Colouring/Drawing on her embossed pic over in a separate room.

Behind the kitchen was Noey favourite area, the Bedroom. It was because of a comfy little tent which you could get into to watch some short films on the ceiling. He always spend a good amount of time in here every visit. In the other part of the Bedroom is a mirror with costume decals that kids can "try on" by positioning themselves accordingly. It was a bit of a letdown if you were expecting real costumes for dress-up. The kids didn't really bother trying them. 

Making themselves comfortable...

The last area is the Garden. It had a big tree and like a shape sorter, it had various flowers, leaves and fruit you could fit into it. Popular with the really little ones, though admittedly Mei's favourite thing to do was to carry the baskets for the shapes around!

Fitting in the leaves and flowers

Apart from the main hall, there is also an outdoor sundeck for kids to run around in and scribble on a giant chalkboard wall. This proved rather popular with our budding artists.

Scribble time!

In the weekends, there are also additional activities in the Create gallery where kids can do some art and craft. Play@NMS is recommended for kids aged 3-7, but I personally think kids 5 and under will enjoy it best. While I wish they had done more to make the play spaces more engaging and perhaps more relevant to the National Museum's positioning as a history museum, I am glad that there is now a dedicated space for kids, as I think this is the right step to getting kids (and parents) into the museum. Museums are in fact one of my favourite places to visit, and the kids and I have had many wonderful experiences in museums in Australia and the UK, and Play@NMS as a step in the right direction to make museums places of interest, fun and learning for kids.

Another way to reach kids is through books and in conjunction with the launch of Play@NMS comes Stacey Goes To The National Museum, a new title by author Lianne Ong. (We also previously reviewed her first book, Maxilla!)

Stacey is a little girl who goes to visit the National Museum with her mummy and ends up going on an unexpected adventure, with the help of a surprising little tour guide. As Stacey journeys through the museum, she encounters some of the Treasures of the National Museum and ends up at Play@NMS. I think it is a good initial introduction to the museum for the little ones, and a good read to pick up just before a museum visit. I particularly love the illustrations by James Tan as he manages to incorporate a wonderful amount of detail into his drawings and yet keep the style of the artwork simple and appealing to children.

This is the first book in an upcoming series -- Stacey and the Museums which will allow children to journey with Stacey through different museums under the purview of the National Heritage Board in Singapore. This sounds like a good idea and we are looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.

If you'd like to meet the author Lianne Ong and find out more about Stacey,  good news! Lianne will be making an appearance at the National Museum of Singapore's open house on National Day (9 Aug). There will be an exciting storytelling session and interactive activities such as a scavenger trail for the little ones in the Singapore History Gallery. Sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon to me!

Stacey Goes To The National Museum is stocked at the gift shop of the National Museum, and is also available online from Armour Publishing at the special web price of $13.64 (15% off the RRP of $16.05).

GIVEAWAY! 

If you'd like a copy of Stacey Goes To The National Museum, here's your chance to grab one because I have ONE COPY to giveaway! To join this giveaway, simply follow the steps of the Rafflecopter widget below. The more steps you complete, the higher our chances of winning.

This giveaway ends on Friday 15 August, 11.59pm, and is open to Singapore residents only. Winners will be picked randomly and contacted by e-mail. Winners have 3 days to respond with their particulars, failing which a new winner will be selected.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S. Hop over to Owls Well to join their giveaway to get another chance at winning a copy of Stacey Goes To The National Museum! Don't miss their cute book trailer too.

Masak Masak at the National Museum of Singapore

I am a big fan of the annual Children's Season, which is a month-long extravaganza of child-centred activities at our local museums, organised by the National Heritage Board. Unfortunately this year, we weren't able to attend many events, no thanks to an already full schedule. But the one event we did make time for was Masak Masak: My Childhood at the National Museum of Singapore, and I'm glad I did, because this has been an exhibition that both children every enjoyed.

Let's Play!

Without Art Garden this year, Masak Masak is the main event for Children's Season. Thankfully, it proved to be worthy of its position as a headlining act. Here are the activities you'll find:

Come and Play by Justin Lee was the first room we encountered. It was a room full of interesting items, all made out of cardboard! Kids are encouraged to build their dream home with carton boxes and through this activity "be inspired to reflect on our local way of life and learn to be appreciative of what they have". I was personally quite intrigued by the cardboard creations, but surprisingly, my kids weren't. They were also not keen on making the cardboard house, so we didn't linger long in this room. Just long enough for some photos!

Do as it says: Come and Play! 

Some ice-cream for you, Miss?
The little houses you see around like the ones on this ice-cream cart were made by kids who thereafter decided to add their handiwork to the display in the room.

Rocking Horse! (And it rocks!)

Wouldn't you like to go sailing on this ship?

It was Larger-than-Life Games in the concourse instead that was their absolute favourite. They were enraptured by this modern take of childhood games: Marbles, Pick-Up Sticks and Five Stones, and spent ages playing with them. Which goes to show that kids don't always need to be engaged with the latest electronics! 

A modified game of marbles -- get the balls into the hole in the centre while avoiding the potholes!

Pick-Up Stick-Stick-Stick-'Em-Together-s!

With these Five Stones, you jump!

Up the escalators and on the right you'll find Rouleaux by Anastassia Elias, which is the cutest collection of miniature dioramas depicting scenes inspired by daily lives, movies and places around the world, made out of… toilet rolls! The collection on display is inspired by the theme "what I want to be when I grow up". I really enjoyed peering through the little peepholes to view the scenes and really liked this exhibit, both for the skill involved as well as the sheer fun of the displays. Mei was really happy to grab a sheet from the counter nearby to colour and make her own paper diorama too.

In the eye of the beholder...

What do I spy?

Peekaboo, I see you!

Colouring the pieces to make her own diorama is hard work.

Paper diorama -- completed!

Just beside Rouleaux you'll find Word Out by NUS Design Incubation Centre. Here you can spell with words by creating letter shapes with your body, and it's not really as easy as it sounds. Noey had a lot of fun with this, though he wasn't very good! It takes a while to figure out how to move your body into create the appropriate shape.

Trying to make the letter L to spell PLANE.

Sometimes it's good to get some help!

Sculpture Scribble by Guixot de 8 in the glass atrium on the same floor was a hit with both adults and children alike. In this exhibit you'll find interactive and fun installations to play with that have been created out of old and scrap materials and are based on the works of famous Dadaist artists. I had a lot of fun here trying to figure out how to complete the tasks using some simple physics! This exhibit is so popular that they set a time limit on it during busy periods. When we visited on a public holiday, we were only allowed 10 mins to play in the area, which was a pity. We spent a long time here the first time we visited just before the school holiday!

Can you get the ball from one end of the crescent to the other?

Get the egg into the spoon without touching it! Rap the bar to make the egg jump and catch it!

Left: Slotting marbles into pots as the covers flip open and shut; Right: Try to get the finger into the nose!

Left: Noey rolling the ball into the net at the end. do it too quickly and it wouldn't fall nicely; Right: Getting the ball to drop into the different coloured containers.

Mei supposed to guide the magnet on the string up to the other without touching it, but she liked playing with the magnet instead. (Don't we all!)

On level 3 you'll find one more exhibit: Drawings of Sounds by Ludicart. Here you get to create music with flashlights as paintbrushes. As the light hits the purple spots on the canvas sounds are emitted. My kids love flashlights so they loved this, especially Noey.

Level 3 is also where you'll find Play@NMS, the new play area dedicated for young children, which will be a permanent gallery at the museum. Do come back on Monday to read about it. We also have a little giveaway with that so do remember to check it out!

This coming weekend is the last weekend for to catch this exhibition before it wraps up for the season, so if you haven't checked out the exhibition or would like to bring the kids down one more time, don't miss it!

Titans of the Past at the Science Centre

If you have a little dino fan, you must bring him/her to the latest dinosaur exhibition to open at the Science Centre Singapore: Titans of the Past. This blockbuster of an exhibition features displays of actual dinosaur fossils in addition to animatronic dinosaurs from The Museum of the Rockies in Montana, USA as well as animatronic animals from the ice age. If you need a reason to go, I have just two words for you: REAL FOSSILS.

Needless to say, my son was completely excited to go and really enjoyed the exhibition! (My daughter didn't have too bad a time either.)

Here are some photo highlights:

Triceratops skull, with that distinctive frill and the horns.

The fascinating line of triceratops skulls, from juvenile to adult. "Baby, Toddler, Child, Teenager and Adult!" said Noey.
This is part of the work of Dr Jack Horner, the curator of palaeontology at the Museum of the Rockies, and his team, who after comparing fossil specimens, have put argued that previous classifications of dinosaur species did not account for the changes an animal would make as part of its natural development transiting from juvenile to adult.  

Informative panels about the exhibits.

A family of Pachycephalosaurus skulls.

An animatronic Hypacrosaurus. It cooed rather interestingly! There were panels nearby where the kids could press some buttons to hear what the dinosaur might have sounded.

Everyone's favourite monster -- T-Rex!

A real T-Rex skull fossil. (Isn't Noey's shirt just the most appropriate thing ever?)

"Hmm, where did I put that fossil of mine again?"

The most amazing Argentinosaurus. It was truly magnificent! I was totally awed by it's size!

"Ah hah! What have we here?" 
The fossil dig site (read: sand pit) is always a hit with the kids! 

Little palaeontologists armed with their brushes.

There was a small room of animatronic ice-age animals from Argentina's Aurea Exhibitions right at the end. Noey was excited to recognise creatures like the Hairy Mammoth and the Sabre-toothed Cat. Personally I thought it would have been better to assign more space to these animals. Cramming them into the small area at the end unfortunately made them appear less impressive than these magnificent creatures should have been.

Sabre-tooth Cat

Meips not too keen to hangout with all these scary creatures!

All in all, it was an interesting exhibition, particularly for dino fans. But even if you're not, there is a fair bit to see that would keep you interested. The exhibition area is rather dark so if you're bringing young kids, do prepare them ahead of time.

Titans of the Past will be open till 24 February 2014 at the Singapore Science Centre. Don't miss it!

*We attended the exhibition on a media invite. All opinions remain my own.