Rooftop Playground at Tampines1

More than anything my daughter loves to swim and even though we have a pool in our condo and I make it a point to have swim time with her 2-3x a week, I still want her to experience going to water parks and wet playgrounds so she can have fun with other kids.

Thank goodness there's a new wet playground in town. We read about the playground in the Straits Times and saw the reviews from a few mommy/daddy blogs. It only opened last weekend (March 10) but I felt it would be too crowded so we went on a weekday instead.

Here are a few pics from our playground jaunt...







I think the place is another great venue to bring your kids to and it's free! However, please note that it is a rooftop area and can get windy at times so if you bring your kids in the late afternoon, they shouldn't stay too long as they'll be freezing cold after awhile. I'm sure they won't notice this and complain as they'll be too busy running around the different water spouts so as a parent you'll have to be watchful.

Another thing, though most areas are made of a padded material and therefore safe, there is one area (see middle pictures, the one on the left) where they have pretend rocks (or could be actual rocks) which I think are a bit dangerous as children kept stepping on these things and could possibly slip and hit their head. I was worried especially as this was where my daughter wanted to stay and so we just had to be extra careful.

Still, despite these, it was a great new space for kids, we had an absolutely wonderful time and will surely be back soon!

What to do with kids in Singapore

When we were in Manila I was at a loss about what child-friendly activities I could do with my 2 year old daughter that wouldn't cost too much. We mostly went to Gymboree in Greenbelt 5 where she could run, climb, jump and have fun without me worrying too much that she would hurt herself. However, at P260 per hour (member's rate), those Gymboree visits do add up after some time.

It's a good thing here in Singapore, there are a lot of child-friendly malls. Child-friendly meaning there are usually dedicated baby changing / nursing rooms and play areas or play courts that are free for children's use. One such child-friendly mall that I love going to is Vivocity. It has a large outdoor play court which has several features such as a waterspout area where kids can run and play with shooting jets of water as well as tunnels, slides, merry-go-round, and swings. You can also rent motorized cars for the little ones.

But mostly kids love the waterspout area. In fact, parents with kids who go to the area end up spontaneously buying swim gear from a shop conveniently located across the playcourt as kids tend to strip down and start running around getting wet when they see the water. Good thing we came prepared (rashguard. check. sunblock. check. towel. check.) though that didn't stop my little one from stripping down when she saw her new friends were running around in their underwear or in regular diapers. And yes, it's extremely difficult to try to put a rashguard back on a child when the child in question is not only naked and wet but squirming all over the place but hey, that just adds up to the fun.

 Water fun @ Vivocity!