#activities4tots – Page 14 – Ask the Clueless Middle Age Dad

Clueless Dad’s Toy Review #2: Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker Pad /Playhouse

While preschool hasn’t been shut down, missus and I decided to withdraw our little girl voluntarily to keep her at home till the COVID-19 situation improved.

As our little tike is expected to be indoors at home a lot, missus had stocked up on some stuff to keep her occupied. From our experience during the lockdown of 2020, one of the things which kept our daughter occupied were sticker books. The problem with these were that they weren’t “replayable” and we can run out of them pretty quickly.

We recently discovered reusable sticker pads from Melissa and Doug. These use decals akin to what you use to stick on car windscreens. The one that our little one is currently playing and that I am reviewing is the “Playhouse” (see photo above) which has a series of five scenes. This costs S$8.90 at Shoppee.

To be honest, we are only in our first play-through of the sticker pad. We don’t know for a fact yet if the little one would want to replay it. But so far, the little one has been quite engaged by it.

It allowed us to introduce to her concepts of prepositions — explaining to her the relative positions of each sticker relative to other another and with reference to the scene depicted by the sticker pad.

We allowed the little one free rein to play with the stickers and this had led to some very interesting scenes. The following is one scene of a park — it looked like some uproarious fun and with some surreal physics going on as well.

Accidents aplenty and can you spot the floating cat and dog?

One sign that our little one might not be inclined to replay it could be that she wanted to move on to the next sticker pad well before she finished all of the stickers. So far, we’ve been successful in insisting that she should only move on when she completes the stickers for one pad. Fingers crossed that she would be okay to replay it.

Till next time, stay healthy and safe. To Singapore dads, all the best for your home-based learning endeavours.

Update, 30 May 21

Seems like the sticker pad is replay-able. We did a “reset” of the sticker pad above — basically clearing it of all stickers. We ended up with another hilarious scene.

One girl’s stuck in the sand, another is given CPR after falling down while doing jump rope…

Update: Media Corp Campus as a Place for Tots

This was the first time my missus and I brought the little miss for some outdoor time at the Media Corp Campus since the reintroduction of strict COVID-19 control measures on 16 May 21 (I did an earlier blog post how it was a great outdoor space for tots during the current pandemic times).

Definitely, we could see the difference before the re-introduction of strict COVID-19 control measures. There were very few families there — we saw only three other families there.

Cafe Melba, which depended on business from families with young children during the weekends, was closed (they used to have a mini bouncy castle before the re-tightening of measures).

The current COVID-19 rules were that F&B businesses were not allowed to entertain dine-in customers so I guessed they did the sums and thought it was better to be closed for business instead. Hope they get through this setback.

The little one had a free run of the place with very few other kids to contend with. It was very much a safe venue in terms of the risk from COVID-19. But I thought it was definitely less of a fun atmosphere with so few kids around.

I remember fondly that the little one had some fun and meaningful interactions with other kids chasing bubbles together spontaneously. At the moment, that would not be possible. We and other parents were understandably apprehensive about such spontaneous contacts.

Indeed, there was a moment with another family when our little one’s bubble play attracted two other tots to spontaneously join in. Both sets of parents collectively gasped internally…. We had to end the bubble play before any physical contact was made.

Eventually, my missus found a way to make it fun for our kiddo by bringing her to the lawn area to look at wild flowers and tiny butterflies — sorry, did not take any photos.

All in all, the kiddo still had fun. But I can’t help feeling that she’s missed out on some experiences.

As an only child, she would only have school and spontaneous encounters with other kids in public spaces as regular opportunities to interact and learn with and from her peers.

The lockdown in April-June last year (2020) and the current restrictions meant that she would have less chances to to do so. Until things get back to normal, she would only have two 40-somethings as her friends. In the meantime, we will be trying as best we can to fill the void.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy. All the best to Singapore dads for Week 2 of home-based learning.

Clueless Dad’s Review of Kiddy YouTube Channels

First day of the reintroduction strict COVID 19 control measures in Singapore (16 May 21) had my missus and me succumbing to our daughter’s whining to let her watch cartoons on YouTube. Not a good sign…

I still remember that during the lockdown in Singapore last year from April to June, we had to rely on the Tube to kill many hours of time. We usually tried to hold it off till 5pm each day.

Unwittingly, I’ve watched enough of kiddy YouTube videos to be somewhat of an unwilling connoisseur — I can remember certain tunes and lyrics by heart as well as some of the hand actions / dance steps for the sing-alongs.

Based on nothing but my personal exposure to such YouTube videos, I am going to review two channels which my daughter watches frequently.

Cocomelon

More subscribers than the populations of most countries….

A channel that’s wildly popular on YouTube — so much so that you search for any nursery rhymes or kid’s songs, chances are, its videos will be in the top search results.

The channel is based on music videos with computer generated animation. Each video is a song (either original or covers of classics). They’ve got like at least five different versions of wheels on the bus — yippee!!!

The channel centres around a family of five: baby (JJ), elder sister (YoYo), elder brother (Tom Tom) and nameless mum and dad.

First thing off my chest — I found the family incredibly unrealistic. Mum and dad seem to maintain themselves too well for a couple with three kids. Missus and I only have got one kid and we’re hardly in the best physical shape of our lives.

And you can tell that they’re in a parallel COVID-less universe — they don’t have any videos of parents fretting over home-based schooling and none of them needed to wear masks (maybe they live in Florida).

Now that I got that out of the way, will admit that the channel is entertaining. For my daughter, I think she identified with the baby character (JJ) and the songs are infectious enough that my daughter would get off her bum and start dancing.

For myself, the overexposure to the kiddy songs had given me a common language with my daughter and widen my lullaby repertoire. Will grudgingly say that I might be secretly enjoying some of the videos…

Post-script: Some child educator was even more scathing of CocoMelon than me. It’s compared to a drug because of how overstimulating it can be. Found another article which is equally scathing. I’m not alone….

Super Simple Songs

Not as scary as CocoMelon, but still enough subscribers to match the populations of many countries.

Another channel with legions of subscribers. I found them to be much more educational than CocoMelon which, to be honest, is just fluffy entertainment.

This channel has more diversity compared to CocoMelon as well. The videos are produced using a variety of methods — computer animations, stop-motion, live action, puppetry, etc.

My favourite series of videos are Noodle and friends (see above). These are usually pitched in a way to teach young children about concepts. These can be about differences (big-small, open-shut, etc) and emotions (happy, sad and angry).

I don’t feel so guilty letting my daughter watch videos by this channel compared to CocoMelon. I felt that this is quite educational for a child of her age. Unfortunately, my daughter appears to prefer CocoMelon. I will slowly try to steer her towards Super Simple Songs.

So that’s it for my review. I don’t think any parents with young kids wouldn’t know of these two channels. But wanted to share my experiences anyway as a watch-along parent for what it’s worth.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy. Signing off for the week.

Guoco Tower Update

Been to Guoco recently and found that there have been a few changes due to tightening COVID prevention regulations here in Singapore.

Previously, I wrote that it’s possibly a good place for your little tots to run around due to the vast expanse of shaded space where the F&B outlets operate. The space would be smaller now due to the Virgin Active gym using it to conduct outdoor classes for strenuous exercise.

I encountered the following set up for outdoor weight training.

Virgin Active thought this space is good for adults sweating it out too!

So parents and their tots are left with the following space to work with….

Good thing we were prepared for an alternative activity besides scooting. The space is still good enough for the universal favourite of tots —- mindlessly chasing soap bubbles!

Despite the changes, I would still say that Guoco Tower is a good weekend hangout for families with young children. While the space is undoubtedly smaller, it is still big enough for some activities. And it retains the hard to find combination of a big shaded outdoor space.

The only other space that’s like it that I know of is the Media Corp Campus which I covered in my second ever blog post. Will look out for similar places and update on this blog.

To all dads facing the challenge added by Covid 19 to how to keep your tots active and occupied, you are not alone. Stay safe and healthy.

Postscript: As I was writing this, Singapore reintroduced strict control measures in view of spike in Covid 19 cases. Dining in will not be allowed from 16 May to 13 June — our work as parents will be made much harder for a month at least. Could be a matter of time before some restrictions on outdoor activities are reimplemented as well. Fingers crossed that it won’t happen.

When the adults are away, the children come to play (brought by adults)

One of the biggest worries of a parent is how to make sure your young child has an avenue to channel his/her energy.

It can be difficult in present times with COVID 19 when you are concerned about whether or not to bring your child to a place where there could be potentially high human traffic during the weekends.

My very recent personal experience is that locales centred around work places are the surprisingly great. Almost all of the workers are gone. But there is no shortage food and beverage businesses that are still opened — no doubt forced to do so by their tenancy contracts.

This means that you and your child will have the run of the place. Wide open spaces for your kiddo to run around and expend his/her energy. Through personal experience, I have found two such places which fit the bill.

Guoco Tower

1 Wallich, Singapore 078881

Discovered this gem of a place by accident recently. Was supposed to kill 1 hour plus with the kiddo while waiting for the missus’ yoga class nearby to finish.

To be specific, it’s not Guoco Tower the building but the F&B area where the Japan Rail Cafe is at. Without weekday crowd of office workers, this is a tranquil and spacious venue for your toddler to literally scoot around on a scooter board.

There is also a mini park which is kind of a terrace garden. The steps are manageable for toddlers to negotiate and are thus a great way for them to exercise and hopefully tire themselves out — mine didn’t.

The eats here are mostly open for business but, on the downside, they do not come cheap. Fortunately, you can head out further to Chinatown where the prices for meals will be much less extravagant.

Mediacorp Campus

1 Stars Avenue, Singapore 138507

You won’t see any actors and actresses hanging around anywhere but it’s a great place for some outdoor activities. Wide open spaces on top of the carpark for kids to run, cycle, scoot and even fly kites.

Like Guoco Tower, the F&B in the immediate vicinity isn’t kind on your wallets. This would be Cafe Melba which easily could cost you upwards of $50. But there are options for you to head further out to OneNorth where there are more affordable eateries at Fusionopolis. Even cheaper eats available at Timbre+.

That’s all the sharing I have for now. To all clueless dads, hang in there. You are not alone.