Children’s Season 2014, Play@NMS

If you drive pass National Museum of Singapore, you will noticed two iconic playgrounds (有龙有象). Once inflated, yesterday’s playground turn into giant bouncing castles!

As we walk nearer, we found some OLD familiar characters! Anyone remember our Elephant and Dragon stories?

Children quickly remove the foot wear and proceed to slide down “yesterdays” bouncing castles!

Welcome to Children’s Season 2014 at National Museum 🙂

(Image credit I ♥ Museums)

We believe Tan Family also had a Fun outing with the playgrounds 🙂
children's season 2014

Video : Rocking the Dragon and Elephant playgrounds !

Old playgrounds Singapore

Children’s Season 2014’s National Museum theme is “Masak Masak : My Childhood”.
Let us showcase more old school games (pre-Atari and nintendo season).

Giant five stones anyone? or maybe Marbles? (watch the video for the actions)

We took the lift up for more Play.

Look what we found at the 3rd level and in the lift.

P.L.A.Y! Children’s Season is all about getting kids to play, to interact 🙂

Who spotted the barn Owl?

There are some sculptures waiting for kids to explore. We had to give it a miss due to the long queue.

We found some interesting toilet rolls art work! So detailed and intricate. Kids were trying their best to peep into each hole for more surprises.

Daddy hope the toilet roll artwork can be lower so that the short ones everyone can enjoy the paper art. Each “roll” tells a story.

At this “dark room”, we are supposed to draw our own imagination with a LED torch. Kids try their best to project their creations onto the wall.

Do take note of the Bouncing castles timing (11am to 1pm, 3pm to 5pm)

I ♥ Museums and their top 5 tips for PLAY@NMS (National Museum).

(Image credit I ♥ Museums)

Masak Masak : My Childhood will be exhibiting at National Museum until 03 Aug 2014, and admission is free. (by the way, Masak Masak is Melayu for Play Cook).

Select Museums will be free during Children’s Season 2014. Do pop by their Website and Fanpage for latest updates. Up to 21 museums await you!

Which Museum is free

You might be interested in our Army Museum and Art Science Museum
(only for reference, as Children’s Season itinerary will be different).

More Masak Masak photos have been uploaded into our Fanpage album.

Longkang fish at Bishan Park

At Bishan Park, you see Happy Folks everywhere. But those hunting for longkang fish (literally drain fish) should be happier :p

Families are out in force. Cyclist, joggers, scooters and picnics. Everyone is happy, humans and dogs. There is a dedicated area for our four-legged friends, and skating.

And we wonder why our little mermaid is beaming from cheek to cheek.

Take a look around, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is very scenic, with bridges, greens and reflections off the meandering water bodies.
Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park

The Sunday weather was perfect, beautiful landscaping and a lively park!
We Sengkang-Babies are jealous!

The wading water and reeds is not only attractive to the fishes, but humans too (both young and old)

At Bishan Park 2, the herons and egrets are not drawn to scale, but we saw a heron which was taller than Boon Xin, perched and ready to pounce on unsuspecting fishes. It goes to show that the fish population in Bishan is thriving.

(Image credit Nparks)

Mcdonald(2) is a good meeting point for friends, and our fishing spot was at Point 1(refer map above), infront of Block 241.

Herding the fishes into a corner, kids initially tip toe in the stream, taking all precautions to stay dry.

But after a few slips, and splash, they let go of all inhibitions. When your pants and t-shirts are wet, when you have no more reservations, kids threw themselves into the streams !

A few families even join us in the stream, you can hear our laughter and excitement flowing down Bishan park!

Video : We love this time lapse video from Brice Li, showing Bishan Park’s transformation, from concrete canal to naturalised stream.

Daddy still remembered the concrete canal last time. It was where he spend his childhood days catching guppies (real guppies!), Daddy told us he could catch guppies with just a swipe of his foot (sure or not!)
Concreate drain. long kang fish

Anyway, kids were happy with their catch. Some longkang fish, some snails (remember Saizeriya’s escargots?), and we even spot some snail eggs.

The water is not exactly crystal clean, we saw rubbish and debris in certain section of the stream. We learn that a big storm can flood Bishan Park and unload more rubbish from upstream (something like this video)

Do not go barefoot, as there are debris and the stones can be slippery.

If you have seen the storm-video above, you understand why we will need to dash above the red marker, should the siren be activated.

Kids are very cooperative today and we rewarded them with some fries and ice cream.

Next, we head to the sandy playground(map point 3) for more fun, kids do not wish to leave Bishan Park yet.


We hear laughter at every corner. Climbing, swinging, sandcastle, so many activities.

Video (Link) : We love Bishan Park, Dry or Wet!

If you are “fishing ” at point 1, the toilet and taps would be about 50m above point 1( refer map), do not go Mcdonald and change.

If you prefer cleaner water, do pop by Lower Seletar reservoir.

This park was re-opened in 2012, and this is our first visit after 2 years 🙂
But you can be sure that we will be back to explore Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park 1 (Pond Gardens).

Meanwhile, checkout Cheekiemonkies’ review of the playgrounds at Park 1. We would like to thanks Tan Family for contributing their Fun photos.

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More Fun facts about Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park (Daddy still prefer to call it Bishan Park) :

Nparks has maps of Pond Gardens (Park 1) and River Plains (Park 2).
– PUB has a cool 360 degrees interactive map
– Video – amazing top view of Bishan Park from the top (Phantom)

If you are driving, Block 241’s carpark (s570241) is nearest to Mcdonald Carpark.
From nParks website, these are the buses :
– services 132, 133, 136, 165, 166, 169 and 262 from Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange
– service 410 from Bishan MRT Station

– You must pop by our Fanpage for more Fun photos.
– Interested to Find grasshoppers too? Pop by our catch.