Night safari 2020

This is our first experience at Night Safari Singapore. We visited night safari on the 29th August 2020, Friday before promotion ends.

Due to convid-19, we need to book tickets online and select the time slot to enter the safari and we managed to get the earliest slot at 7pm. Please book way in advance if you are planning to visit any tourist attraction in Singapore because the attractions are restricting the number of entries and visiting slots are competitive especially the night safari is only opened from Thursday to Sunday. 1st lesson: Book a few weeks in advance.

When we entered the premises at about 7.08pm, we immediately went to queue up for the “Creatures of the Night” 7.30pm show but was surprised to find out that it was already full. Apparently, they restricted the entries to 50 per show. 2nd lesson: Go earlier and quickly queue up for the show. So we decided to take a tram to tour around.

Since it was about 7.20pm that we aboard the tram, we could see the animals pretty clear though it got dark pretty soon as the tram travelled. OMG!!! I could see these animals really close except for the lions and tiger (tiger was in an enclosure). The deers and the tapirs were so super near that they could easily come into our tram and sit with us :p. One tapir was so close to me that I thought it was going to sniff me. Oh yes, I am taking my words back which I’ve said to my boy that we were going to the same Zoo but at night. This was totally different. The Night Safari showcases nocturnal animals.

After the ride At 7.49pm, we immediately try to queue for the show (this was the only show available, the rest were not available else it will be more fun) but was astonished that the 8.30pm was full too. We asked the crew what time should we queue for the 9.30pm show and he said “NOW”. We were like “HUH!” But he was very nice to put us on waiting list for the 8.30pm show. So I brought the kids to the “food court” just beside the show queuing area while hubby was queuing up. The table which we were seated was just beside the queuing area so I can easily pass food to him if we ordered food but LUCKILY the crew told us we were able to come in because someone gave up waiting. Lesson 3: Be thick skinned and ask whether can put you on waiting list. If not, have someone to sit at the queuing bench while the rest can go to the “food court” but choose the table near the queuing bench so can pass food around. 

Yes. We got into the 8.30pm “Creatures of the Nights”. It was a little cozy performance area and the host was really good though I find the show’s duration a little bit too short. We saw  many cute animals up close (seated at the first row) which I never saw them before in the day Zoo like the white raccoon, the little white fox, the fishing cat, etc.. Lesson 4: Sit at the first row to experience these cute animals up close.

Then “makan time!”. We went to the “food court” and ordered the Satays, cheesy fries and the beef noodles. Yes, the place seem like a open-air food court with better ambience but comes with a price. A plate of 6 pcs of satay is about $6.50, beef soup noodle Around $12. Lesson 5: Eat full at home first if you don’t wish to eat there as it is the only place to buy and eat.

At about 10pm, we decided to just take another ride to see the difference. Disappointingly, most of the animals seem to be resting. But we Truly enjoyed the cool night breeze on the tram but my boy was already asleep on my lap with my girl nearly dozing off. Lesson 6: Take the tram or visit the animals or take the walking trails earlier to catch animals while the animals are still active. They were still awake at 10pm but definitely more active if you visit them earlier. 

It was a pity that we didn’t walk any trails because both kids were tired and way past their bedtime. However, this was truly a great and eye-opener for us as this was our first safari experience.

Summary of the tips:

• 1st lesson: Book a few weeks in advance.
• 2nd lesson: Go earlier and quickly queue up for the show
• Lesson 3: Be thick skinned and ask whether can put you on waiting list. If not, have someone to sit at the queuing bench while the rest can go to the “food court” but choose the table near the queuing bench so can pass food around. 
• Lesson 4: Sit at the first row to experience these cute animals up close.
• Lesson 5: Eat full at home first if you don’t wish to eat there as it is the only place to buy and eat.
• Lesson 6: Take the tram or visit the animals or take the walking trails earlier to catch animals while the animals are still active. They were still awake at 10pm but definitely more active if you visit them earlier. 

Have fun!

Storytelling: Sunshine and Snow

Recently, my girl finds recording herself reading is cool and fun. So she said “Mama, please record my reading and post it up so my friends and teachers can see.”

Title: Sunshine and Snow

So this is her first storytelling and the title is “Sunshine and Snow”. It shares about how the twin sisters had disagreements about how their birthday party should be. It is a meaningful story to share with your children about siblings’ squabbles and its consequences. This story is one of the many stories in this book called “The magical stories”. 

You can purchase this book from Amazon.

Please view this video on the full storytelling. 

Note: We have no intention to breach any copyright infringement. This is to share love of storytelling among kids. Reading aloud helps kids on their articulation and confidence. Hopefully it will aspire kids or children to read aloud.

My boy is good with Maths!

My 5 years old boy started learning how to add 2 digits number using tens and ones a few days ago and is really getting the hang of it. He will always tell me “I am a smart boy!”. 

How did my boy become so confident in his Maths? His Maths journey when he was about 3.5 years old when we were in Mumbai. My girl was enrolled in seriously addictive maths in Mumbai and my boy kept pestering me to let him join his sister’s maths lesson. After a trial, we felt that the room was too small with the number of students and Pierre was pretty active and disturbed her sister in class. Yes, tuition centers in Mumbai are really small. Most centres have only 1 classroom and is small unlike Singapore. So I told him to wait till he is 4 years old. (A summary of tips will be at bottom of this page).

That time I was wondering whether I was taking away his interest to learn so I played counting with him using Legos and toys. When he was about 4 years old, I chanced upon Kumon Mumbai and I enrolled him mainly because the room is bigger :P. To my surprise, he was really focused and learnt fast. Kumon Maths encourages repetitive practice everyday and Pierre did it diligently from counting and writing numbers and learnt till addition of single numbers till 7 (e.g 3+7). He can easily answer you with simple additions. :)

After when we are back in March due to potential convid lockdown in India (yes, we caught the first flight before the news of the first lockdown was confirmed), we totally stopped Kumon lessons. Luckily, I had some Kumon Maths books which I bought long time ago (gathered in dust) for my girl. Great that I could use those books for my boy. Within these few months, he completed two Kumon addition Maths and now almost finished with basic subtraction book.

As we were all stuck at home, I helped him to enrol zearn.org and dreambox for Maths online learning. These are free during Summer due to convid-19. These organisations support virtual learning during school closures. My kids really love these two sites and improved their Maths’ skills during Singapore’s circuit breaker.

Currently, he is learning Maths concepts instead of just memorising basic addition. But trust me. Those basic maths additions which he became so good at did help him to learn the concepts faster. 

I’m happy and amazed how my boy is able to do primary 1 Maths when he is just K1. He might maybe completed Primary 1 maths at the end of the year? 

Most importantly, my boy became confident because of his Maths learning journey and you will often hear him say “I am good in Maths!”.

To sum up the tips:

• Start your toddler’s interest in Maths by using toys or even things at home to get him counting.
• Use Kumon worksheets or books from Amazon:
• Start with this basic addition book with counting, writing numbers and simple additions

Grade 1 Addition

 

• Practice more additions with this book.

My Book of Addition

 

• Start with basic subtraction with counting backwards, writing numbers and simple subtraction

My Book Of Simple Subtraction

 

• Practice more subtractions with this book.

Grade 1 Subtraction

 

• When your children or toddlers are more comfortable in additions and simple subtractions, you can introduce him Maths concepts of Tens and Ones.

Have Fun and Be Amazed with your Kiddos!

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie