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Daphne

a spot of singapore

Rip-roarin’ good time

November 26, 2012

The kids skipped school to check out the new Adventure Cove at RWS last Thursday and you know I hardly rave about such attractions but I’m going to take a moment to rave about it.

It was surprisingly very fun.

How fun? This fun.

It looked ordinary enough when we entered the place so we thought it was like a tiny waterpark like Wild Wild Wet. First of all, the place is massive. There are a total of 13 attractions and by the end of the day, we only managed to check out 4 of them.

1. Big Bucket Treehouse

This is an interactive water play area similar to the ones at POLW or the Zoo. There’s a huge bucket that tips over, some climby areas, 2 water slides and lots of splashy things. Kirsten loved it so much she spent like 3 hours running around non-stop. Apparently kids under 122cm need to be accompanied by an adult but she went on it like 15 times on her own before one of the lifeguards spotted her. But they were really nice about it and one of the girls even offered to ride it with her another dozen more times.

2. BluWater Bay.

It’s a wave pool with gorgeous landscaping and a rest area where you can sit back and sip a couple of mojitos while Copacabana plays in the background. About the wave pool itself, you can either swim around or lounge in one of the floats provided. I did the lounging on the float while Truett (in his life jacket) dragged me around to catch the waves.

3. Riptide Rocket

Ok, this one is Truett’s favorite ride in the entire park. It’s a hydro-magnetic coaster that rides like an intense rollercoaster on water, complete with climbs, plunging drops and quite a bit of speed. Tru went on it with the husband 6 times and he was all “it’s SO SUPER FUN! Can you sit with me please please please?” I took one look at it and I told him “Mommy will do a lot of things for you, but riding on a crazy water rollercoaster where I could get flung out violently? Nuh uh.”

4. Adventure River

If you feel like chilling out and taking a breather, there’s a river that takes you around the entire water park with different stops at the various attractions. Again, there are life jackets provided so you can either swim or relax on a float. Plus the water is heated so baby Finn had a nice time splashing around in the nice warm water.

There were also a number or rest areas around the water park, which was rather thoughtful. When baby Finn got tired and hungry, I could grab one of the beanbag chairs to nurse him and read a book while the husband brought the two big ones for more rides.

And that’s Finn looking knackered after a long day of fun. As for why he is in a Hello Kitty rashguard? He doesn’t have his own swimwear yet so he’s dressed in Kirsten’s hand me downs. Plus the little guy is manly enough to pull off a girly pink top, don’t you think?

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coolest kids ever, growing up, homeschooling

Carrot and stick, without the stick.

November 22, 2012

We’ve just introduced a reward system. It’s a system where good behavior is rewarded. Like if I manage to get through an entire day without yelling at the kids, I reward myself with a large bowl of ice-cream. Ok scratch that, it’s a bad example because I reward myself with ice-cream even on bad days with lots of yelling.

I tried the sticker reward system a while back when the kids were younger but they didn’t really buy it. It went something like this.

“Kids, these are called reward stickers! Whenever you do something good, we’ll give you one sticker and when you get 3 stickers, you can exchange it for a treat,” I explained with my enthusiastic high-pitched voice. “Who wants stickers?”

They glanced at it and threw me a dismissive “No need thanks!”

“You sure? Look, these stickers are so pretty and they’ve even got your name on it. You can exchange it for gummies and potato chips.”

They were unimpressed. “Uh, no need.”

I couldn’t understand it, it seemed like such a great idea. Perhaps they didn’t understand the concept. Perhaps they didn’t like my specially printed pretty stickers. Perhaps they were actually surly teenagers wo didn’t care for stupid rewards. Whatever the case, my ingenious plan was failing miserably so I shelved the idea.

Recently, I was inspired to give it another go and for some reason, this time it turned out to be a massive hit. I basically said the same thing to them while waving the exact same stickers.

“Kids, these are called reward stickers! Whenever you do something good, we’ll give you one sticker and when you get 3 stickers, you can exchange it for a treat. Who wants stickers?”

“ME!!!! I WANT, I WANT,” they yelled in unison.

“Ok, let’s start by packing up your room. You’ll get one sticker each if you pack up your room really well.”

5 minutes later, I came back into the room and they were scrambling to pack everything into their toy boxes. When they finished packing, we held a reward ceremony and bestowed upon them a shiny new sticker each. It was the lamest reward ceremony ever but they looked so terribly pleased all the same.

That night, we tried it again.

“Guys, you’ll get a sticker if fall asleep on your own. Daddy and mommy will be right outside but you can’t get off the bed ok. If you do well, you’ll get a sticker in the morning.”

We walked out of the room and waited for the usual requests of water, milk, toilet breaks and bedtime stories but there were none. 5 minutes later, nothing. 10 minutes later, still nothing. Finally, we sneaked in after 15 minutes to check on them and they were fast asleep. On their own. For the first time.

Reward system = hell yeah!

*Here’s a sample of what their charts look like. Download the printable versions here (Truett’s) and here (Kirsten).

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kids in motion, precious moments

Outdoorsy fun

November 21, 2012

The kids are what I call outdoorsy types. They get cranky when they’re cooped up at home too long, and their restlessness will manifest itself in a remarkable variety of ways. Truett will slump on the floor and look like he’s in actual pain from boredom. Kirsten will stage yet another fashion parade trying on dress after dress before tossing them everywhere. They’ll take turns to stare wistfully down the corridor and ask to be let out of the house.

“Can we bring Mickey down for a walk?”

“How about we go to the playground?”

“I know! We can go swimming, that would be fun right?”

“I think we need to go for an adventure.”

On weekdays, we’re usually too tired or busy to lug everyone out for an adventure but because they love it so much, we try to reserve the weekends for a little bit of outdoorsy time, even if it’s just to the beach or the park nearby.

Truth be told, I’d much prefer to spend my weekends curled up in bed with a good book and a cup of coffee but then I look at their excited little faces and next thing I know, I’m out in the blistering heat chasing after the kids and watching them enjoy little moments. Moments I know I’ll remember years later when I’m curled up in bed because they’d much rather be off hanging out with friends instead.

The way I see it, we’ve got 52 weekends with the kids before another year passes us by. That’s not a lot considering that some of those weekends will be spent on boring obligatory functions or work-related stuff. So we’ll take whatever quality time we have with the kids and make them count.

Hopefully years down the road, they’ll remember it too.

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