ToyBox rocks Amadeus

I think I've mentioned before how much we love Reuben and Mark, the duo that are ToyBox. So, though we'd been to the Mozart exhibition at the National Museum last month, we decided to book ourselves into the Museum Toddler special session  last Sunday too. And what fun we had!

The exhibition is geared to slightly older children so even though LO enjoyed the dress-up in a glittery skirt, sitting in the carriage and romping on the bed, I don't think she quite got what it was about the first time around.

Museum Toddlers changed all that. Reuben and Mark did some warm-up sing alongs and then delved into who Mozart was. I liked what they did but didn't realize till later how cleverly they explained Mozart.

Reuben first dressed up in a shiny glove and hat and did a disco number before donning a wig, ruffles and long coat to enter into his Mozart persona, replete with a mole and a faux German accent, before conducting a piece of music. We then had a guided tour through the exhibition. All very fun and terribly entertaining.

But wonder of wonders, LO still talks of Mozart a few days after the show and how he wore a white wig and conducted music. What more can one ask for.
 
Unfortunately their last Mozart session on the 29th is booked out. The good news is that ToyBox do regular themed Museum Toddler sessions every Sunday. More details here.

Singapore Art Street - the heartlands edition: 21, 22, 28, 29 June

If you missed the Art street this weekend at Clarke Quay, it's making it's way to you. Well, if you live around Hougang, that is.

Still, loads of stuff to do with family and kids - gawking at the art wall, street performances, graffiti art or getting your hands messy doing street painting or hands-on painting.

Get those kids some art at the Biennale

The Singapore Biennale has a raft of things lined up for kids in September including workshops, family tours and a kid's day out.

Why am I talking about this event, light years away in parenting time, now?

There's an art competition and a community art project that the public can participate in for which registration closes 18 July, that's why.

Opera in the Park: 21 June, Botanic Gardens

SDT has done it for years. Now SLO is going to try. I'm talking performances in the park, au naturel, under the stars, pinic baskets, wine in hand, you know what I mean.

The Lyric Opera is doing its inaugural Opera in the Park at the Palm Valley at Botanics next weekend and unlike Ballet Under the Stars, it's free.

I've only seen recorded broadcasts of opera outdoors; the last one I saw was Anna Netrebko and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Berlin Waldbuehne in front of 15,000 people. All I'll say is, even if it was a bit disconcerting to see the beads of sweat on the singer's face, I really wanted to be there.

There's no Russian soprano or Simon Rattle conducting here but I'm definitely going.

Update on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 05:18PM by MamaSez

Just learnt that June 21 is the summer solstice/midsummer's day and World Music Day. I can think of no better way to spend it.

Heritage or global children?

There's a workshop afoot to introduce children to three museums and their collections and ending with a dramatic showcase for....$300. At the current fulltime student rate of $5, that would buy 60 museum visits. I mean I see the value of such a programme but just had to point that out.

Heritage Child runs 9 - 14 June, and is conducted by Act3, whose holiday workshops that run 2- 21 June are also of a similar structure except their themes are not so local: Peter Pan and Prince and the Pauper.

Act3 incidentally also does a walkthrough of the National Museum with iconic characters from Singapore's history. The dates for these are 9 Aug, 1 Oct & 28 Oct. Incidentally there's barely any info on the museum websites so best call Act3 direct at 67359988. 

Toy rentals - the next bubble tea?

I've heard intermittently over the past few months of the Toy Rental Club, of the playgroups and parties held there and the free (but paid) play. For LO's birthday we'd rented some toys from Rent-A-Toy and we've rented car seats from Babytown who also do toys.

Suddenly, however, toy rentals are popping up like undergrowth in a tropical forest.

Now, there's Rent That Toy, GoGoMummy, Little Fairyland, online toyshops who are doing rentals, even blogging mums have gotten into the act. They're obviously taking cues from the pioneers. They parrot similar arguments - toys are too expensive in Singapore, kids outgrow them quickly - why, the GoGoMummy website even uses the same FreeCSSTemplates as Toy Rental Club.

I'd blogged earlier about a similar wave of indoor playgrounds. Perhaps those late to the party should have rather looked elsewhere for inspiration. In the US, for example, toy library subscription services seem to be the flavour of the month.

Holiday Fun guide

If you missed the ST story on holiday activities last week, here it is. Lots of stuff happening in the community clubs...

Singapore Garden Festival: 25 July - 1 Aug

As for life beyond the holidays, the garden festival's coming up. We like their mascots, though we're biased; LO likes anything with ladybirds.

Water H2O = Life: Science Centre, till 17 Oct

Love the graphic even though it took some searching to find on the Science Centre website. More details here.

Speaking of the Science Centre, most of their holiday programmes are full but there are some that still have spaces

- BASF Kids Lab - Fun with Chemistry, 6-12 yrs: 11 - 17 June
- Secondary DNA Camp, 13-15 yrs: 10 - 11 June

MAAD: June 7-8

The next edition is coming up this weekend. Our picks are the Chinese ink workshops on both days and portrait day on 7 June, 2-7pm.

They have their own blog too.