Octoburst! activities: 1 - 5 October

Turns out there's more to Esplanade's Octoburst than just a drawing competition - it's going to be a full-fledged lil fest with theatre, music, ballet and Bharatanatyam which is great news for kids. 

Ticketed events include The Japanese Garden, another edition of the Tick, Tock and Tack series and The Nutcracker by the SDT. Free events include a concert by the young folks at NAFA's Chinese instruments programme, Mouse and Cookie by The Players Theatre and Shakuntala by Bhaskar's Arts Academy.

Puppetmaking and storytelling workshops, Celebrate Drama: 12 Aug

The Celebrate Drama festival is hosting puppet making and story-telling workshops for primary school kids, 4 years and above. $10 per participant at The Arts House. 2.00pm - 4.00pm & 4.15pm - 6.15pm. That's a lot of value per hour.

The festival also has loads of good stuff for older kids.

Kids zone at Heritage fest: 12 - 27 July

The Singapore Heritage Fest has set aside a kids zone with activities including games, story-telling, art-making and role-playing activities designed to explore the theme this year - heroes. Entry is free. Call Act3 on 67359986 for details.

The Boy Who Touched the Moon: 30 - 31 August

Act 3 Theatrics is back with their next show for the Esplanade Playtime series, featuring puppetry and shadow play for ages 2 - 4.

Footwork Twinkle Toes, da:ns festival: 18 -19 Oct

Another gorgeous dance photograph courtesy of the Nederlands Dance Theatre and the Esplanade. 'Tis the season it seems.

Esplanade's da:ns festival coming up in October includes a parent and tot creative movement workshop for 3-6 years olds.

There's nothing on the Esplanade website yet so watch this space.

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.

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. 

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.

Centrestage holiday workshops start 23 June

Drama, art, dance and music workshops for age 31/2 - 11 at their studios in Wessex Estate. Check website for details.

Seminar on safe downloading - Apr 26

I'm doing some writing for another unrelated project for World IP Day but I think this event could be useful in teaching kids about responsible Internet usage. There's a "dedicated programme for the first 100 children (7-14 years old) where they will explore the i-Space gallery at the Singapore Science Centre with our very own "Detective IP"."

As I've learnt, around the world they're starting to target primary and middle-school kids because kids these days are on the Net so early. See Hector's World. In the UK Wallace and Gromit have been drafted to promoting innovation to 9-11 years olds.