Fun on a hazy Sat morning!

A very underrated place, the Singapore Maritime Gallery is located at the Marina South Pier, just next to the MRT station. Didn't expect much but the gallery delivered much much more and I must say it was quality time well spent on a very hazy day.

From the outside, the gallery didn't look that appealing. But once we were inside, there were many things the boys could see, look and learn.

The anchor of a big ship.

A great intro to the different types of ships. These crates carried all sorts of cargo.

Exploring an old container. On the other side of the wall were pictures of what this container used to carry.

Another interesting and interactive display showing the busy port of Singapore.

The boys loved watching the small ship move whenever they press a button on the interactive screen. The best was having more than an interactive screen. My kids didn't have to fight over one!

Nathanael inside the control room, pretending to guide a ship to shore.

Many different models of ships were displayed, including this Star Cruise.

My boys spent most of their time here.

 

A stimulator, they could try their hand at navigating a speedboat, freight ship and normal ship. Had a hard time trying to get them to leave.

There's also a children's corner for kids to play and for parents to relax.

Lego!

Cosplay. We had fun trying on the different costumes.

 

Perhaps it was the haze. There were only 2 other visitors and another family besides us. The Maritime Gallery is small but informative and definitely fun enough to engage and sustain the kids' interest. Admission is free and it's child-friendly. We spent more than an hour there. To get Zech to leave, I had to promise him to visit the gallery again, which should be quite soon as we are on the guided tour to Sisters' Island in Oct.

For those who are interested, here's the link - http://maritimegallery.sg/.

Homeschooling Nathanael

While big brother Gor Gor was busy with school, the little one has been asking to do school too. So now every day, I usually spend around 20 to 30 min with him.

Sticker dots, cut and paste, drawing and colour recognition are some of the daily stuff he's doing.

Sometimes I do number recognition with him, counting from one to ten.

 

Animal matching.

We have also done the alphabet puzzle. I'm quite surprised Nathanael can recognise some of the letters. I don't expect him to know much at this age but exposure is good for him and besides, he wants to and seems ready to learn.

Using the same approach with Zech, I leave Nathanael to learn the letters of the alphabet on his own though I read his favourite ABC book to him almost daily because he wants me to. He mainly learns his letters from his Leapfrog toy.

Nathanael's new Leapfrog toy. The Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set.

Realised that any Leapfrog product is great as my boys really learn from these electronic toys.

I've started Nathanael on some pre-writing activities as well. Besides drawing, he attempted do-a-dot pre-writing sheets.

In the afternoon, we usually have read aloud time. Zech will go through his word cards then read his reader. Then the boys take turns to choose books for me to read to them. Most of the time, they have similar reading interest. But Nathanael seems to enjoy reading concept and non-fiction books. His interest in fiction is rather restricted whereas Zech's reading diet is more balanced.

Some activities the boys enjoy doing together...

Dramatisation. One of the stories we have done was Moses crossing the Red Sea. The boys became the Israelites while Mummy acted as Moses. Here's a pic of them crossing the Red Sea. We dramatized the story a few times, as requested by the boys.

Finger painting.

Worshipping God during morning devotion.

The boys love using different instruments to sing. Besides the bongo and microphone, the other instrument they love is the ukulele.

So that's the beginning of Nathanael's homeschool journey. School sure starts early for the second child.