We visited KidsSTOP during a school holiday and it was probably not the best idea to visit during peak hours. The kids enjoyed themselves but it could have been more fun if we had the luxury of time to leisurely enjoy each exhibit.
There were long queues at the hot favourites like the Dino Pit where you can dig for "dinosaur bones". The kids were given only five minutes to play (understandably so because of the crowd) and E, the dinosaur lover, was clearly not too satisfied with this touch and go approach and wanted to queue for another round. By then, the queue had grown even longer. So, we decided to maximize our time and explore the place (instead of getting stuck in queues) before our session was over (each session was limited to 2 hours).
As I was there alone with the kids and I have a 8 year old and a 3 year old - the 8 year old gave a cursory glance at some exhibits which the 3 year old had a lot of interest in, I had to leave the 8 year old on his own at times to explore the place (thankfully the area wasn't huge so I could occasionally check that my boy had not gone missing!) while keeping a close watch over my 3 year old.
And of all days, the settings on my DSLR went nuts! Okay, not really. Just that the hubby set it to burst mode to take photos of the fireworks display on National Day and we forgot all about it until I started taking photos and blurred images were all I got. I had no idea how to revert to the original settings and ended up taking most photos with my phone. So, pardon the image quality.
We started off at this exhibit where you can role play being a pilot seated at the cockpit, complete with a photo opportunity of the kids looking smart in a captain's uniform. This attracted mostly the younger kids and I was surprised that E enjoyed this exhibit so much that he came back to this a second time. Pilot in the making, perhaps?
Next, was the ever popular Dino Pit where the kids dug for "dinosaur bones". I'm not too sure about the digging part because the bones looked exposed to me instead of being buried under the sand. It would have been more exciting if the kids actually had to spend some effort digging and be rewarded with their find. Nevertheless, this is a huge hit with the kids. You can never go wrong with sandplay!
C used to be all squeamish about stepping on sand but now she loves sandplay at the beach, at the playground and right here in this sandpit.
Here's another interactive exhibit which C enjoyed. You can choose from different-sized gears, connect them together and make the gears move round and round.
This was another hot favourite judging by the long queue. Kids get to operate this clamp-like thing which grabs coloured balls from a big basket. Someone has to standby to catch the balls when the coloured balls are being released. This catching the balls job is serious business and the child needs to stay focused. I was guilty of distracting E when I asked him to smile for the camera and he missed the moment. All the balls came tumbling down and everyone there had a good laugh!
Intense concentration
This is when the 4 years age gap comes in handy. I can sit back and relax while E and C climbed the play structure. C made it all the way to the top with the help and encouragement from her brother.
A must try for the older kids. You are pulled up to 7 metres and dropped. E went all the way up to 7 metres the first time but on the second try decided to go for 6 metres instead. It can be quite scary especially with the suspense building up when you are being slowly hauled up to 7 metres.
This section is not housed in the main area. It is behind a set of doors found near the above exhibit. This brought out the performer in C. She spent most of her time in this section on the stage. There is a control panel where you can control the lights and other special effects.
This was captured on the panel where director wannabes can control various components of a stage set.
For the boys, this was the attraction. You can choose from a variety of scenarios and it gets projected on the screen behind. You can now imagine you are a hero, fending off dinosaurs and other exciting adventures.
Back at the main area, we explored the Human Body section.
Incisors, molars and yes, those are intestines. You can examine the internal organs on an operating table, that is if you are not grossed out by it (which my kids were).
Trying to get the skeleton to co-operate!
This was taken at the last stop and made me laugh. This is an exhibit on construction. And look at what we have here. Construction workers loafing on the job! What were meant to be bags of cement have now become cushions!
They were reluctant to leave so we hung around this tiny play area after our session was over.
We didn't manage to visit every exhibit because of the crowd but it was definitely a hit with the kids. I'm coming back on a weekday!
Do note that KidsSTOP is catered for children aged 18 months to 8 years. Although E had fun, a number of the exhibits did not interest him while C was very entertained by almost everything.
For more information, visit http://www.kidsstop.edu.sg/.
*Disclosure: We received complimentary entry to KidsSTOP for the purpose of this review.
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