To be quite honest, I have always been intrigued by the Children's Biennale but was too paiseh to go because it seems like an event for kids. Now that the little one has arrived, I seem to have more legitimate reasons to go. I invited my friends (who I haven't met) in a long while (no thanks Covid!) to join because 1 kid grants many adults legitimate access right? haha.
I am kidding. My friends wanted to meet kiddo outdoors and I thought an engaging place for him and an instagrammable place for us would be ideal. This place fits them all. Best of all, it is FREE! He is kinda of unpredictable and shows a lot more temper so there was a fair chance we might have to leave early so it is not really value for money if we visit more expensive attractions.
We went on a weekend and it was not very crowded, guess there are other attractions out there that attracted more crowd. Most of the visitors were family (very safe I guess) and if you go on a weekday, you will meet "teenies wearing short skirt" according to the people at the museum. Guess they were pretty sick of them since they weren't even "appreciating the art piece". I did myself meet a girl tik-toking in front of the art and hmm...it was odd.
Each installation could only
hold a certain number of people at any one time so there was still a bit of a queue. One of the installations that caught my eye on IG was the
Head Home. They are made of
cardboard pieces and the intricacy was mind-blowing. Zoom in and see if you can spot Garden By the Bay. In photos, it look awesome but in real life each piece isn't made to perfection. It is simply a case where many items make a huge impact. Don't miss this.
Admittedly, I don't really know what each exhibition is called. I missed "Conversations with an Octopus" but saw on IG later that many parents caught great photos there. We went instead to a sound exhibition when painting can be created using motions and sounds. The LO enjoyed it a little more at this station because he could interact with these exhibits more.
Generally, I did find the
Children's Biennale more suitable for the older kids. My boy could barely walk let alone hold a pen so he could only do stations that didn't require much pen work. Despite that, he did have fun because half the time he was just running around.
National Gallery is quite a gorgeous place and he even went to take a peep at the more formal exhibit.
One of my favourite exhibit was this tent station. Every group/ family would be assigned a tent and each tent has some toys/ books for the child to play with. We picked a decent size one which was filled with cards. The dude obviously had no idea what they were for so he threw them around and play peek-a-boo. My friends and I hijacked some tents that the other kids grew bored off and took photos.
It is is quite a nice exhibit for the younger kids because the floor is well-carpeted and my boy could run around. I could also take a breather and exert less eye power, just for a while and have a bit of me/we time with my friends. After this, he pretty much went hyper and had a melt-down and that pretty much marked the end of the Museum visit. Had to coaxed him to sleep while my friends went shopping first. Sad Mum Life >_<
