L was excited over these Ultimate NEXO KNIGHTS sets. I've seen him peering into a screen whenever we pass by any LEGO shop. And now I understand why this latest series can captivate him so much. Which kid wouldn't, looking at the whole range of extensions that come together in this collection - the MERLOK 2.0 App, an interactive online portal, the animated series that is currently airing on television in Singapore and of course, the various playsets that have fanciful names like The Glob Lobber and Aero-Striker V2. For a child who was head over heels with LEGO NINJAGO series, the NEXO KNIGHTS quickly won over his heart. 

In my induction course by Ch and L, I was fed with information like "need an app to play", "please download the app", "can scan the shields to get more power" ... these didn't make much sense, but I soon got excited with L when I got to know about the on-going LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS event that is happening at the VivoCity this June holidays. 

Power Up to Become a NEXO Knights Hero at VivoCity

For all young LEGO enthusiasts, LEGO Singapore invites you to enter the exciting realm of LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS to join Lance and his team of Knights to battle Jestro (the evil jester) at the Volcano Lair. 

Suitable for children aged 5 to 14 years old, the whole immersive mission involves five quests and completing each quest gets them a Sticker of Honour. With all five stickers, the young knights receive the Shield of Honour for themselves. Participants will also be awarded a limited edition certificate, along with two event-exclusive shields that they can scan to improve their in-game NEXO KNIGHTS characters.

[Tip: The whole mission takes about 30 minutes. Only same-day on-the-spot registration is allowed and no pre-registration is possible. Registration is free and on a first-come-first-served basis, so I suggest you get down to VivoCity early to register.]

Event at VivoCity, Central Court B (near Lobby L)

Quest 1. NEXO KNIGHTS Virtual Training 101

Quest 2. Battle the Lava Monsters

The unanimous vote for the favourite quest was given to Quest 2 where the kids have to use their sword and shield to battle the lava monsters.

Quest 3. Scout Jestro's Castle Maze

Quest 4. Power Up with Merlok

Here, the kids try out the powers of two event-exclusive shields that they can scan on the Merlok 2.0 app game - Raptor Bite and Broccoli Tornado. 

Quest 5. Volcano Lava Battle

Young knights who complete all quests get to build their own Shield of Honour using LEGO bricks.


There are also other highlights like Meet and Greet sessions where you can take pictures with Clay and Lance and listen to a short story by them. With purchases of $30 or above on any LEGO product, you get to bring home an exclusive LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS Shield Dock.

Meet & Greet Clay and Lance

Exclusive Shield Dock with LEGO purchases of $30 or above

For purchases of $50 and above on any LEGO products which include at least one NEXO KNIGHTS toy, you will receive a LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS Battle Station. While stocks last. There is also an on-going Facebook contest which will end on 19 June 2016. Find out more here.



From this event, I learnt quite a lot about these NEXO KNIGHTS and their antagonists. Look out for our next post where Ch and L tell you more about the LEGO NEXO Knights sets. As for myself, although I'm all excited about this award-winning¹ series, I haven't decided if I want to download the app game. L will have to wait for my answer. Will update again in the next post.

{We were invited to the event for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was given and all opinions are ours. All photos are provided by LEGO Singapore unless otherwise stated.}

¹LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS is awarded 'Toy of the Show' by editors at Toy Fair 2016 in London, UK.

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Performances

For ages 2 to 6

For ages 3 to 8

For ages 4 and above

For ages 7 to 12

Conviviality Sessions

      *** SPECIAL GIVEAWAY! (7 May - 14 May 2016) ***      

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The high performance mats really provide a lot of bounce! One of Ch's friends commented that she almost peed out from the impact of the high bouncing power! Do take note that this is only for jumpers with a height of 1.2-metres tall and above. The more courageous ones can challenge yourselves to some acrobatic jumps here.  

Look at EQ on the high performance mat! An excellent split in the air!

How about a Slam Dunk? It was really fun jumping high to reach the basketball hoop to perform a slam dunk like an NBA player. This is one of L's top favourite attractions at Zoom Park. 


If you prefer to just jump around or practise some jumping skills, the Main Court provides ample space for that. Just remember to have one jumper per trampoline square at all times to be safe. 

Main Court

With such a fun place for the young and old, Zoom Park is definitely a choice location to hold a birthday party. They have 3 birthday party rooms (fully decorated) and birthday party packages are available with an event host and food, on top of a 1h jump. Read here for more info and pricing. Alternatively, you can host your own small celebration like what we did. 

Our birthday girl and her friends had a enjoyable 1-hour workout and bonding time, and she is looking forward to visit Zoom Park again.

For more info, visit Zoom Park website or their Facebook page. 

This was L's Chinese homework from his enrichment class. Did you manage to spot his mistakes? 

Like many typical Singaporean kids, L does not have enough exposure to the Chinese language as we seldom speak the language. This is probably one main reason why the Chinese enrichment centres are booming in their business here. It doesn't help that we also read more English books than Chinese ones to him. Furthermore, L didn't have a Chinese teacher for a few months back in K2, so he was very far behind others in his Chinese proficiency. 

To supplement L's Chinese language learning, I bought a Chinese comic book on the Monkey God and read it with him. I also signed him up for weekly Chinese enrichment classes. I'm glad the enrichment lessons have been interesting enough to engage him, and the centre adopts a multi-modal approach to learning language. In this particular lesson, the children were given a worksheet to fill in adjectives to describe their eyes, ears, popcorn etc. The teachers showed a video of the popcorn making process, and they were also given some popcorns to bring home. L happily showed me his popcorn treat and ate them on the way home. 

However, after L completed this piece of homework, I realised he didn't retain the learning from that interesting lesson! He couldn't remember the meaning of the words and how to use them appropriately. I am quite sure it wasn't a failure of the lesson. Instead, it could be because he only looked at this piece of work one week later. 

So, my teacher-instincts prompted me to do this... 

Throughout the process, I repeated the phrases from his worksheet and got him to use the Chinese words that he was supposed to learn. Like, when I asked him to describe the popcorn kernels, he had to say 黄黄的玉米。And when the popcorn kernels were popping in the pot, he had to describe the sound by saying 噼啪噼啪的声音。 I also sneaked in some Math concepts.  

Slow and steady in measuring out the honey

Look at THAT face! Wonder what he was thinking about.

Popcorns almost done!

Enjoying the fruit of his labour

Other than language literacy, cooking with children is also one of the best ways to train children to understand and execute the recipe systematically. With enough opportunities, they will be able to plan ahead and their cooking process will be more efficient. These skills also help them greatly in interpreting Science practicals, starting from primary school. You will be very surprised to know that a large number of my secondary school students lack the skills to understand Science experimental procedures properly, so they usually score very poorly in that component. And when I probe further, many of them have never helped out in their kitchen. 

You can get that original recipe we followed for this popcorn making process here. We tweaked the recipe a little to include more honey and less salt as we prefer a sweeter version. Believe me when I say this is really super duper easy to make, and you get a pot of buttery, crunchy popcorns within 10 mins!

You can set up your own sensory bins using fantastic ideas suggested by bloggers like Sarah from Little Bins for Little Hands. 

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Or you can take the easy way out (like me!) and subscribe to a sensory play kit from My Messy Box. The Dinosaurs Adventure theme comes with pasta of different shapes, small toys like a tree, dinosaurs and bones, cinnamon (as logs) and broad beans (as rocks) in the Explorative Play and Active Play packs. There are also suggested questions and instructions included to guide your child to play with these packs.

I extended the play for K by hiding the dinosaur toys in our sand-table and she managed to overcome her unwillingness to touch sand with her bare hands. 

You can read other reviews I did of My Messy Box here and here.

Singapore just opened its first and only museum - the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum - that is dedicated to showcasing biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Many who have visited rave about this place and the dinosaurs exhibits are one of the reasons why people love this museum. I do hope to be able to bring our little dinosaur enthusiasts there soon. 

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Thankfully, we had some free time on a weekday during this school hols, so we managed to catch a small dinosaur exhibition in a shopping mall recently. The two replicas of the Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus dinosaurs absolutely exude a mysterious and majestic feel around the mall. I wished there were more of such huge exhibits though.

L joined one of the hands-on workshop to create his Geological Timeline spiral. It was really hard work for him to cut out all those animal graphic boxes, and the spiral itself, but when it comes to art, L definitely displays 100% concentration to complete the task well.




Other pending activities in my dinosaur-to-do-list:
1. Watch the movie Jurassic World with the older kids. Review of this movie seem pretty good, but I hope the kids won't be freaked out. 

2. These dinosaur activities suggested by Play Ideas are definitely going into my bookmarks. I think K will love them!

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3. A little book of dinosaurs (by Jus from Mum in the making) when K is older and is able to manage some independent work with the pencil. This can go to her busy bag in the future when she goes out with us. 

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It's amazing how these prehistoric creatures can fascinate our kids (and adults!) so much. Do you have an interesting dinosaur activity that you have done with your child? I'll love to hear from you.