School holidays have started! Have you made plans on how you will be spending this precious time with your children?

I have identified a list of places I would like to bring my Simply Lambchops clan to this school holiday! Want to join me? And if you are an NTUC member, you get to enjoy extra savings by presenting your NTUC card!


1  iFly Singapore

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Imagine yourself flying in mid-air? Experience true free-fall skydiving conditions, only at iFly Singapore. Under the keen supervision of skilled instructors who are certified by the International Bodyflight Association, your skydives will be a safe and exhilarating experience. Be ready for a 2h experience, complete with preparatory briefing, and the necessary gearing up before the actual flight. Note that you need to be at least 7 years old in order to fly. Read Simply Mommie's review here.

NTUC Member perk:

10% off First Timer Challenge Package (comes with 2 skydives)

when you present your NTUC card and NRIC upon purchasing your tickets on-site. Do take note that this promotion is NOT applicable for online booking. Offer ends on 31st December 2014. For more info, click here.
2  Alive Museum Singapore

Location Suntec City Mall #03-372 (between Towers 3 & 4) Opening hours 10am to 10pm daily (last admission at 9pm) Tickets Adults $25 | Children (3-12 yrs) $20

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Be a part of the artistic masterpieces here at Alive Museum! This is no traditional art gallery exhibition. You are promised a laughter-filled visit, complete with hand-painted art pieces uniquely drawn using techniques such as 3D Art, Digital Art, Object Art and Experimental Art. With more than 80 masterpieces, 9 of them are locally themed and unique to Singapore! There is also free wifi for you to upload the pictures taken immediately!

I love that photo of blogger Delphine from Life in the Wee Hours. Her expression is priceless! Makes me wanna go to Alive Museum and do some wacky poses for the pictures right away! Read her review here.

For interesting tips to survive the Alive Museum trip, read here.

NTUC Member perk:

Receive One FREE Child Ticket (worth $20) with purchase of 2 full-priced Adult Tickets

when you present your NTUC card upon purchasing your tickets. Offer ends on 31st December 2014 and is valid for up to two child tickets per NTUC Card at the ticketing counter. For more info, click here.

3  Port of Lost Wonder - Christmas Joy

Location	Palawan Beach, Sentosa
Date	21, 25 and 26 Dec 2014
Opening hours	10am to 9:30pm
Tickets	Children (below 12 yrs) $25 | Accompanying adult enters for free

Port Of Lost Wonder (POLW) is the first kids' club by the beach, and is best known for its signature pirate ship water play. With many fun activities to offer, children hardly have time to get bored. And for this Christmas, POLW will be transforming into Santa's village! Get your hands busy with baking gingerbread cookies, making your own snowman, and join in many other fun activities Santaville has to offer! Read Life's Tiny Miracles' review here.

NTUC Member perk:

10% off Child Admission (accompanying adults enter Free)

when you purchase tickets online. Enter promo code "NTUCChristmas" to enjoy the privilege. Offer ends on 26th December 2014. For more info, click here.

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Chill by the beach and enjoy a mesmerising night show, accompanied by the latest multimedia effects, pyrotechnics, robotic water fountains and state-of-the-art lasers. Wings of Time tells the story of a mystical pre-historic bird who finds his way home with the help of two teens, Rachel and Felix. Be captivated by their journey which brings a multi-sensory experience to the viewer through majestic music and breath-taking landscapes like the African Savanna and the Mayan Pyramids. Read CheekieMonkie's review here.

NTUC Member perk:

Enjoy 10% off admission 

when you present your NTUC card upon purchasing your tickets. Offer ends on 31st December 2014 and is valid for Local Resident Rates for Normal Seats only. For more info, click here.
5  SingKids Playsystem

Location	Changi Airport Terminal 3 | Vivocity | United Square
Opening hours	Changi Airport T3 (11am - 11pm, last entry 10pm)
	VivoCity (10am - 10pm, last entry 9pm)
	United Square (10am - 9:30pm, last entry 8:30pm)
Tickets	Off peak period: $18 for TWO hours playtime
	Peak period: $18 for ONE hour playtime
	*admission includes one adult/guardian and one child

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SingKids Playsystem is an indoor playground with features designed and built by a Japanese company in Osaka, Japan. With colourful and safe materials used, children can hang on to moving apparatus of the playing facilities and play to their heart's content here. Ch and L enjoyed themselves very much when they visited the VivoCity outlet with their cousin last year. For more info, visit the official website here.

NTUC Member perk:

FREE 2 hours of playtime with every purchase of 2 hours during Off-Peak periods /

FREE 1 hour of playtime with every purchase of 1 hour during Peak periods 

when you present your NTUC card upon purchasing your tickets. Offer ends on 31st December 2014 and is valid for one adult and one child only. For more info, click here.


So, there you go! Five places specially selected by us, for you to have fun with your children this school holiday.

And as a family of five, it is even more important for me to source for good promo discounts to save costs when the whole family goes out. With all these NTUC Members cost-saving perks, don't you think you will feel extra joyful this holiday?

Now tell me, which of these places would you want to bring your family to first?

# This post is a part of the Multiply Your Joy campaign by NTUC Membership. Multiply your joy with Savings over $1,000 as an NTUC member!

Click here for part 2 - Multiply Your Joy: The Alive Museum Singapore!

You can also check out the NTUC Membership Facebook page for more updates.

I love my toilet. 

It is not the most beautiful part of my house, and neither is it luxuriously fitted with polished water facets or high tech toilet bowls. Still, I love my toilet for a simple reason - it is my favourite hide-out. A space that belongs solely to me once I shut that door. I am allowed to be wrapped up in my small world. I can let go of my responsibilities temporarily to enjoy a few moments of peace to do what I need to do in a toilet. When the kids were younger and I did not have extra help at home, I had to leave my toilet door open in case I needed to rush out to attend to my motherhood duties. The times spent in the toilet were short and focussed on the task. Now that they are older, I can afford to spend more time in my toilet and my children can definitely attest to that. 

My toilet is also the place I go to when I need to cry and let loose of my emotions. It is where I can concentrate most on releasing the anger or sadness in me, and after a good cry, I find peace and move on. The privacy has helped me to have a clear mind and that is where my creativity is at its best. Many home project ideas were sparked off in this small space, and many lesson plans were crafted here too.

The serenity in the toilet allows me to catch up with the world. I often bring my phone into the toilet and spend miiiinuuuuutesssss there, looking through articles shared online, friends' posts and emails. My BFFs often update our whereabouts with this emoticon when we chat on the phone. 

Outside home, luxurious-looking toilets found in good hotel rooms and clean public toilets with unique features make me feel like a queen. The toilet is definitely one of the first areas I check out when we stay in any hotel, and a well-decorated and fresh-smelling one makes the stay so much more pleasant.  

Taken from Terminal21 at Bangkok, Thailand

However, do you know that 

• 2.5 billion people - around one in three of the world's population - don't have a safe, clean, private toilet.
• Around 500,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation - that's almost 1,400 children a day.
• Every year, around 60 million children are born into homes without access to sanitation.
• More people in the world have a mobile phone than a toilet.

Source

Hard to believe, isn't it? These facts were unknown to me until I did an online search on this topic. Many of us have probably taken our proper sanitation facilities for granted. And that explains why the World Toilet Organisation was founded since 2001, and 19 November has been adopted by the UN as World Toilet Day. It sounds absurd and amusing that an organisation is set up solely to advocate for toilets, but the matter is more than just that. There are issues related to a lack of proper sanitation - health, dignity and well-being - and World Toilet Day draws attention to them and serves as a reminder that there is more we can do to change this situation. 



This year's campaign is centered around the theme of Equality and Dignity because

around one billion people in our world today face the indignity of defecating in the open. Lack of clean and safe toilets at schools lead to higher dropouts among girls once they reach puberty (Source)

I am thankful that my children (especially the girls) are able to enjoy the privacy and safety of a toilet when they need to relieve themselves in public, and that they do not have to do so in an undignified manner in the open. I am thankful that the facilities in our public toilets have improved and now, there are even family toilets where the whole family can be in the same cubicle, including the infant. Although our public toilets have not made their way to the list of Top 10 Toilets in the World, many of them are well-maintained and clean. 

Source

We are also blessed that there is more awareness about toilet needs for those with special needs, and we see toilets reserved for their use in most public buildings. Oh, try not to abuse that toilet, will you? We all love the roomy space that comes with it, but for a person with special needs, that cubicle is probably the only toilet he can use with ease. Everyone deserves that space, but some certainly deserve the space more. 



So what can you do after reading this? You can raise awareness of these sanitation issues among your friends. Share this post on your social media platform. Join The Urgent Run, a 5km fun run event that will take place on 9th Nov, Sun at the East Coast Park (registration closes on 8th Nov, 8pm and onsite registration on 9th Nov closes at 8am). There are many more ways in which you can help. It just takes a creativity spark and the sky's your limit. 

Let us celebrate and be reminded of the importance of that little toilet in our homes. Let's give thanks for being blessed with proper sanitation in our country so that our health, dignity and well-being are protected. 

October is Down Syndrome (DS) Awareness Month in the United States, and I just want to take this opportunity to mention it here today. I am a part of a support group of parents who have children with DS. This group is amazing as we have a mentee-mentor relationship where the mentee is a new parent with a newborn with DS. Even though we hardly know each other, we bond through conversations about our little ones with DS and our other children too. So, a friend was wondering why there have been less mentees lately. The explanation she was given was that there have been less referrals from hospitals and that could be due to more abortions of unhealthy foetuses. This info is not yet verified, but oh, I felt so sad when I heard it. I am praying for all those foetuses that this is not true! And for all the parents whose foetuses are suspected to have DS, I pray that you will have faith and carry on your pregnancy!

Dear Friend, if you have reached this post because:

you were searching for more info on parenting a child with Down Syndrome, 

you are looking for a support group for parents of children with Down Syndrome in Singapore, 

you need some hope and encouragement in your parenting journey of your child with Down Syndrome, 

these are a few of the support groups (that I know of) that you can join in Singapore:

1. Down Syndrome Association of Singapore - DSA aims to provide support to families and caregivers, help a person with Down Syndrome to lead a normal life and contribute to the society, and help integrate a person with Down Syndrome into mainstream society. You can also visit their Facebook page. 

2. Singapore for Down Syndrome, a closed group on Facebook - This is a FB closed group for parents of children with Down Syndrome in Singapore. Please email Grace at squirrelwee@gmail.com if you wish to join the group.

3. a close-knitted Whatsapp group chat for Mommies of children with Down Syndrome - Entry to this group is by invitation and recommendation. You can email me at simplylambchops@gmail.com to find out more.

Hubby and I are the kind of parents who allow our kids to snack so long as they do not go overboard or binge on unhealthy snacks. We have a snack drawer that piles up with snacks (very quickly!) from generous aunties at church, and from birthday parties. However, there are some snacks we definitely disapprove of, like sweets that are nothing but just sugar and artificial colouring, or snacks that are over generous with their salt and artificial flavouring. I'll reveal a little secret here - we do throw away snacks we deem unhealthy for the kids, so please do not indulge them. 

The million dollar necklace was stolen from The Arts House! And who will have the best scoop for this case?

This was the setting for a workshop that Ch attended during the September holidays. The children assumed the roles of young journalists and detectives to find the culprit in order to present the story on their local newspapers. They visited "crime scenes" in different rooms of The Arts House, interviewed possible suspects, watched videos of events, and put their analytical skills to the test to piece the story together. 

And did I mention that this was a writing workshop? 



Prior to this, Ch attended the Monster HuntINK creative writing workshop conducted by Monsters Under The Bed (MUTB) in June. She was reluctant to go initially, as she is the type of child who prefers to stay at home (how blessed you say, right?) Even on the way to the workshop, she was still showing her displeasure for having to sacrifice three mornings of her school holiday for that. 

But ...

... every day after the workshop, she shared her Monster Building experiences excitedly with us! She even got L so interested in monsters building that he was keen to create one himself. We had to get Ch to request for a blank Monster Builder worksheet to make up for not being able to send him for the workshop too. (you can read my friend's review of the Monster HuntINK workshop). So when I received an invitation by MUTB for the InvestigateINK workshop in September, I was more than happy to let Ch attend again. I know that she will enjoy herself and gain much out of it. 

InvestigateINK introduces expository writing (creative non-fiction) to children aged 6 to 12 and is part of the Imagination 'N' Knowledge series workshops. I understand that expository writing is taught in schools at Primary 5, so what better way to learn this! It was a refreshing change from the usual structured lessons in the classrooms! Even I enjoyed the workshop and benefitted from the tips given by the trainers! To add to that, this workshop was conducted at The Arts House! Centrally located and with a long heritage, you will instantly feel the aura of the building when you step in! 

Unscrambling the letters to find the clue

Finding clues to solve the case like a detective! Source

Can you crack the thief's code?

What else do I like about the InvestigateINK? Activities like finding clues and visiting "crime scenes" allowed the children to move around the Arts House. This helped to keep their enthusiasm and energy high throughout the three days. Being able to experience the staged process of detective work also helped the children to have a better idea of how they could present the facts of the case in a logical sequence - an important trait of expository writing. There were also opportunities for the trainers to have individual time with the children to help them improve their drafts.