Our Week: Playgrounds and progress

We went hunting for heritage playgrounds the past week, and ended up visiting seven! (I blogged about the Dragon Playground at Ang Mo Kio here). Unfortunately, of the seven we visited, three were unaccessible. The elephant playground is within the grounds of the Home Team Pasir Ris Chalets, which stopped operations at the end of February. The gate to the chalets was locked up, so the boys could only gaze sadly at the playground through the fence. We were just a few days too late!

The watermelon and mangosteen playgrounds in Tampines were both boarded up. It seems that both are undergoing renovations (and not being torn down, phew!), so we are looking forward to visiting them in the future.

Going playground hunting was great, because the boys got to run about more. 

Playgrounds aside, we are making progress with regards to Lil J. He previously couldn't sit still very long, so we didn't really do many structured activities with him, save for him joining us for craft or art sessions. These days, he has been showing an interest in math, so I've been letting him work a little with our Math-U-See blocks (sometimes Junior J tries to help him). 

He's also started working with our Perler beads too.  I am very heartened by his progress, because he really had such a short attention span last time! One thing I've learnt: when it comes to seatwork, and activities that require a longer attention span, starting at an appropriate age is key. The child must be ready, and this readiness varies from child to child. A dis-interested child, or an easily distracted one could be related with their readiness, rather than a problem with their attention span or the interest level of the activity. So if you have a fidgety child, take your time!