Our SAM Children’s Season 2013

One of the reasons why I enjoy blogging so much is that it produces a readily accessible archive of memories, in word and picture.

When crafting this post, I looked at how we enjoyed the same exhibition series last year, and it just hit me how different the children look… Also a great way to jog the rapidly kaputting brain cells – now I know we’ve been there every year since its inception!

It was hot!

We pottered about the boxes at the entrance first…

My favourite – not least because it was composed of colourful felt!

I thought the one on the right was probably really hard to translate from concept to reality

Drawings on glass panels – in the background, CEASELESS construction (and piling noise)

When we entered into the air-conditioned sanctuary of the museum, the ground floor exhibit was like entering a wall-to-wall art classroom.

Girl flying a cloud

B tottering down the rainbow stairs (wish they made a tune!)

Told the girls to play peek-a-boo with me, but only K did. Though I later realised I did catch a glimpse of B through the other peephole.



Of Pandas, books and a Mirror on the Wall

 

I really liked the other side of the bridge too – one of my favourite tales as a child – The Three Billy Goats Gruff “Who’s that stamping over my bridge?” (with a resident troll captured here too, hee hee.)



Cute touch to have the worksheets filed away in the grandfather clock

Then we headed up to Around the Day in Eighty Worlds – meow!

Obliging photo subject

Still happy to have “goldilocked” baby bear’s chair

Artists do love grandfather clocks!

The girls and their dad had great fun pitting their psycho motor skills against each other – mummy is keenly aware of the limits of her spatial sense, and gave that a wide berth

Mummy filled around with making the girl laugh, and the grandma scold, instead.

The girls doodled, and traced out the shape of a cat (thoughtful to have a little step for the littler ones at the tracing station)

 Thereafter, we proceeded to the Glossy Dreams in Depth.  As advised by the museum staff, we parents took a peak into the other room first.  We figured it’d be okay, and true enough, the girls were completely fine with swivelling 180 degrees. Perhaps cos I had prepped them for this special moving bed, and the other side wasn’t TOO dark.

in the light side

 

dark horse

 They even gamely rode on the “dark (rocking) horse”.  I looked around, and the images would be scary if you dwelt on them. But I didn’t.  Even the huge Elephant inspired monster was okay for B.  She said “Hi Elephant!”.  I think the artist meant well, to expose parents to the reality of nightmares, and how it can get really scary for kids.  And to inspire children to conquer their fears (not sure how concretising what is ultimately imaginary), by realising that dreams are not reality.

My favourite exhibit turned out to be this dreamland of a stellar cave. I loved how it was presented literally like etchings on a large cavern. We sat down on the bench and had a nice time gazing into what was at once like the night sky and also like a prehistoric cave.

An immense amount of effort went into this (as did the other exhibits, to be fair) and the clear outlines of the animals that were black, probably took even more planning and work then creating the strings of animals that were white.

K had a good time having a go and twisting the strings on long nails, into the shape of a reindeer’s head. She persevered for a good 15 minutes!

Thereafter, we ended our trip with a stop at the Screening Room. We were pleasantly surprised to be only 1 out of two families at any one point.  So we could sprawl comfortably on the chairs and watch these mostly local amateur cartoons and feature films. After about 15 minutes, B wanted to go! I wondered WHY since she’s usually such a screen addict.

The other pleasant surprise was the nursing room! I didn’t recall seeing this last year.  Very spacious and well equipped with sinks, sofas and a screened off area (individual cubicles would be better but guess everyone has budget constraints) for breastfeeding mums.  Even little tables and chairs for older kids to feed themselves (it seems) if necessary, whilst mummy feeds the littler one. Nice thought!

All in all, it was good to go for this year’s Children’s Season. We managed to go on the last day of school (Fri 31 May) before the place becomes run over with school kids on holiday.  Surprisingly, unlike other years, we didn’t bump into any large kindergarten groups on a weekday either.  Hurrah.

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