Playing and learning go hand in hand at these four fun-filled centres.
Citroën | Sep 02, 2018
Playeum Children’s Centre for Creativity
This is Singapore’s first dedicated creative space for children up to the age of 12. A series of interactive spaces and custom-built installations aims to spur open-ended and self-directed learning in young ones. They are encouraged to exercise their creativity and imagination through play, by tinkering and experimenting with the installations at the exhibition, which refreshes yearly. This year’s exhibition focuses on sustainability, innovation and the role of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in everyday life.
Playeum, which runs the centre, also has a jam-packed calendar filled with workshops and activities for parents and kids every weekend. These include story-writing workshops and half-day camps on basic physics and the concept of speed.
Where to find it: Block 47 Malan Road, #01-23 Gillman Barracks, 108937
Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle
One of the best ways to nurture a child’s creativity, self-expression and confidence is by getting them to build something from scratch using their bare hands, and there’s no better place to do this than at Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle. The centre hosts a range of pottery workshops where your children can learn the basics of creating their own ceramics, from throwing on a pottery wheel to wood-firing their clay into the final product.
Thow Kwang also boasts Singapore’s oldest brick-built kiln used in wood firing pottery. This process produces colours and textures in the pottery that are not found in modern ceramics made by firing in gas or electric kilns.
Where to find it: 85 Lorong Tawas, 639823
Saturday Kids
Learning to code is not just for website or computer game developers. Saturday Kids teaches children as young as five years old digital skills and simple, basic coding techniques, with the aim of fostering curiosity, design thinking and problem solving in them.
These aren’t your usual coding classes. To keep learning fun and easy, kids will learn to build their own robot pet, draw and paint in 3D and create their own Minecraft mods, while older kids will be taught Python programming and how to build their own mobile app.
Where to find it: Various locations
Artify Studio
Unleash your child’s creativity at Artify Studio, which organises parent-child art jamming sessions. All art materials – canvases, paintbrushes, palettes, aprons and, yes, unlimited paints – will be provided, so you’ll only need to bring along your imagination! Soft guidance will be offered to kids who need it, with each session having teacher-student ratio of one to four.
Artify Studio also conducts art classes tailored to each individual child’s interests and learning processes, with a focus on project-based learning aimed at inciting kids’ natural curiosity. They are also taught to embrace mistakes throughout the creative process, which helps develop confidence, creativity and problem-solving skills. The classes go beyond drawing and painting, too – your children will dabble in sewing, building terrariums and making play dough.
Where to find it: 200 Jalan Sultan, #08-05 Textile Centre, 199018
Take your kids on a learning journey, and give them all the space they need to grow too. The new Grand C4 SpaceTourer is a 7-seater MPV that seats your entire family and features more than enough boot space to carry your kids’ creations around. With a height-adjustable electric tailgate, you can easily load any arts and craft supplies your kids may need. So hop in to a new Grand C4 SpaceTourer, and let learning take your kids places.
