Things to do with kids: Monstrous Fun! at The Arts House, Little Sifa, Tales Of The Playground picture books

Straits Times

18-05-2025

Join free and ticketed activities at the Monstrous Fun! literary arts programme from May 30 to June 1. PHOTOS: ARTS HOUSE LIMITED
Fun With Kids: Monstrous Fun! at The Arts House, Little Sifa, Tales Of The Playground picture books
SINGAPORE – Make family time all the more special with these ideas and activities.
Monstrous Fun! at The Arts House
Calling little monsters – no, not fans of American pop star Lady Gaga, but children who are game to dress up in beastly costumes and join the inaugural Monster Parade.
The procession sees participants walk from The Arts House to the Empress Lawn while making music with upcycled instruments. It is part of Arts House Limited's Monstrous Fun! literary arts programme, which is back for its fourth edition from May 30 to June 1 at The Arts House.
There are free and ticketed activities, some of which require advance registration. These include Bimbang And The Curios Trunk, a free 30-minute storytelling session involving music and puppetry.
Also, sign up for the Drum-A-Story workshop led by local jazz pioneer and 2018 Cultural Medallion recipient Louis Soliano. Discover how percussion and rhythmic expression can bring a story to life in this 40-minute workshop. It costs $10 a person.
Go to str.sg/3vedP for the full list of programmes.
Little Sifa at Empress Lawn
The House Between The Winds, a soundscape installation and a drama performance featuring a 6m-tall sailboat, is by Singaporean artist Yang Jie.
PHOTO: ARTS HOUSE LIMITED
The Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa) is in full swing and the little ones have not been forgotten.
Check out child-friendly programmes under Little Sifa, which returns for its second year at the Empress Lawn near Victoria Theatre.
The House Between The Winds is an interactive soundscape installation that will be unveiled on May 1 9. Singaporean artist Yang Jie's installation, which pays homage to the plantations that gave Orchard Road its name, reacts to visitors with lights and sounds.
Complementing the installation is a dialogue-free drama performance every Friday to Sunday evening until June 1. Audience members are invited to follow a seafarer on a pilgrimage to visit a mythical tree and can take photos aboard a 6m-tall sailboat featured in the show afterwards.
And catch performances by The Purple Symphony, an inclusive Singaporean orchestra made up of musicians with and without special needs, from May 23 to 25 at 7pm.
Admission to programmes under Little Sifa is free. Go to sifa.sg/sifa-2025/little-sifa for details.
Chinese picture book series Tales Of The Playground
Chinese picture book series Tales Of The Playground is written by Ang Aik Heng and illustrated by Joshua Chiang.
PHOTO: VITAMINM.SG
Singapore boasts many interesting playgrounds, such as the iconic one in Kim Keat which has a pair of dinosaur sculptures. The towering 3m mummy dinosaur and her baby bring much excitement to kids. But what might be on their minds as they stand there all day and night? What if they could talk?
Ang Aik Heng's debut Chinese picture book series Tales Of The Playground reimagines four well-known play spaces as characters.
Besides the Dinosaur playground, he was also inspired to create stories based on the Dragon playground in Toa Payoh, Watermelon and Mangosteen playground in Tampines, and Sunken Ship playground in Sengkang.
'Playgrounds are very much just infrastructure in the eyes of most Singaporeans. And I thought that's quite a pity because so much effort was put in to design some of them , and not to mention the nostalgia that surrounds our heritage playgrounds ,' says Ang, who used to spend time with his two sons, now 11 and 14, at these play spaces when they were younger. He is a veteran TV executive producer and co-founder of Chinese online education platform Vitamin M .
Each whimsical story explores themes such as family love and friendship. The books, illustrated by Joshua Chiang, are recommended for kids aged three to eight.
Get them at $12.90 each or a set of four titles at $34.40 on publisher WS Education's website (str.sg/mnAQ) and bookstores including Maha Yu Yi.
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