Little One @ Imaginarium: Over the Ocean, Under the Sea

Children's Season is here again! Since the school holiday is approaching, why not consider bringing your child here.

 Imaginarium: Over the Ocean, Under the Sea

14 May - 28 Aug 2016

Ever since 2012, we have been going to Singapore Arts Museum @8Q around this time of the year to visit their art installations. Their installations especially those on Level 1, never fail to amaze me. We paid a short visit on its opening and definitely will be coming back again. Sharing the 3 installations we love best!


Dimana Mogus? (Where is Mogus?), Level 1 by MULYANA

Mixed media installation with yarn, cotton, felt, synthetic fur, vulcanised copper wire and dacron filling

Here , you are suppose to find Mogus. One of the octopus 'floating' around in this sea.

This installation happens to be my personal favorite too. I love its vibrant colours. You can sit on the gigantic whale cushions or even jump on them. You may touch the fishes above your head but please be gentle on the corals and the octopus which are hanging around.  I was most awed by the corals! These were crocheted painstakingly and they looked real! The octopus are also crocheted but I feel more drawn towards the corals. I love its matching colours and its close imitation to nature.

Children loves this room because of its colourful sights and the interaction available.

A place full of fun

This school of fish looked like a submarine to me but a ship to Little One.

Crocheted corals

Colourful, aren't they?

(Left) On a corner of the room, lies are bed of dead coral and a dead octopus. Did you see them? Probably, the message is to remind us to take care of our ecosystem, otherwise, they may simply die and get wiped out.

ADA, Level 3 by KARINA SMIGLA-BOBINSKI

In this dark room, there is a giant luminous PVC ball, ADA, with protruding spikes all around its body. This creature is supposed to be one of the bioluminescence animal of the deep. Before you enter, the staff warns about the charcoal studs on its body. If you are not afraid of getting dirty, this is the place for you. You can move ADA across the room and tries to draw the ceiling, wall and floor using the charcoal studs but soon you will realise you cannot fully control it as effectively as a pencil or marker. These charcoal lines are only apparent when the giant sphere moves near them. It sheds light on them. This reminds us the consequences of visitor interaction and similarly, our relationship with the sea.

Little One spends the longest time here chasing after ADA and trying to draw something using her. She ended up with black hands and a strip across her forehead. 

Suara Muara (The Sounds of the Estuary), Level 4 by PAPERMOON PUPPET THEATRE 
In this room, it appeals more to your sense of hearing, check out the earphones. Below is one of my favorite too! It gives me a mixed feeling. The moving cloth simulates the moving sea. It give a peaceful feeling. The people on the sea seemed to be enjoying themselves. However, I also spotted half body people hanging from the skeletal ships which gives me creeps.

There are actually more to be offered by the rest of the art installations by various artists. Mainly the value behind the theme of the installation is the fragility of the ocean and how how interaction with it will in turn affect us. Besides these, there is also short film screening room and craft area , both located at Level 2.

Having interactive art installation allows children to see more clearly how they could affect the surroundings and at the same time, we take this as a very good opportunity to educate our children the relationship between the sea and us and on how we can learn to protect our environment.


Singapore Arts Museum @ 8Q
OPENING HOURS 
Mondays to Sundays | 10am to 7pm (Last admission at 6:15pm)
Fridays | 10am to 9pm

Visitors can also enjoy free entry to SAM every Friday from 6pm to 9pm and on Open House days.

ADMISSION 

Adults                                                              $10
Students & Senior Citizens aged 60 & above  $5
Children under six                                           Free
Citizens/Permanent Residents                         Free

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Celebrate Earth Day by doing the 3 Rs

This Earth Day, let's do some recycling!


The important message is to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Reduce by not buying impulsively. This is the most important step. It drastically reduce wastage.
Reuse by using both sides of papers. Some includes Glass Jars, Containers or Cans, newspaper, magazine, paper bags, plastic bags.

Recycle by giving a new lease of life to the product.

Below are some recycling ideas which I learnt during the Singapore Design Week and from the programmes conducted by the National Library Board.

Hope it inspired you too!

A tetra-pak recycling purse. (Learnt in library)
Recycled bracelet using t-shirt yarn. ( Learnt from Clothes Call)
A finger knitted necklace made by Little One.

The many recyclable items that was given a second life!

More items (left)
T-shirt bag made by me.

Making  Kanzashi Flower Ornaments. These can be used as hair clips or ring. (Learnt from Sew Into It)

This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day 

A different birthday at Balik Kampung

Instead of dining in a restaurant to celebrate my birthday, this year, I decided to do it slightly differently. A more down to earth approach. Remember the group, Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) that I mentioned previously on my blog on Bottle Tree Park and that one of the programmes I intended to attend in June? This is it!

"Ground Up Initative is a place to connect with the earth. We are a community of volunteers - of Thinkers, Warriors and Farmers. Thinker doesn't mean book smart - it means holistic and compassionate thinking - looking at the whole. By warrior I mean people who are hands on and have mental resilience - they are adaptable and have inner strength. And to farm is to connect with the land. It grounds you. You understand in a deep sense that what you plant, you will reap. 

GUI is a place where all are invited to come and learn what true kampung spirit really is. It is a place to connect and heal. You come here to learn to connect with yourself then to those around you. People who come here find comfort, peace and clarity. They find purpose and meaning. We have people of all ages and all walks of life. They do not live here but come on weekends to participate in the activates: farming, cooking, carpentry. Some just come to take their shoes off and walk in the stream. It's a kind of leadership training - life training. You learn to care. You learn what is important to you and how to build towards it, to speak up for it. "

- Kampung Chief Tay Lai Hock 

I signed my whole family up for a programme known as Balik Kampung in June. We were actually late on that day. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! The programme starts at 9am and ends at 1 or 2 pm. We saw the gang proceeded with morning exercise just outside SL Kampung. Then we were to find someone new and introduce ourselves to each other. I realised many are volunteers. Then we were divided into groups. Cooking, planting or woodwork. We got to choose what we wanted to do. Children were being asked to play kampung games as it was raining outside. Otherwise, they would be ask to rack fallen leaves- important nutrients for growing plants. Very organic right? They do not use chemicals.

A different sort of birthday celebration with Mother Earth , I decided to get my hands dirty and did some planting...

and at the same time, bring Little One closer to Mother Nature. The kids here had fun filling up the bags with soil. Some of the kids decided to help us out. Little One, too , tried to fill up bags of soil for planting. She did a few, then started to play with the soil.

The volunteer with the children. GUI is into recycling, of course!

I think the place looks really nice. I particularly like this lamp. I wonder whether they make that themselves.

Chalk on wooden blocks. Who would have thought of that? You could also used markers though.

The rickshaw that looked so antique

Wow! Trishaw! I doubt I have seen one this colourful!

A spider spotted in the nursery

After a morning of hard work, we had lunch made by the chefs. The cleaning process is rather new to me. All of us are used to cleaning with detergent. But the process we are going to be introduced is quite unheard of. First you get to clean by rubbing coconut husk on the used plates, the used coconut husk will be used as a compost for plants. Then wash with a plant based powder which was mixed in water. After that, raise in a couple of basins of clean water.

The session ends by listening to a story shared by a volunteer of GUI. Then, we were to do a sharing session by splitting into groups and discussing about what we have learnt from the story and what have we learnt for this trip.

________________________

I love being near to nature. I love learning about how to make our life more sustainable. I am glad I learnt a few tips on how to plant. Most importantly, I learnt we can actually clean up our utensils in a more eco-friendly way. Wait till I get my hands on that powder, I shall share on my facebook page.

GUI is an interesting group. They have been appearing in libraries programmes and even the recent Singapore Heritage Festival.  Thank you GUI for making my birthday so memorable, I do hope to see you again!

This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day 

Making of a Yoyo button Hair Accessory

Little One has a dream. She loves being a princess. To her, princess has long beautiful, wear pretty dresses and wears nice shoes and accessories. It is not surprising that Little One would sometimes go wild when we went window shopping. She would go, "I want to have this, this and that... " 

We do not buy her everything, we would only buy what is needed. I admit we do occasionally indulge in some luxuries. For hair accessory, I would make some for her when I find the time.

This is one of which I had made for her, a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory. 

What you need:

Compass/ anything with a circular base of at least 4.5 to 5 times the diameter of your button

A button (I use 22mm Daiso Covered button)

Sewing thread (similar colour as your cloth or button)

Sewing needle

Elastic cord (I don't know whether this is the correct name)

Old clothes (recycling)

Pen

Steps:

1. Trace a circle of diameter about 4.5 to 5 times that of the button on the cloth with a pen. In this case, I could not get any stuff of 99mm. So I decided to make do with a 95mm (d) case and use that to trace.

If you do not have any thing suitable to trace, you can try drawing with a compass.

2. Sew running stitches around the edges.

3.. Tighten by pulling the thread tight into a "bun like" shape as demonstrated below.

4. Continue to sew the covered button (Little One made this) to attach to the "bun". Sew at least 5 stitches to firming attach the button to the "bun".

5. Cut the elastic cord to a desired length and tie a knot. Then, sew onto the other side of the "bun".

It's done!

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This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day 

If you have been enjoying reading our posts, like us on facebook

"Lungs of the World" in Singapore

Do you know what is the lungs of the world? Primarily, many refer it to the Amazon Rainforest because it has the largest rainforest in the world though I prefer to call all organisms (including cyanobacteria and phytoplankton) that produce oxygen the lungs of the world.

Today we shall stick solely on the subject "Rainforest".

Do you know that we have a primary rainforest in our very own Singapore Botanical Gardens? Best of all, the guided tours are free! We went for ours during the dry spell in February. The June holidays are here! Why not plan to visit the garden during one of these days? There is a guided tour tomorrow.

Why are rainforest important?

Since we are talking about rainforest on this post, I would like to share the following information with you.

Rainforest cover 6% of the world surface and yet more than half of all known animals species live in the rainforest. Many animals are dependent on rainforest for food.

It is a valuable source of new medicines and food. There are actually plenty of plants and animals in the rainforest which are yet to be discovered. Many of known plant and animal species live in the rainforest.

Rainforest cleans air and water. Plants in the rainforest photosynthesis and hence produce oxygen for the rest of the world. Rainforest produce 40% of Earth's oxygen. It also keeps the planet cool. Without this forest cover, the ground reflects more heat into the atmosphere, warming the rest of the world. Areas where rainforest is cut down, water recycling stops, resulting in drought. Rainforest soil are actually poor in nutrients. The rainforest creates their own supply of nutrients from fallen leaves.

Rainforest prevents soil erosion. Places such as Ethiopia has serious deforestation and is now facing the problem of soil erosion and drought. Look at the advertisement below, an area of a forest is being cleared, soil erosion takes place. The top soil would be washed off to the stream and probably clogs up the gills of fishes and create a murky stream. This is akin to our lungs. When part of the lungs is not working, it affects our body and the way we live. Similarly, when an area of rainforest is cleared and left in this state, the whole ecosystem is hay wired, some valuable flora and fauna may disappear before we even discover them.

Before it 's too late: WWF Source

The Tour

Back to the rainforest tour, these are some photos I have taken during our trip. We brought Little One along. 

Cannonball tree

Banyan tree

Roots of  Banyan Tree growing from thin to thick eventually develop bark

Figs growing pollinated by wasps female lay eggs in figs

Figs growing from the same spots.

Figs are keystone species in rainforest ecosystem. At present, there are 850 species. This is because they fruits throughout the year, providing food for many rainforest animals. Figs are known as 无花果 "fruit without flowers" in Chinese. The actual flowers are in the "fruits" itself. However, only one species of fig wasp pollinate one species of fig plant. Hence, if that species of wasp is being wipe out in that ecosystem, the fig species that it pollinates will be dies off soon after. If that species of fig trees dies off, the rainforest animals will lose a major source of food supply, hence, the ecosystem will be dramatically changed. Note, not all plants fruits all year around. That is how inter-related animals and plants are in the ecosystem.

 Rattan with spikes. The spikes are removed before using for furniture and canes.

The plant that looks like pandan has thorns on the top and this plant is used to make Hawaiian skirt after thorns are removed

 Tongkat Ali

  Jelutong Tree (Chewing Gum tree) The latex from this plant is used in the making of chewing gum. Any tree that is more than 55m is consider a forest tree. This tree can grow approximately  to 60m

The walkway is not fully fenced up so that animals could cross easily to either side, minimising disruption to the rainforest.

Spider web and leaf litter

Lianas contains mostly water(Tarzan's Vines).

 Tall trees have lightning transmitter 

We spotted a couple of spiders

 Strangling Fig.

 St Andrew's Cross Spider (Male)

St Andrew spider (female)

 Rubber Tree- First batch at near Sympony lake .2nd batch near Heritage Centre... 

After reading this post, do you realised a lot of the plants mentioned here are familiar to you? Yes, rainforest actually has a great variety of plants and animals. Do you know that rainforest plants includes coffee, orchids and banana? And even till now, there are many of these plants are yet to be discovered. Scientists has ventured into them to find medicinal cures for current illnesses. I do hope that people who uses the rainforest do not destroy it, make it sustainable. The forest have so much to provide. It is a pity to destroy just like that.

You can do your part to protect the environment.

1. Watch what you buy.                                                                                                                       Try avoid buying hard wood such as mahogany, teak, rosewood for your furniture. Look out for words such as "sustainable source". Use wood from trees that can grow back quickly after being cut down. Eg Paulownia tree.
2. Recycle stuff                                                                                                                                    Recycle, reuse whatever you have.
3. Do not buy exotic animals

If you would like to have a guided tour, you may want to head down to Visitor Centre of the Singapore Botanical Gardens tomorrow and sign up. The available time slots are as follow.

Rainforest Tour
2nd Saturday of Every Month
at 9am, 10am, 11 am and 4pm

If you prefer to DIY, you may want to download this guide

If you are interested in knowing more about deforestations in Ethiopia, you may like to read these websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Ethiopia

http://solar-cooker.de/index.php/de/situation

This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day 

If you have been enjoying reading our posts, like us on facebook