day 607 | june 5, 2012 | bishan park play II - pond gardens

continued from 'bishan park play'  blog post, we've recently discovered a water play area as well as a sand play area on the 'other' (farther) side of the park. bordered by marymount road, upper thomson road, ang mo kio avenue 1, and sing ming road is a slice of bishan park called 'pond gardens.'

Map from NParks, little red hearts mark the places we explored

i especially love the sand play area as it is an integral part of my 'dirt training' for the two fussy ones. until now, roo is ambivalent about sand. red kind of partly forgets about the sand as soon as she gets comfortable in the play area, but still demands that i carry her out of it so that she doesn't have to get her feet dirty.

roo will hover and sit on the not-so-sandy walkways, and create organic art out of the nearby dried leaves.

the other fun bit about the sand play area are the rope ladders. red is foolhardy, but this climbing exercise is teaching roo how to be brave. it's clear she's scared, but she does try her best to get to the highest point of the playrope.

roo waves to a supportive red...

 red gives it a try... inspired by her big sister

 my proud not-so-little roo...

and if all that activity is not enough to wear down the kids (they run on extra-special super-endurance batteries), there's the water play area just a skip and a twirl away from the sand play park.

it's built mimicking canals and dams, with metal sluice gates that allow the kids to learn a little bit about the science of water flow.

my favorite part is watching roo take care of red. while red knows how to defend herself, and make her personal space clear even to kids more than thrice her age, it thrills me to see that roo is personally affected when she feels that red needs help. they play independently of each other, but they look out for each other.

two tired angels... goal for the afternoon is met!

bishan park play: