Saturday 9 August 2014

'Masak Masak': Childhood Play Exhibition at National Museum

On the last day of National Museum's Childhood Play Exhibition, 3 August, I finally fulfilled my promise to Baby, taking her to 'Masak Masak', an exhibition showcasing the things Singapore adults in the 80s played when young.

Hmm ... a bit different from what we had though.

Our playground was not a bouncing castle, lah!

It's free admission for Singaporeans and PRs as long as you show your pink or blue IC to the counter. I didn't have my IC with me but my driving license did the trick.
The first thing we saw when we entered


Inside each circular hole was some tiny paper cutouts. Quite cute!

We walked on and came to this strange looking playground.

The playthings were mainly made of recycled or unwanted objects, put together to create motion or interaction between objects.


The aims of the games were stated on a board beside the games

Hmm ... did we really play with such weird things when we were young?


We went to the 3rd floor and entered a room for children's play.


Ingredients for the different favourite local dishes
You can cook if you like!

Puppet play

with a Papa bear couch

and a Baby bear chair

Blackboards are antiques now. How do you like that?

With our 'free admission' ticket, we entered the 'History Gallery'. Lighting was a challenge for photography though.

We were at this cubicle that showcased the schooling histories. I saw two report cards from Singapore Chinese Girls School and a really old photograph of about 10 students from Chongfu School. The students looked quite grown up though.

The trades of Singapore

The History Gallery features how Singapore came about, from the story of Singapura to Raffles' founding of Singapore, from the early Singapore settlers' struggles to Japanese Occupation. Quite interesting, but a little boring compared to the museums in other countries. There are many pictures and a few artefacts here and there but of course, it definitely pales in comparison with Taipei's Gu Gong (故宫).

As we returned to the exit, we came across some 80's childhood games.

But they are played very differently.
"Throw the five stones into the air and catch the stones using the round flap"

This is our 'marble' game.
"Throw the marbles into the holes"
Baby enjoyed this best!

To end off the trip to National Museum, we made a house using cardboard, and some coloured papers at an art-and-craft home, spending about 2 hours there!

A fun day out for Baby and me!

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