Free Visit to Peranakan Musuem

Went all the way to Clarke Quay today only to find the free 2009 tickets for the Singapore Bumboat rides had been given out already. So made our way to the Peranakan Museum instead, which was given free admission this weekend (21 & 22 Feb 09), thus saving us $8/adult.

Most importantly, are the activities available for children, including free clay modeling, stencil-making & Chinese calligraphy, and also featuring Chinese Orchestra performances and cooking demonstrations! I expected the activities to be targeted at older children (I was right, designed for ages 5 ~ 10 yrs), but thought Sam may be able to handle the clay modelling, since it would be similar to the Play-doh he enjoys, then I'll have a chance to catch the "Serenity in Stone: The Qingzhou Discovery" exhibition.

The Old Tao-Nan School campus seem flooded by people today, partly because it's so small, I think. The children activities were hosted in the Lecture Room on the ground floor. Sam was way too young for the stencilling, but fortunately for me, the clay modelling was done on Ikea tables & chairs, just the right size for Sam. So hubby & I took turns to visit the exhibits, while the other watched over Sam.

Sam is really too young to make full use of the materials to make the intended lotus flower on the cardboard, which can then be placed in the provided photo frame. He also poured glue into the tealight, which was meant for sticking the clay petals around to form a tealight holder. But he made his clay balls & generally got occupied, so that was enough for me. ;)

The exhibits of Serenity in Stone are mightily impressive. It's amazing how the colours on the stone sculptures got preserved all these years, all the way from the 6th century!! True, as hubby commented, the similar-looking Buddha statues bored us non-artists after 2 full rooms of exhibits, but I still find it interesting to note the different art styles used in the 2 different periods the sculptures were made.

I made a quick dash through the Peranakan wedding exhibition rooms on the 2nd level, and found several stations designed for children (about Primary school level, I guess. There's an area designed for school programs) to participate in, including embossing Peranakan designs on a specially designed paper provided at the ticket counter. The lady there kindly provided one for me upon inquiry, but the colouring picture on the other side of the paper is way too advanced for young Sam, esp. since he seemed to have inherited my lousy artisitic talents, or rather, non-talents.

Sam hadn't torn down the roof when I returned 20 min later, but he's pooped! Fortunately there's a diaper changing fold-down station in the toilet for the disabled on the ground floor.

Meanwhile hubby had found out the Asian Civilisations Museum would be hosting a new exhibition from mid-March, featuring artefacts from Emperor Kang Xi's period. So now he's looking forward to our next visit to that museum, while I'm praying the ACM would be a more toddler-friendly museum than the National History Museum. Perhaps if I'm lucky, the ACM would be holding some kind of open-house next month too................