Our Great American Vacation @ T3 Singapore Changi Airport { Learn, Food, Fun }

Our Great American Vacation @ T3 Singapore Changi Airport 

Learn, Food & Fun

Going to America seems to be on everyone's bucket list. Well, my hubby and I are planning a trip to America, Las Vegas alone (without the kids) end of next year. So exciting!!! It's suppose to be our second honeymoon. And we want some couple time. We were planning to go end of this year to celebrate our 10th year wedding anniversary. However, due to issue of childcare arrangement, we have to postpone it to next year.

Of course, the kids want to go to America with us. Well, they can't go on the actual trip with us, but we can at least bring them for a trip to the Great American Vacation at Changi Airport. So here is our family trip to "Amercia"  at Terminal 3 Department Hall( Changi Airport) where we learnt more about America, had good food and lots of fun. 

Learning about the United States of America

At "The Great American Vacation", we learnt a lot about America. Did you know that the United States of America actually have 50 states in total? Yes, the USA consists of 50 states and it is actually 13.7 times the size of Singapore. 

 Here is a map of the USA. 

And Las Vegas ( the place we want to go to) is in the state of Nevada. 

Also, at "The Great American Vacation", we visited some of the cities in America- San Francisco, Texas and also Chicago. 

The kids were thrilled to find out that Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory is actually real and in America. I'm sure they are going to request to visit this chocolate factory really soon. 

Connecting Singapore to the world. 

We have 54 weekly services operated by 3 airlineslinking Singapore to major cities in the US. In the next 2 years, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines are going to introduce direct non stop services to the US. We will be able to fly direct to San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles by 2018. 

Here are some other interesting facts about America.

Food, food, food!! 

How can we go on a holiday and visit a place without trying out their food?????

So, Natalie found her way and tried out some cheese at the cheese sampling station. 

So yummy and delicious. We got to taste 3 different types of cheese. 

Next, they spotted a popcorn and cotton candy station. This must be one of the most popular station at Changi Airport now. By the way, the cheese, popcorn and cotton candy are all complimentary. 

Fun, fun, fun and more fun

Going on a holiday means having fun. So here is the fun part. 

Harley Davidson

Harley-Davidson is the iconic American motorcycle manufacturer. It is founded in 1903 by William S. Harley and brothers Arthur and Walter Davidson. 

Today, you can "ride" on the Harley Davidson motorcycle. Here is my little boy on the big Harley Davidson bike. He looks so cool.  

The Carnival 

Join in the fun at the carnival at T3 department Hall and Basement 2. 

Simply spend $60 at Changi Airport (a maximum of 2 same-day receipts) and you can get a pass for your child to get on 3 rides (once per ride) -  the carousel,  train ride and galloping horse. 

The first ride: The Carousel

We started with the carousel ride. Look at those happy faces. 

The second ride: The Train Ride

Driving the train in America is so much fun for the little boy. Natalie is happily enjoying the ride and the "breeze" at the back.  

The kids really enjoyed the train ride. It goes on a relatively big round and the kids enjoyed the speed the most. 

Emmanuel says that this is as fast as a bullet train. Yes, compared to other train rides, this train is as fast as a bullet. 

The third Ride: Galloping Horse

It's time for the kids to do some exercise.

Gallop, gallop, gallop. 

Faith is so happy on her small. little yellow lion. 

 Natalie picked a unicorn. 

Emmanuel decided to be a cowboy and he calls himself "Woody". 

Complimentary Hand/Face Painting

At basement 2, your child can also get a complimentary face or hand painting. You can choose your own design. The girls just simply love this.  

So, we had a great family "vacation" @ The Great American Vacation at T3 Singapore Changi Airport.  

Here is a quick summary: 

Where : Terminal 3 Departure Hall & Basement 2

When: 11 March- 3 April 2016 ( 12 pm - 11pm daily)

What to do: 

1. Carnival Rides

      Date: 11 – 20 March, 25 – 27 March and 2 - 3 April 2016
      Time: 12pm to 11pm

      Locations:
      Carousel - Terminal 3, Public, Departure Hall Level 2 (Immigration Area)
      Galloping Horses and Train Ride - Terminal 3,Basement 2 (Opposite Kopitiam)

How to redeem passes to the Carnival Rides: Simply spend $60 at Changi Airport (a maximum of 2 same-day receipts) and you can get a pass for your child to get on 3 rides (once per ride) -  the carousel,  train ride and galloping horse. 

2. Treat yourself to some carnival fun with free candy floss and popcorns, face painting, balloon sculpting, and California cheese sampling.

       Date: 11 – 20 March, 25 – 27 March and 2 - 3 April 2016
       

      Terminal 3, Public, Departure Hall Level 2  
           Free candy floss and popcorns (3 - 5pm)
           Balloon sculpting is available (7 - 9pm)
           California cheese sampling (12 – 9pm)

      Terminal 3, Public, Basement 2 (Opposite Kopitiam)
           Face painting (12 – 11pm)

3. Harley-Davidson Experience Zone

      Feel what it is like to ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.You can put on the Gear VR and hop on Harley Davidson’s motorcycles on display to experience the ride to freedom!

So if you are thinking of where to bring your kids this holiday, why not bring them to "America" at Terminal 3 Changi Airport for a short "vacation". 

Scholastic - The Eating Monster

Scholastic 

The Eating Monster 

By Valentina Mendicino

My kids grew up on books by Scholastic. Personally, we have many Scholastic books. Generally, Scholastic books are easy for parents because they come in different reading levels. For instance, "There's a Mouse in the House", a level one book, was the very first book that my eldest daughter, Natalie learnt to read on her own when she was young. As they grew older, they enjoyed the series of "Clifford, the Big Red Dog". In fact, my son started learning phonics through the Scholastic "Star Wars" phonic series. Faith, age 4, still enjoys the AlphaTales stories. 

In the following weeks, I am going to share some books by Scholastic. The very first book by Scholastic that I am going to share is "The Eating Monster". 

About the Story 

The Eating Monster loves to eat, but one day he finds he just can't stop! As his appetite expands, discover what, or even who, has become the latest meal inside his big see-through tummy. It seems that there is nothing in the world that the greedy Eating Monster will not eat.

What I like about the book

I really love the illustration. The characters are very cute and lovable. Moreover, the theme of eating is something a child can identify with. In fact, Faith (age 4) found the story very amusing and she laughs every time the monster eats something inedible. 

'The eating monster is so silly. He can't eat....." (Faith)

Moreover, the story is simple yet the content is rich. 

Here are the activities that we have done based on the book. It took us about a week to complete the Literature Based Learning for this book.  

1) Art: Making our own Eating Monsters.

For our first activity for the book, we decided to make our own monster using blow art. 

The materials used were: 
1) A piece of drawing block
2) 2 paper plates
3) Straw
4) Some food colouring.

Method: 
We simply poured some food colouring on the drawing block and Faith blew through the straw to spread the colouring out. We did the same for the 2 paper plates.  

We cut out the shape of the body of the monster from the drawing block. In addition, we cut one of the paper plate to form the mouth. We pasted the "mouth" to the "head", and then to the body. Note that we cut an opening on the mouth so that we can place word cards in it for our next activity. 

This is Faith's very own Eating Monster. 

Other "eating monsters" made from paper plates by Emmanuel (age 7). 

A monster mask. 

2) English - Word Recognition: Words Associated with Eating.

These are words associated with eating that are found in the book. Hence, I wanted Faith to recognize these words and eventually learn to spell some of them.

These word cards are placed into an envelop next to our eating monster. We go through the words daily for the week and we will replace a new word card into the monster's mouth daily.

It can be a game for Faith as well. I will place a word card into the eating monster and Faith is suppose to shout out the word. If she gets it right, she gets to keep the card. 

3) Categorizing: What's Edible and Inedible 

The eating monster ate many many things in the story. Faith laughs every time the monster eats something inedible. So, I decided to do a simple activity of categorizing what's edible and inedible.  We simply flipped through the newspapers and cut out some items from it. We drew "The Eating Monster" with a big tummy and "Faith". I gave Faith the newspaper cutting and asked her to categorize the items - the inedible items should be pasted onto the monster's tummy while the edible items should be pasted onto "Faith's" tummy. 

4) General Knowledge - Learning about Famous Landmarks, Cities and Countries

"Eventually, he got so big, he began eating whole towns and cities!" (Except from the book)

"Mummy, Mummy (excitedly) I know this is the Eiffel Tower. This is the Statue of Liberty. But what's this? What's that?" 

Yes, Faith recognized some of the famous landmarks as we have done famous landmarks around the world previously. However, there are some landmarks that she couldn't identify on this page. Hence, I seized the opportunity to add to her knowledge. Also, I wanted to teach her to differentiate between the city and its country. I got my two older children to help identify some of the images. Hence, even older children can participate too. 

To help her identify the landmark, city and country better, I colour coded the words - green for landmark, orange colour for name of city and red colour for name of country. 

From this page, we could identify: 

1) Landmark: Big Ben

    City: London

    Country: England

2) Landmark: Eiffel Tower

    City: Paris

    Country: France

3) Landmark: Siegessaule (The Victory Column)

    City: Berlin

    Country: Germany

4) Landmark: London Eye

    City: London

    Country: England

5) Landmark:Statue of Liberty

    City: New York

    Country: United States

6) Landmark:Sydney Opera House 

    City: Sydney

    Country: Australia

7) Landmark: Colosseum

    City: Rome 

    Country: Italy

After identifying the landmarks, cities and countries on the page of the book, Faith became more interested in cities. As she flipped through the newspaper for the activity (above) for what's edible and inedible, she wanted to cut out these cities that she found too. All these images of cities were found in the newspaper, specifically in the travel section. Hence, I allowed her to cut them out and we did some research on some of these images to identify its city and country. 

Overall, Faith (age 4) really enjoyed the story of "The Eating Monster". She thinks it's fun and funny. Moreover, even my two older children, Natalie (age 9) and Emmanuel (age 7)love reading the story. The 3 of them have at least gone through the book 10 times each. Like me, they appreciate the illustration. The words are simple enough for my 7 year old to read independently. Moreover, although the story is simple, the content is so rich (as you can see from the above activities that we have done). 

I strongly recommend this book for children age 4 and above. 

Moreover, I strongly believe in nurturing the love of learning through reading at a young age. Once the children develop a good reading habit, learning comes naturally. 

Look out for more of our reviews for the other Scholastic books. Do check out more on our Literature Based Learning. 

Disclaimer: 

This book - "The Eating Monster" is complimentary to us for the purpose of this review. However, all opinions and ideas of the activities are purely mine. 

Giveaway!!

Want a copy of "The Eating Monster"? 

I have 5 copies to giveaway. 

Simply follow these steps:

1) Like my facebook page Raising Our Successful Children.

2) Comment on this blog post or on the facebook post: "Who is this book for?"

3) Share the post and tag 3 more people to share this giveaway with.

This giveaway will end on 21 March 2016 at 12:00. 

5 winners will be randomly picked.