By Jena Lim
Messy Fun For Curious Minds.
Like letting your child explore and learn through play, but just can’t stand the mess they’d make? What if I told you that Busy Tables lets your little one gets creative and curious, without you having a mental breakdown or clean up after them?
Located at Rochester Mall, Busy Tables is an open concept co-learning space that offers various playgroups and versatile learning spaces for kids to cultivate good learning habits. There are over 400 different learning resources and educational toys that they get to play with here!
At the entrance, you’d see an assortment of educational toys that you can purchase – perfect for bringing your child’s favourite toy back home, or if you’d like to try out sensory play.
There are so many things to play with at Busy Tables! Gordon went in and he stood there analysing what he should play with first – storybooks, building blocks, toy trucks, educational toys and many boxes of learning resources – it’s the ultimate wonderland.
Sensory Art Playgroup
We went for a sensory art playgroup the first time that we came here, Gordon was too distracted by all the toys there, so he couldn’t focus well on the session – but to my pleasant surprise, he excitedly showed it to his grandparents when we came home and has been playing with it ever since.
I feel like one of those proud mums whenever he “shows off” what he made to others!
Busy Tables has a monthly theme for their playgroups and it was “Elmer the Elephant” week, so Teacher May guided us to make a mini safari and we did sensory play with paint – Gordon loved washing the paint off Elmer.
Sensory Thematic Playgroup
This time round, we tried their sensory thematic playgroup for a more structured session – it starts with an introduction to songs, rhymes and material to get the children settled, followed by two sensory activities with various materials related to the story of the week.
The theme for this month is Under Construction, so I thought Gordon would enjoy it since he loves his dump truck – but he was sick for the first two weeks so we could only join on the third.
During the introduction, Gordon stuck to me like glue and was cranky – I guess he was just trying to settle down and get used to the environment, but he wasn’t keen on the literacy material – maybe still too young?
Just when I thought Gordon was not having any of it, Teacher Ainul brought out a huge sensory bin for the first activity – and Gordon leapt off my lap! He had so much fun, he refused to leave the bin for the next activity, and made a big mess with the rice on the floor.
I apologised to Teacher Ainul for causing the mess, but she joked that they’re used to messes anyway! I loved her attentive stance, she pointed out that Gordon enjoyed playing with the texture of rice – and that’s true because he’s always loved the cassia and hawthorn seeds at indoor play areas!
The next activity was playing with cream!
Teacher Ainul laid out a yellow mat and brought some materials out, Gordon saw her putting some colouring on the cream in the plate and he gestured her to help him add more into his plate – about a minute later, I had a cream-covered toddler massaging cream on his feet and applying it like body lotion.
The highlight for Gordon was definitely clean-up time! They made it fun by giving him a sea shell squirting toy and adding soap into a bowl of water, Gordon loves playing with water so he had so much fun that he spilled the bowl after washing his hands – it was the third mess Gordon made but the staff were still really nice and friendly while helping to clean up, thank you so much for being positive!
If you’re wondering how much fun Gordon had, let’s just say he came home and had a solid three and a half hour nap after the session. I was so glad I brought him there.
Trials, Packages and Deals
Trial sessions cost $35 at Busy Tables. If your little one enjoys the session, you can sign up for their package at $140 for one theme of four sessions or $360 for three themes of 12 sessions.
If you would like to book a trial session at Busy Tables, you can refer to their schedule and fees here.
Busy Tables | 35 Rochester Drive, #03-22, Singapore 138639 |
+65 8420 0200 | [email protected]
Opening Hours
Monday to Sunday: 10am – 6.30pm
