Another First: Jeepney Ride

April 13, 2011 by

It was nothing spectacular, really, but this one goes on my toddlers’ long list of firsts – their very first jeepney ride.

photo jeepney1.jpg

A few days ago, I took my toddlers out sans my husband.  I have no idea how to start a car much less to drive one so we had no other option but to take public transportation.   I have taken the kids out several times already but we always took a cab.  This time, I asked my husband if  we could take the jeepney since we would only be traveling a very short distance.   After reminding us to be careful and vigilant, he said yes.

Being paranoid about the world outside the realm of our home, I dared not venture out with the toddlers without giving our helper a good briefing.  Here are what I reminded her of:

  1. Always keep your eyes on the children.
  2. Never talk to anybody even if it may seem rude to ignore them.  Focus on the children.
  3. Be aware of your surroundings and the people around you.  But always keep an eye on the children.
  4. Don’t stray away from me.  You always have to be within arm’s length of me.
  5. I know you may be curious of the new place we will be going to so it’s fine to glance here and there, but always keep an eye on the children.
  6. Finally, never ever take your eyes off the children even for a second.

After repeating those reminders for a hundred times it seemed, we finally left the house and patiently waited for a jeep.   Good thing there was only a couple of passengers in the one we hailed so I was able to whip out my camera and take some pictures to chronicle my toddlers very first jeepney ride.

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photo jeepney2.jpg

For the first time also, my tots behaved like angels during the commute.  They did not dare stand or walk on the jeepney.  There was nary a wiggle!  I’m not sure if they were just so curious of the people who were also on the jeep or if they were wondering why the vehicle did not have any glass windows or airconditioning.  My daughter though could not be restrained from talking.  She kept saying “Mama, we’re on the jeepney!”, “Mama!  Look we’re in the jeepney.”, “Mama, are we on a jeepney?” and she kept this on until we reached our stop.  And up until we reached our home, she was still exclaiming, “Mama, we rode the jeepney!”

Filed Under: Kids At Work Tagged With: , , ,

Toddler Explorers On A Field Trip to the Philippine Science Centrum

February 23, 2011 by

During bath time tonight, I asked Jade what she did the entire day.  Our conversation went like this:

Mama:    “What did you do today, Jade?”
Jade:      “I pressed buttons!   Where are the buttons, Mama?”
Mama:    “Ohhh, you pressed the buttons.  What happened when you pressed the buttons?”
Jade:      “It spin!  Spin fast round and round.”

We spent an hour this morning at the Philippine Science Centrum and “pressing buttons” was what she remembered the most.  I presume this is because the science exhibits were interactive and most of them required pressing buttons.  She did want to pedal the bikes but was still too little.  I let her try but she herself sadly exclaimed, “But I’m too small!”  She may have been too small for most of the exhibits, but she and Jakei still had a blast during our “field trip.”

My toddlers and I ready to start our Science discovery

Jakei and Ate Lanie at the Van de Graaf Generator

Jade’s got the Earth on her hand!

Jakei on Tsunami Watch

Toddlers figuring out which cone was the easiest to lift.

The entire wall showed snapshots of a woman running               so RUN my toddlers went back and forth, back and forth

this CRAZY PENDULUM was so fun to watch the toddlers wanted to catch the arms

RADIOMETER on

RADIOMETER off

Jakei just mostly ran around and pressed buttons.  But I’m fairly sure that he also learned a lot from the exhibits.  Jade’s favorite among the exhibits was the Frozen Shadow. She would repeatedly press the button, run to the wall, wait for the light, then look at her shadow.  She would probably talk about the things she saw and did in the science museum for weeks; She still recalls our visit to Manila Ocean Park last December after all.  Knowing that the toddlers enjoyed while discovering new things makes activities like these worthwhile.

My Toddler Explorers

The Philippine Science Centrum is offering a 20% discount on admission fee until the end of February.  The regular fee is Php100 for both kids and adults but children below 2 years old are free of charge.  So, if you take your kids there before the month ends, you only pay Php80 for 1.5 hours of interactive fun and amazing discoveries.

Oh, and they also have Kids’ World, a playspace for children aged 2 to 9, where the little ones can pretend to cook and shop at the Market Place, safely climb a Rock Wall, build structures with the Big Big Blocks, and so many other things.  You’d need to shell out an additional Php50 for 30 minutes of play.  Which isn’t really bad considering that play areas in malls charge a lot more than that.

Are we going back there?  Definitely yes!
What did we love most about the place?
  • there was no crowd (lucky for us there were no school field trips scheduled this morning)
  • fun interactive learning (even the yaya and i learned a thing or two)
Our Toddler-friendliness Rating:  an 8.  the toddlers definitely had fun but they were still too small to use most of the interactive exhibits.
Filed Under: Explorations, Family Fun, Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , , ,
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