It was my first time dining outdoor with all 4 kids (baby C’s maiden trip out with the family). I had wanted to try Sandbank after reading about a restaurant with its own pool in the Straits Times. How cool is that…..I imagine myself dining while the kids are having splashing good fun at the pool.

As I wanted to avoid crowd especially with my big brood ( i made reservation for my 4 kids for the first time…sound scary and noisy yah) , so i decided to try to visit it on a weekday evening. Luckily, I was informed that the pool closes at 7pm, so i picked the kids earlier from child care so that they can “play water” for a good hour before dinner.I also found out about the depth of the pools to ensure that my 2 year old is tall enough to play on its own. There are 2 pools of depth 0.5m and 1m respectively and I specifically asked to be placed near the pool so that i can watch over them.

On the day of visit , my 3 older kids were the only ones using the pool. The restaurant allow the patrons to change the kids in their restroom but it is advisable to dry them after coming out from the pool. However, i used the public shower facility situated just next to the restaurant after the water play so that they are clean and dry for dinner. 

That’s my older kids ordering by the pool.

It is a really family friendly restaurant with kids cutlery, kids menu and kid colouring activities. As the kids were hungry from their “swim”, they ate their dinner pretty quickly. I must say besides having a good attraction ie the pool, the food pretty good too. I love my roasted beer chicken which came with my favourite chilli sauce – Sriracha sauce! Pretty decent food and pretty decent prices and portions.Service was attentive too probably because it wasn’t very crowded yet as i was having an early dinner. My hubby mentioned beer prices were relatively cheap and the whole place was not fully air-conditioned as they allow the sea breeze to come in which was nice!

Disclaimer , some food pics taken aren’t full portion as I had to handle 3 older kids n take photo… .I am so glad baby C was largely cooperative so i had a pretty good and relaxing dinner almost by the beach! If my friends ever need a kid friendly venue for recommendation, this will be top of my list!

SANDBANK

920 East Coast Parkway, #01-28/32 Parkland Green

Singapore 449875

Tel No.: +65 6247  7988

OPENING HOURS:

Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri – 4 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Sat / Sun / PH – 9 a.m. – 12 a.m.

Plunge pool will be available till 7 p.m. from Tuesday – Sunday.

p/s there is a huge and free car park right outside the restaurant!

I came across an article on Facebook that kids prefer unstructured play over activities like going to the movie or museum. I am one who always prefer to bring my kids for planned activities be it to the museum, meet and greet etc , outdoor excursions as I believe we need to achieve “something” from an outing. So the article let me sit back n rethink of activities I “planned” for my kids.

After a month of reduced outside activities (during my confinement) , I felt the older kids needed some time off from child care be it together or one on one with either parent.

Finally, confinement’s over. And the first activity with all 3 older kids was something unstructured which caught my eyes. A gym , a playground…not quite..i can’t put it in any of the category as I believe it is first of its kind in Singapore….. it is a place for ages 2 to 12 to just do about anything their creative minds take them. And as a parent, it is interesting to discover how my kids of different ages interpret Kaboodle Kids.

I have been to many kids’ play area, this place is pretty small and my first impression, don’t think my kids can play very long here. Boy, was I wrong, we played till it was closing time. (and it being small has its advantage for a parent with many kid, it was really easy to keep an eye on my 2 year old).

When I first arrived, I was given a folder of the background of this place and most importantly some past structures that were built by other kids. It is really useful for for me because I really don’t know where to start (as I am not a very creative person) but my kids were least interested in the examples in the folder…they just want to play the way they want to play it…unstructured. (I guess there were some truth in the article that i read) and I must not always need to achieve “something” from our outings.

Firstly, there was a ready structure where the kids could let the balls roll along the track. From there, the older two kidsds added more track and small J was happily feeding more balls into the track.

Small J found some random blocks like the one in pic and made it to be like a rocking chair! He truly found things to occupy himself and didn’t cling on me at all for the entire visit.

C was happily building simple structures and she most happy bringing blocks here and there building..nothing too complicated.

 Big J didn’t really focus on doing any structure per say and was everywhere.  I spoke to Jin, the founder of Kaboodle Kids, she mentioned kids J’s age play better with kids their age as a team, ie build together. And some daddies have as much fun as the kids! 

This place not only let the kids unleash their creative minds and expend some energy (it takes effort to bring blocks from one place to another) , it also give me as a parent the opportunity to discover more about my kids at their different ages by observing how they play with the blocks.

I am totally against child care organising outdoor excursions to play gyms as I see no additional value add, however, a visit to Kaboodle Kids is different. There is much more to be achieved if there are kids of the same age building structures together and having mini competitions. How often do you have so many giant blocks for your free play (this place reminded me that I should retrieve my Haenim big blocks from the store for them to have more unstructured play at home!).

For my readers of my blog, Jin has kindly extended an 10% discount by mentioning my blog (valid till 30 September 2015).

Do check out the Youth day special which I thought was really value for money with the additional activities thrown in.

Kaboodle Kids

Block B 02-05B Big Splash

902 East Coast Parkway

Singapore 449874

Operating hours: 10am – 6pm daily

3 years old & above

• Monday – Friday                                             $25            unlimited hours
• Saturday, Sunday & Public holidays            $25            2 hours ($10 for every additional hour thereafter)

Below 3 years old

• Monday – Friday                                            $10             unlimited hours
• Saturday, Sunday & Public holidays           $10             2 hours ($5 for every additional hour thereafter)

They also do birthday parties for up to 18 kids for 2 hours from rates of $1000 to $1200 which includes food.

Now I know where I can park my kids whenever I have my meals at Big Splash or after a morning day out at the beach and I needed some Me-time! I am actually planning to do a foot massage (there is 1 at Big Splash) with baby in tow (I have been seeing many mummies latching baby while doing foot massage) and there is no prize for guessing where i can “dump” the older kids!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored review. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions are my own