Fun With Kids: The Artground’s play space, Here Comes The Breakfast Kakis theatre show

SINGAPORE – Make family time all the more special with these ideas and activities.

Explore: The Artground’s new arts play space

Your kids might just be eager to help with household chores after a fun time at The Artground’s new arts play space.

From sliding down a “toilet bowl” to swinging across “dirty dishes” to doing the laundry, children will enjoy the imaginative play at Clean Up, Or Else!

It is conceptualised by The CMinors, made up of three Cho sisters: Colette, 12; Claire, 10; and Candace, eight.

Their proposal was selected in a visual arts open call in 2021 by The Artground, an arts charity dedicated to children.

“The family home, with its intimate setting and shared spaces, is fertile ground for nurturing values like consideration, helpfulness and responsibility. We combined this with the idea of creating an epic mess in the house and having the kids clean it up – while having fun,” says the girls’ mother Tan Yi Lin, 43, who works in public service.

Clean Up, Or Else! launched on April 15 and is open from Wednesdays to Sundays till Feb 25, 2024, at Goodman Arts Centre in Mountbatten. Visitors have to wear non-slip grip socks or buy them there.

Admission is free, but you must make a booking with a $15 refundable deposit for up to five people for a 75-minute session. Or donate it to The Artground. Go to theartground.peatix.com. 

Watch: Here Comes The Breakfast Kakis theatre show

Classic Mandarin nursery rhymes, such as Pull The Radish and 1234567, get an imaginative twist as storytellers bring them to life on stage.

Here Comes The Breakfast Kakis: Imagine Our Songs! is an interactive children’s show in Mandarin that runs on May 27 and 28 as well as June 3 and 4, at the Practice Space in Waterloo Street.

After the 45-minute production, be sure to stay for an arts and craft session led by the cast.

This is the third and final instalment of The Theatre Practice’s The Nursery Rhymes Project, comprising illustrated lyric books and music albums which can be streamed on Spotify (str.sg/i48g).

Tickets to the show are priced at $32 each, excluding the $3 booking fee, and are available at

www.bit.ly/2023BKS

. Infants in arms will also need an entry ticket. Enjoy 10 per cent off when you buy at least three tickets.

Read: Mirelle’s Mirror picture book

Mark Earth Day on April 22 by reading Mirelle’s Mirror, a picture book that looks at marine conservation through a mermaid’s eyes.

Mirelle looks into the mirror, but all she can see is murky water. There is a stain on her tail and her scales are dull. She decides to pick up the litter on the ocean bed, inspiring her sea animal friends to join her in the clean-up.

The book is a way for Canadian author Katherine Wallace, 55, to combine her love of nature with her 11-year-old daughter Grace’s obsession with mermaids.

Recommended for young readers from five to nine years old, this is Dr Wallace’s debut children’s book with illustrator Ella Elviana.

Their second book, Trash-er Island, features a pirate dealing with themes of environmental conservation and plastic pollution and is slated to be released in October.

A former music professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, Dr Wallace now performs and teaches singing and piano privately.

Go to her website (

str.sg/i422

) to download activity and discussion guides related to Mirelle’s Mirror, which retails for $14.95 before GST at major bookstores.