Birthday Outing

It's Maximus's 1 year old birthday on the 6th Nov. I took half-day off work (it's boring anyway) to be home with Maximus and get ready for our outing. It was a great experience for Maximus to explore and play in the HUGE playground for children. We went to JungleGym in BSC...and it's FREE for children below 2 years old.

It was a spacious place but Maximus felt very much insecured because of the new surrounding and those HUGE play equipments.

There are the ball pool, giant slide, tunnel, climbing frame etc but Maximus just clinged onto me most of the time! So I have to keep him company to explore and create the sense of security for him. Besides that he also kept on looking out for his daddy too. Daddy wasn't allowed because he didn't have his socks. And mummy gets tired and body-ached after going through the physical play with Maximus.

This sort of opprotunity created for Maximus shows an example on how the adults can play a role to create an opening for the little ones to play. I would called this as a "partnership-play" when both adult (more experienced) and the child (less experienced) join venture into getting involved in playing. It's obvious that the playground is a totally new environment for Maximus and also intimidating for a one-year old child! So in this situation, the adult's role changed through out to create a play experience for the child. Normally, in play for young children, it should be a free play senario where children are free to choose and play independently.

But I don't think free play can be internalised in this new environment for Maximus.

After all the play, Maximus prefers to be out and about to walk/crawl around to explore the enviornment. So we let him cruise around the furniture before we head for out dinner in Monte.

It was a wonderful Birthday outing for Maximus and us!