“In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way. ” ― Michael Jackson 

Research has shown... Har har har. You know a piece of writing is going to bore you jika bermula terus dengan research result or statistics and what not. I’m going to bore you anyway and share that research has shown that play time for kids helps develop crucial social skills, preparing them for adulthood. But you don’t need to have a PHD in Early Childhood Education to realize this I guess. Emak-emak memang tahu.

My preschooler has yet to begin any formal early education (next year insyaAllah), of course he plays a lot during the day, but I like to bring him to play rooms and such on weekends to get him to interact with other kids and learn new stuffs. Sememangnya after a while memang sangaplah duduk tengok budak-budak main; most people leave their kids with their bibik (maybe I’d do that one day so I can go shopping or watch movie) but social skills are important, and the only way to develop that is through social interaction. 

One of my favourite places to bring Hadi is the Kidz Room at Danga City Mall (I think I’ve written about it before, in my write up about the Little Play Loft). The parking is easy and free at DCM, they have quite a number of eateries, and I get to go to Metrojaya and SSF then after (ngeee!) Besides, I really like the Montessori feel of the Kidz Room, They have many sections for many types of activities; pretend play – there’s a shopping mall, a little kitchen and a small dining place, video games, reading corner, colouring section, blocks, puzzles and many more. They assign at least 4-5 people to man the room (especially to take care of the older kids – kids below 5 must be accompanied by parents/guardians) hence the room is always clean and the kids are always in order (except of course, for a few uncontrollable kids once in a while – once, there was this one boy, around 5-6 of age, asyik mengacau other kids, girls especially, keep throwing things and shouting stuffs; his parents got called up and I never saw him after that) 

Anyways, here are some pictures from our last visit. They don’t usually allow picture-taking, but they seemed cool about it on that particular day. 

The reading corner; they have many good books (including the dinosaur series that Hadi likes) And yes, perlu pakai socks, for both kids and guardian. Bring your own socks or else boleh beli from the counter. They also insist on spraying hand sanitizer and checking your kids' temperature, which I thought is good!

Colouring corner and Hadi kept asking me why are all the colours so small? Eeek budget saving.

Hadi was quite hesitant to join this singing and dancing activity because he had to hold strangers' hands. But that's part of social skill! So I paksa juga, and he wasn't happy about it. Har har har.

Book reading time. Hadi and few other kids kept on menyampuk when the kakak was telling them the stories, and the girl shushed them and told them to just listen; I thought that should be handled differently as they were just expressing their views, which is crucial and good! Tapi tak apalah, the girl bukan a trained educator pun.

The fee is RM15 for unlimited hours. On days when they have extra activities, ada different charge lah. Oh they also have packages for birthday parties, looks pretty cool I must say.

Last weekend we went to City Square Mall dan baru tersedar ada kids play gym on Level 5. All these while I thought tempat main game saja because it’s always packed with teenagers. Turned out ada small space for younger kids. RM5 for 20 minutes and RM9 for an hour or so. Bolehlah, ada many stuffs he got to play and lompat with. Hadi had too much fun that I practically had to drag him out of it. Pfftt. Always my least favourite part. 

If you know any other recommended play rooms/gyms in JB, do let me know. And if you haven’t been to the above mentioned places, I’d recommend you to. Just be warned, it will be a pain in the ass to get them out once you’re in.