Kid’s Workshop, every Kid’s Fun Place

We all know how hard it is to shop when our kids are in tow. It doesn’t take long before they start whining, crying, and complaining. I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m just plain bored! What’s a mom to do but to cut short the shopping escapade to give in to a trip to the toy store or to the arcade or to the ice cream shop.

Wouldn’t it be nice then to be able to just leave them somewhere secure and kid-friendly so the mommies (or the daddies) can actually get some things done?

Well, if ever you’ll be doing your shopping or errands in the Greenhills malls or tyangge, there’s a go-to place called Kid’s Workshop where you can drop your kids off. Located at the 2/F Shoppesville Arcade in Greenhills Shopping Center, beside Netopia, Kid’s Workshop guarantees your kids a grand time while you take your time getting your nails done.

I got an invitation to go and try out Kid’s Workshop for a day to see what’s in store for the kids when we leave them there. The boys and I dropped by one Friday morning to check it out. We went there at around 10:30AM. 2 hours of playtime should be plenty enough, right? 5 hours later, we were still there! I had to (fake) bribe the kids with donuts just to get them to leave!

So what was there that the kids don’t ever want to leave? Come, I’ll show you.

EXPLORE

Kid’s Workshop is a spacious loft-type play area for kids of all ages to explore.

Typical of a playground, there are the usual slides and rides. Apart from those, they also have a wooden bridge, a mini rock climbing wall, a ball pool, and a ship’s steering wheel. 

Here’s the view from the top.

A staff was always there to assist the younger kids so that they can safely play with the facilities.

This curvy slide is such a hit with the kids (and the kids at heart). I totally dig this! 🙂

There’s that boy climbing up the rocks and pretending to be steering Captain Hook’s pirate ship. 

For the girls, there are dollhouses, kitchen playsets, and other girly stuffs. Inside the shelves are also baby toys and books.

These are some of their book collections. The titles are a mix of baby and beginner readers’ books and a mix of english and tagalog titles.

Love these colourful rocking horses.

There are also wooden puzzles for busy hands.

These rides are so cute. There’s also a gas station to “fill ’em up”.

Okay, so maybe kitchen toys are not just for girls.

To keep the older kids preoccupied, there’s also a Playstation set up on the second floor. I wasn’t able to check the game titles though.

Also up on the second floor is the blocks room. There are tables where you can build imaginative creations using colourful blocks.

Look how this boy pours over the books! 🙂

CREATE

Apart from playing, the kids also get to do crafts in Kid’s Workshop. Here, the staff helps DA decorate his pet snake made out of foam boards.

Here, the girls make and decorate this happy looking pet lizard.

LEARN

In Kid’s Workshop, the staffs also facilitate learning activities for the kids. Here, they try to build towers using plastic cups, instilling the concept of balance in young children.

Even this young participant gets to try building a pyramid with the cups.

Here, the staff introduces the concept of playing Bingo to the kids.

INTERACT

According to the staff, they usually get a full house during weekends in the afternoon, with as many as 60 kids teeming the place. Wow! With that many kids, it really is a place to play and learn together with new and old friends alike. Just look at these new friends have their fun.

In case the kids get hungry, they also have a snack bar loaded with biscuit and chips. They can however, bring their own food.

Kids Parties

I also learned that they accept party reservations. Now that’s a fun idea! With so many fun things to do inside, your entertainment will already be taken cared of. You only have to bring the kids and the food. Their party packages start at P11,500 for 30 kids, inclusive of party host, party activities. The kids can even stay after the party for free!

Kids Funclub

This is their membership club that costs only P500 for 1 whole year. These are the perks of being a member:

1. Discount coupons
2. Birthday Treat – 1 free unlimited play which you can use any day of your birth month
3. 15%+5% off on Birthday Parties
4. Early bird discounts and priority bookings
5. 75% off on KidsFunClub Get2Gether ticket. Guests at 50% off.

Rates

• Unlimited Play – P410
• One Hour Play – P300
• Level Up (from 1 hour to Unlimited Play) – P150
• Adult Pass – P50 (for guardians accompanying kids over 4 years old)

Tips

• Bring your own socks. Socks are a must inside. If you forget, you can always just purchase them there – P25 for kids, P30 for adults.
• Bring food and drinks. The kids may get hungry and thirsty from all the playing. Instead of buying inside, you can bring your own and just eat it there (just not inside the play area). There are even others who have fast food delivered there for their kids.
• Bring a guardian. I’d be more comforted if someone’s constantly watching over my child even if there are able staffs inside. It may get chaotic if there are so many kids inside.
• Set a limit with your child. When we were there, all the guardians had trouble convincing the kids to go. To help with this, let them know beforehand that when you come back to fetch them that it’s time to go.

To sum it all up, I love how being in Kid’s Workshop is not all about playing with slides or riding rocking horses but it’s also about learning and socializing too. It’s like going to a preschool where the kids get to do crafts, explore, sing, learn, and play. All these, while I get to do my own “play”, even for a little while. 🙂

Thanks again to Kid’s Workshop for having us and for making our stay truly enjoyable. Till next time!

Kid’s Workshop
2/f Shoppesville Arcade, Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan
723-0932
0917-599-5324
kidsworkshopghills@gmail.com
http://www.kidsworkshopghills.com

DIY Cardboard Letter Design Tutorial

These days, cardboard letters are everywhere! We see them in birthday parties, adorning the stage, the cake table, and the dessert table. We see them in kids’ rooms decorating the walls. They can go as small as 3 inches to as big as a couple of feet. In this post, I’ll show you how I decorated these cardboard letters for use on a dessert table. This photo shows the before and after of the letters.

Where to Buy?

According to my friend, she was able to buy her cardboard letters from Tabora in Divisoria. Small ones cost P10, medium at P20, and large at P65. Not being a Divisoria girl, I tried my luck at the Greenhills tyangge and was able to find some. Whew! The largest ones they have are 12 inches high, which are just perfect for my taste. I was able to haggle the price down to P80 per letter (their initial price was P120!). I find the letters a bit too thin though, save for the first letter E. That E was from a different store. I like the thickness of it but sadly, they don’t have all the letters I need.

Things You’ll Need:

1. Cardboard Letters
2. Coloured Papers – gift wrappers, scrapbook sheets, magazine pages
3. Glue – I’d recommend the stick kind, not the liquid type since the latter makes the wrapping paper too wet and creasy
4. Scissors
5. Paint – I find that acrylic paint works best and it leaves a glossy finish unlike the dull effect from poster paint
6. Paintbrush

Procedure:

1. Cut the paper to the size of the letter plus a bit of extra so that you can wrap it and let it “bleed” to the sides.
2. Glue the paper onto the cardboard.
3. Paint the sides of the cardboard. I find that it’s nicer not to paint too close to the edge but to leave a little of the paper unpainted to give a nice wraparound look.
4. Let it dry. Proceed to do the next letter.

For this letter, I could not find papers with colours that matched my palette so I resorted to tearing pieces from magazines.  It became like a collage and came out real nice.

Again, these are the letters once finished.

And here they are up on the table with all the adornment, minus the desserts (not yet done with those). =)

 

Hope you find this useful!

Ky’s Whimsical Cat in the Hat Birthday Party

Whew! Finally done with Ky’s 1st birthday party! I do hope everyone had a fab and grand time that day! I’ll share with you some photos and a little writeup of this fun and one of a kind (well, at least here in the Philippines!) themed party.

Inspiration I wanted a party theme that has uniqueness written all over it. I didn’t want the usual Disney characters that everyone seems to be using already. While searching for a theme, I remembered the Dr. Seuss iPad apps that I was able to download back when I was still pregnant with Ky. When he was still in my tummy, I used to read to him, with matching sounds for all the different characters! Being a rhymer myself, I was awed with Dr. Seuss’s skill and creativity. As a tribute to his greatness and as a way to express my own creativity, I thus decided on this theme.

Design Since this theme is uncommon here, there were no available designs from party organizers. If ever there was, I didn’t like it.  so I really had to do my own. The designs I made included those for the invitation, backdrop, entrance, lootbag, nametag,  photo booth, cake, guestbook, and dessert table. Oops! That’s basically everything!

The entrance design (below) was inspired by the Seussical theme park in Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida named Seuss Landing.There is a version of Dr. Seuss’s Happy Birthday to You book that really serves as a party guestbook. I couldn’t find it in any of the bookstores here so I decided to just make a guestbook out of every month of photos Ky has since birth. For the cover, I took a quote from the book and made the last phrase Happy Birthday to Me! as the title.Stage and Dessert Table (Ugh! Hate how the organizer didn’t remove the black border on top! Can’t follow simple instructions!)Thing 1 and Thing 2 Cupcake Tower Cat in the Hat Themed Desserts for the Dessert Table: Cookies, Cupcakes, Cake Pops, Oreo HatsLootbags were personalized for each of our young guests, red for the girls, blue for the boys. Fun Fun Fun Photobooth!