National Museum of Singapore

 Sometime in the last couple of week, I can't remember anything these days, the kids had the day off from school. No, they had an school in the morning so they did not have school in the afternoon. I can't remember. But there was no school that day, for whatever reason. I needed to get them out of the house and I have really been wanting to go to the National Museum of Singapore for a long time. So we went.

When we got there Henry was running in and out of an exhibit that was being assembled in the museum lobby. I had to go around the red robe several times to grab him out of there. He is a wild one. I wish I had some of his energy to keep up with him. Chasing after him gives me and extra work out, so its all good.

So finally, it felt like forever trying to wrangle Henry in, we got our tickets and went to check out the museum. I was stressed because of the Henry incident, and when I asked them if there was a kids section they just looked at me with blank stares. And I thought, "well this is going to be great" (that's sarcasm deary).

 We check out the main exhibit on Singapore's history. And it actually worked out! There was a giant boat in the main entrance to the exhibit, which the kids loved. And it was not crowded, so they run around and around and around the exhibit. Yeah, I am that mom. Trying to teach my kids to appreciate culture, but like I said, it worked out. There was a section that had what a historical Singapore house/market would look like. The kids pretended to be Pa and his daughter. Pa aka Henry made oatmeal cookies for us. That was pretty adorable.

As we moved through the exhibit I was able to pick up some bits and pieces about Singapore's history. I am trying to learn more about Singapore's history. I really enjoyed the World War II exhibit, and that's where I gleaned most of my info in between running after the kids. They loved the phones in the WWII section and spent a great deal of time making plans with each other over the phone. And they even called me and made some plans with me. I felt so honored. I learned that the British surrendered to the Japanese on February 15, 1942. And that was the main thing, but I may sound dumb, but I learned that there were a lot of other countries who had troops in Singapore also. There were Australian, Indian troops which I had never been taught in my history classes in school. That really struck me that it really was a World war. So many more countries than we or I realized were involved. I am grateful I was able to glean some of that information and I was so glad the museum was not crowded, because kids. They just wanna have fun.

My only child who will pose for me, and it is with reluctance.

What Singapore looked like in the 14th century.

"Hey Mom! A mermaid!" there is something for everyone. 

There was this lamp post outside the museum where all the visitors stick there museum stickers on, which reminded me of the love locks in Paris, and I thought it was very un-Singaporean. Littering and vandalism is taken very seriously here. We added our sticker with those up there and that completed our museum experience.

I just ignore everyone else, so if I am disturbing people I don't know. I try to be as respectful of other people in the museum and where ever we got on our outings, but there is only so much I can do. We all live in this world together, and we just have to be ducks and let things roll off our backs. And really the kids were great. They were just running a lot, and talking at a normal volume. Henry did flood the nursing room, because he turned the faucet away from the sink. But in Singapore every bathroom has a drain, so all the water went in the drain. That was kind of funny. We try not to, but we always leave traces of ourselves in places. Usually it is in the form of crumbs.

The rest of the exhibit illustrated how Singapore became an independent country, and how SG has developed into the country it is now. I did not really get to glean any info, because kids. The last room of the exhibit was really great. There was a section dedicated to Singapore's nature parks and Singapore trying to be a garden city, and then a section that was so much like the Art Science Museum. I had to pull the kids out of there.

We made it out of the museum and with nothing falling apart behind us. Sometimes I feel like we are a bull in a china shop, but I do not want that to keep me from exposing my children to things that are good for them, like going to a museum. Even if they do not learn anything from it's an experience, and hopefully as they get older they will appreciate things like this. I remember an outing with my family as a child where my parents took us to see Rodin's The Thinker at the Knoxville Museum of Art. They have us four girls and we were little. I don't remember if we caused a scene, but I do remember kind of that bull in the China shop feeling. But we got to see Rodin's The Thinker! It was an incredible experience for me because I got to see this amazing piece of art, and this was something that my parents wanted to share with us (or couldn't find a babysitter, haha. I don't know). I think all my sibling and I can say that we appreciate art and culture and a large part of that is from my parents starting to expose us to it at a young age. Plus, museums are cool.

Here is another little movie I made from my Instagram Stories.

So that is the story of our crazy outing at the National Museum of Singapore. I am looking forward to going back with Lyndon and learning more about Singapore's history.