The kids are big fans of indoor playgyms although I’ve always insisted that they do more outdoor than indoor play, because a bit of sun is always good for them (and also because it’s free and bringing 3 to an indoor playground costs a bomb). But with the haze shrouding our skies, we’ve deserted all parks, promenades and playgrounds and have taken to hiding indoors.

Earlier this month, we were invited to Happy Willow at Fusionpolis to check out their playgym.  Needless to say, the kids were excited and didn’t even mind being dragged out of bed at 8 in the morning to travel from northeast where we lived, all the way to the west. We took the circle line from Bishan to one-north, and arrived at the playgym all ready to play by 10 in the morning.

The experience

When we arrived there, Ben was a little disappointed. He’s always loved exploring huge spaces and his favourite has got to be the new Kidz Amaze at Safra Toa Payoh. The size of the play structure at Happy Willow didn’t wow him much, but I didn’t mind it being small actually. Although it wasn’t jaw-dropping, the place felt cosy and welcoming enough for the kids to plunge right into play. Without the need for adult company (yay!).

The kids checked out the entire place all by themselves and didn’t bug me to climb up and down the play structure with them, and I could happily plonk myself onto one of those couches outside the Kids’ Den that were bidding me invitingly to come rest thy exhausted self. Nat also fell asleep when we arrived, so I was just glad to be sitting around, watching the kids play, and catching up with other mom bloggers who were also there that day.

The playgym also has a small toddler’s turf which had some stacking blocks, a small ball pit and those big semi-circle cushions. Not much to engage the littler ones, I must say. When Nat awoke, he spent a few minutes there and was bored quite quickly. He preferred the bigger ball pool with the slide at the kids’ play area, and wanted to spend time playing with Ben and Becks there.

When Ben and Becks were done with the playgym, they zipped over to the pretend-play area where they did some cooking, gardening and mega-bloking. And when they were done with that, they hopped to the reading corner which had a nice tuft of artificial grass and interesting collection of children’s books. After reading (or rather, trying to read) some books there, they explored the art materials at the tables in the reading room, and spent some time playing with stencils and colouring away.

And after they were done with all these, they went back to the playgym again for another round of fun.

What we liked

I liked that Happy Willow is a play area with activity “booths” of sorts to keep the kids constantly entertained despite its size. The kids were always up to something new – Let’s go colour now! Let’s go ride the rocking bull! Let’s play supermarket! Let’s make pizza! Let’s go back to the slide again! Let’s go colour one more picture! – and it was difficult to call it a day. We stayed there the entire morning, and even had our takeaway lunch (from Pastamania upstairs) there. The folks from Happy Willow were too kind – they took our orders, collected our packed lunch and allowed us to eat in so the kids could continue playing (my kids were zipping in and out of the playgym after every mouthful of pasta).

We finally left when the little one was too cranky to be playing at 3 in the afternoon. All in all, it was a fun day out worth getting up early for!

More details:

• Happy Willow is located at 1 Fusionopolis Way, Fusionopolis, Connexis Tower, #B1-06, Singapore 138632
• Admission fees: $18 per child (2 years old & above) and $10 per child (9 months – less than 2 years old) for Weekdays 3-hour play; $18 per child (2 years old & above) and $10 per child (9 months – less than 2 years old) for Weekends (Sat, Sun & PH) 2-hour play
• Like Happy Willow’s FB page to stay updated on their storytelling and craft sessions and promotions

Disclosure: The Kao kids and I were invited by Happy Willow to have some indoor fun this holidays for the purpose of this review. All opinions here are my own.