Smarties the Makers

We took part in this year’s Maker Faire Singapore 2016 and it was a blast! Our theme was to recycle cardboard and create games out of it. We cracked our brain quite a bit before we came to the conclusion on having pasar malam games with learning opportunity in mind.

Smarties were really excited that they were able to take part and get their hands dirty with making the games. The first thing we made was the throw-in ball game. I, the mummy, isn’t that strong enough to cut certain part of the cardboard so daddy stepped in to help while smarties going around the house searching for suitable balls for the game. They were our QA (quality assurance) managers who ensured that product meet certain standards of quality.

Pardoned her weird dressing here!

On top of being the QA manager of the products, they were also involved in making the photo booth props. Their favourite theme was none other than the superhero.

They were very satisfied with the final outcome of the props and requested to have a picture taken.

Another game that we made was the pinball but instead of having to use pins, we used animals and dinosaurs instead. Smarties couldn’t wait to finish up with the painting and played with it.

The day came where they were the facilitators of the booth. Whenever the kids come, they will show and guide the other children on how to play the games. Remember, we mentioned we created the games with learning opportunity? The learning opportunity here is to encourage the children to count. The children will get to count and get their prizes accordingly.

Guess what? Any time the children won themselves some little prizes, smarties were thrilled as if they were the winner  of the game. They were happily giving out prizes to the participants who won the games.

Then, there were also some who didn’t win and the big-hearted smarties proceeded to give them some other little prizes to make them happy. It really warmed my heart when I saw that. Their job not only to guide them, they also try to bring a smile to all of them.

They even assisted the adults with the game too! Frankly speaking, I thought they would be too shy to speak up to the adults and they would only entertain the children only. Surprisingly, they even managed to get adults to join in the game.

It wasn’t all hard work and no play for the smarties. I’m not such a wicked mum, helloooo. They did get to explore the Maker Faire as well including playing at our own booth with family members who came over to give us their support.

Here they were enjoying some of the activities at the event. Loads of making and crafts work. Best of all, they got to take them home as souvenirs.

The 2 days event was a success and smarties got to learn a lot both as a maker and as a “guest”. They got to go through the process from start to the end, from making to dealing with people and taking up responsibilities. Suddenly, it dawned on me how much they have grown. I’m definitely loving this family teamwork and hopefully more to come.