Kidz Safari 2

Last year, we had Kidz Safari end of May and the kids had a blast. So we decided to do it again this year.

On June 6th, 2009, 120 children turned up for this Kidz Safari 2 event. Registration was at 9am where a hand tag and Bingo card was given to each child.

Last year, we noticed that the children only played the games that they liked. As a result, some of the game stalls were not popular while others were so popular, there was a string of children patiently waiting for their turns.

This year, we put on our thinking caps and came up with the Bingo card system. After playing each game, their Bingo cards would be stamped by the person who is manning that particular game stall. The card must be filled up with the rubber stamps before anyone could exchange their gift at the gift counter.

At the registration table, there was a cake (made by Aunty Chris). The children had to guess the weight of the cake. Three of them guessed it correctly. The answer is 3kgs.

THE GAMES

Water Shed - Basically, they have to lift the bottle up using the stick with a hook at the end of the string. This game required steady hands and a lot of concentration.

Safari Droppings - Each child was given 3 ping pong balls to throw at the egg tray. Looks easy but the ball has to be in a coloured hole in order for them to get a coin.

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Spider's Web - The children are given three huge toy spiders to throw at the web. If the spider gets stuck at the web, or falls onto the ground, no coins would be given out. The spiders must go into the baskets provided.

Tin Cans - What's with kids wanting to play this game all the time? Maybe it's their way of expressing their anger ... All I can say is, the person manning this stall had a tough time picking up the cans and stacking them up for every game.

Tarzan Swing - The original game was for the children to swing from one rope to another but we needed a firm pole hanging vertically from the top for ropes to be hung from it .... We couldn't get that to work. In the end, we (err... actually it was Mr Loo's worker who helped us secure the ropes to the trees) had two ropes running parallel and the children are to walk from one end to the other.
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Ring Toss - The children were given hoops to throw at the water bottle. Looks easy but most of the hoops land in between the bottles.

Necktie For Mr Giraffe - The height of the giraffes meant that the children had to use more of their strength to throw the hoop to give the long-necked animals a "necktie"

Munchy Monkey - This is pretty easy. An unriped banana was hooked onto end of the stick. all that needed to be done was to transfer the banana onto the nail, which was on the board where the painted banana was.

Leap Frong - Anything involving water proved to be a popular stall. Each child would be given three frogs. Any frog which lands on the lily pads would be given a coin.

Hungry Lion - Throwing the tennis ball into the hole where the lion's face would've been. Easy game.

Hit It In - I laughed at the ingenuity of this game. It's like ping pong cum golf. And Mae-Z's toilet bowl was used as the end destination for the ping pong ball.

High Voltage Area - Another game that needs FULL concentration and steady hands. The moment metal hit on metal, the alarm would sound. I wonder how many children gained coins for this.

Feed the Tiger - Believe it or not, Jian excitedly volunteered to be behind the tiger. And those are WET sponges. The children had a gala time throwing the sponges at Ah Jian. I heard that NO ONE wanted to take over Jian's place after he got hit at for more than 60 times.

Dunk the Animals - This game is waaaay too easy because the targets were too near (due to space constraints). All they had to do is throw the tennis balls at three targets.

Dumbo Needs a Tail - It's the same as the popular Pin the Donkey's Tail game. The children were blind folded and they had to pin the elephant's tail.

Darts - I tried this game .... and failed miserably.


Coin Throw Game - Oops!! It was supposed to be coins but it turned out to be key rings. Three tries and the rings must get onto the slippery plates. Tough!



Crocodile Alert - In under 2 minutes, the children had to hook at as many crocodiles (err.. maximum 3 crocs)

Balloon Walk - It's like the musical chair game. The winner doesn't get a coin but a twisted balloon made by Kenny Yap.

Mini Me Show - Most of the children would've played all the other games before seeing this show because it stars at 10.45am. Azriel played Mini Me (err I think the person at the back is Arthur) and also told a little story using a puppet.

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Upon registration, each child would be given a set amount (I'm thinking it must be about 20-30 playcards) of playcards. To gain more playcards, they had to memorise Bible verses or the order of the books of the Bible.


Now, children, being children always think of gifts as rewards for their coin earnings. To get the prize that they want, they had to win a certain amount of coins (the minimum being 3 coins). The MP3 player was the most sought after and that was worth 200 coins. Two MP3 players were given out. The rest of the gifts were things like thumb drives, chocolates, Children's Bible, Gold Mining, colouring books, ... can't remember them all.
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Er... no pictures for this but light snacks and a bottle of water were given to each child. For each helper, we were given solid food like Nasi Lemak with fried chicken. Yummy!

Well, all good things must come to an end. At 1pm, we started clearing up the place. The youths helped out A LOT.

So did all the uncles and aunties. :)

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It was indeed a FUN time for both the children and the adults. Lots of effort went into this event and I personally think it was worth it. About 20-30 children came from an orphanage and I am pretty sure they had fun.

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I didn't really do a lot for this event, mainly because I was recovering from my sickness and I was so afraid of gong out into the sun because I didn't want the fever to pay me a visit again. I did whatever I could without overstraining myself. I managed to take more than 200 pictures, though. :-)

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Bravo to Eunice and Aunty Chris, who helped out with the games........ Aunty Yeow, Ai Ling, Pat Wong, EstherTC and others who were involved in making this event a successful one. Err.. there were so many others who played an important role ... but sigh! I can't remember them all.

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Whatever it is, the kids had fun and more importantly, the seeds were planted. Let the watering and growing begin!