Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Never Never Land

Once a month or so we go to a shopping mall halfway to Manila to stock up on crisp bread, ham, whole grain flour and other necessities of life.

Gopher Jrs love this. Not that they’re fond of shopping, but the mall also has a place called FUNLAND, where we take them for an hour or so while one of us gets some extra shopping time.

FUNLAND includes a trampoline…























…slides…
















…big plastic cars
















…basketball hoops…




















...a child-friendly assault course...





















…a big container filled with plastic balls (a.k.a. The Germ Pit)…


















Even I have fun there. But not all is mindless running and shouting. FUNLAND also have a place for reflection and contemplation. The Reading corner.

The sign says:




Children's Reading Corner will take you to never never land,
to the magical world of princes and princesses and many other faraway places,
but please observe the following house rules:
- This area is strictly for reading books only
- Playing is not allowed in this area
- Do not bring the books outside this area
- Request for an adult to keep you company
Our crew attendant are most happy to help you
And please return the books to its proper shelves
Thank You and Enjoy Reading


(Sorry about the poor shot).

Just a quiet place (as quiet as they get in Filipino shopping malls) to enjoy a good book. I personally think it's a great idea. But the again, the book shelves looks like this…
























The sign under the "...No playing is allowed in this area..." sign is this...

















And what they’re really doing is this...























/J.

3 comments:

secret wombat said...

It's wonderful for kids to learn the magic of not reading...

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate that J's eyes were obscured by something on the lens.

Lone Gopher said...

Yes, what a coincidence that he put his greasy McDonald's fingers in that exact spot, and how lucky I noticed and wiped it off before I took the other shots.

Seriously, I really don't know why, especially since there's about 10 people reading this blog, of which I know around...10, but I have a hard time putting identifiable pictures of my kids on the evil Internet.

/J.