Kevy Tan is an engineer by profession but since becoming a mother, her goal to look for a playmate for her son led her to create Home Play Singapore. She is passionate about empowering and inspiring more parents to share their talents and passion through play dates. This is her typical day.

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I’m an engineer-turned work-from-home mom and the founder and active organizer of Home Play Singapore. Since being a mom takes most of my time these days, my thoughts are often about things to do with my two-year-old fun-loving son Dion.

On August 24, 2017, I hosted my first play date in our home at Pasir Ris to look for a playmate for my son so he can learn through play. Home Play Singapore was born! I love art. You can find arts and craft sessions in all my play dates. Besides being an active organizer in the Home Play community, I also co-organize the art play date with Mama On Palette.

I started with hosting two families in my first play date. Since then, I have been running sensory play dates at home—some on a small scale and some with up to 50 families. I recently have been appointed by National Museum of Singapore to be their playdate organizer. I have been sharing my experiences and providing support to many parent organizers to kick start and run their own play dates. I would like to invite more families to join my journey to provide children with a happy, caring, and friendly environment to play, learn, and grow in every neighborhood of Singapore.

Here’s a preview of what a typical day for me is like.

6:30 A.M. – I wake up and then go to yoga.
7:00 A.M. – This is my time to do the planning. I plan for my play date and for the Home Play community. I also plan a weekly meal, my son’s activities and outings, grocery list, and more. I use this time to read a book or online learning slides and articles related to child learning, activities, and arts and craft.
7:45 A.M. – I prepare breakfast and do some household chores.
8:30 A.M. – I have breakfast together with my husband.
9:00 A.M. – Time to do some cleaning up.
9:15 A.M. – It’s time to work from home I reply to emails and messages, create content for social media, prepare materials for my play date, and more.
10:00 A.M. – My son wakes up. I make milk for him and then go straight to playtime inside the house or at the nearby park and playground. We also do some reading and arts and craft.
11:00 A.M. – While my son eats a simple breakfast, I will work on my things like reply to messages or update my social media accounts.
11:30 A.M. – It’s bath time for my son.
12:00 NN – I prepare lunch while my son will have his own free play.
1:00 P.M. – Lunchtime with my son.
2:00 P.M. – While my son takes a nap, I do some work tasks. Sometimes, I will also nap for a while, for around 30 minutes.
4:00 P.M. – My son wakes up and it’s play time again. Normally, he will have his own free play for some time while I will work on my things before asking me to play with him.
5:30 P.M. – I prepare dinner and work on some household chores.
6:30 P.M. – We have dinner at home or sometimes, we dine out. If my husband comes home early, we spend our evenings at the nearby park (Pasir Ris Park) or at the beach.
7:30 P.M. – It’s bath time again. My husband takes his turn to take care of our son. I will continue to work on uncompleted tasks. Sometimes, I will read a book or some online learning slides and articles. It’s my self-learning time.
10:30 P.M. – I put the kids to bed and continue my self-learning time.
12:30 A.M. – Finally, I can sleep!

What is the most challenging part of your job or day?
I think the most challenging part of my job is when my son falls sick. He can become very clingy. I need to take care of him and make sure I have time to prepare and run my play date as scheduled. During my last play date at the National Museum of Singapore, my son was admitted to the hospital for a few days prior and was only discharged two days before the play date. I had to work overnight to prepare the setup. Fortunately, I have very strong support from my community members who offered to prepare the materials and set up to make sure we could run a successful one on the day.

What do you like most about your job or business?
When I founded Home Play community, the mission I wrote was this: to provide our children with a happy, caring, and friendly environment to play, learn, and grow in every neighborhood of Singapore. I believe it is very important to teach children in a fun and creative way especially through art, which infuses creativity and interest in a child’s learning process. I love helping my own child learn and experience new things using the same approach. Young children are so full of enthusiasm about anything and everything and I love the look of excitement on their faces when they discover something new.

What is your favorite quote and why?
Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Steve makes the point to trust that you know where you are going. That only after you’re there, can you then connect the dots.

So how did those dots get me to where I am today? How does becoming a mother connected me to another dot? I developed my passion for running the activities for kids while I was playing with my son, my first child. Since then, I started to organize the play dates in my own home and invited other parents and kids to join my son to learn and play together. Henceforth, I founded the Home Play Singapore. This dot connected my family with hundreds of families in Singapore and more to come. Organizing the art play date also gives me more opportunities to do more arts and craft which is one of my childhood favorite pastimes.

 

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