Education Programmes For All Ages @ the Zoo!

There's some educational programmes organized by the zoo. This is really interesting. Some programmes are catered for different age groups. The one I'm introducing here is one which suits all ages. You can bring your kids along to zoo one of these days. I'm sure you'll enjoy your day there.

Animals fascinate children. At the Singapore Zoo, we use this fascination as a platform to reach out to children and make learning an enthralling journey for the little ones. The journey engages them with sight, sounds, touch, smell and taste.

The Tamed Ones (Suspend until further notice)

Enjoy an intimate encounter with a friendly ferret, a funny bunny, a cuddly chinchilla or a Red-Eared Slider. Our knowledgeable Zoo staff talks to your students about the interesting characteristics of these animals that they have the privilege to meet. Note : The animals featured in this programme are subject to availability.

Domestic Animals (Held at Animal Land)

Set in Animal Land, this lesson brings the children up close and personal with the various animals that are associated with humans since 9000 B.C. Understand how domestication of animals began and the benefits that humans have reaped as a result. Your students get to do what most Zoo visitors enjoy tremendously - an opportunity to feed the animals.

Horsing Around (Held at Animal Land)

Prance around and find out the various breeds of horses we have in Zoo, from the standard thoroughbred to the world’s smallest horse - the Falabella.
Insects and other Invertebrates Insects and invertebrates are unlike us in that they do not have backbones. Come face to face with some of these fascinating creatures that wear their skeletons on the outside and unearth interesting facts about them. Get to know the Creepy Crawlies, pat a stick insect, a hissing cockroach or a giant millipede if you dare!

Animals and What They Eat

Discover the variety of supplements that we provide for all our animals to keep them in the pink. Feast your eyes on the supplements, which include cod liver oil, powdered milk, eggs, rice, vitamins, biscuits, etc, etc. You will be surprised at the huge quantity of food that our animals consume each day. Different animals eat different things and they have special mouthparts or teeth adapted for the diet. Your students get a chance to touch and feel animal teeth that are used for different functions.

Mad About Elephants

Big, big, big! Go totally mad over the world’s largest living land animals and be overwhelmed by their size, intelligence and agility. Find out how big the skull of an elephant is, and the weight of its molar tooth and tusk. Students learn the concept of size and weight, and make comparison. So, it’s not just mad about elephants, it’s also math about elephants.
Cool Cats Be awed and fascinated by the beauty of the tigers, leopards, lions and other cats. Run your fingers over their pelts, hold their paws and discover the secret behind the texture of their rough tongue.

Under the Sea!

Suspend until further notice(Held at Manatee, Sea lion and the Penguin Enclosure)Come discover the amazing facts of the marine animals that the Zoo has! Learn about the food chain of the marine habitat. Touch a polar bear’s foot and hold a sea turtle specimen in your arms. See how different the penguins’ feathers are from the other birds. Also catch a glimpse of the ‘mermaid’ swimming gracefully underwater.

Body Coverings

In this programme, your students learn to appreciate the importance of different body coverings. They can feel the scaly skin of a reptile, the feathers of a bird, the fur of a mammal and the quill of a pangolin. By using a magnifying glass, they are able to observe the details on a pangolin’s `scale’, which is actually a plate of modified hairs.

Primate Personalities

Get down to monkey business and be a primatologist for a day. Apes and monkeys have are intriguingly human-like in their mannerism. Their expressive eyes and facial expressions keep us enthralled. Find out the many fascinating facets of primates personalities at the Singapore Zoo, which houses the world’s largest collection of primates.

Animals Babies

What is childhood like for animals? Come and find out just how much we share in common. Learn why some animal babies need to know how to run even before they have learnt to crawl, and how some others have unique ways of darting to safety. Find out why some young animals look nothing like their parents and how it helps them survive.Come and discover the miracles of birth and the wonders of being young at the Singapore Zoo. Let your children be enchanted by the great splendors of Nature—babies!

Target Age Group:
All ages

Duration:
30 mins per session

Cost:
$3.60 per pax (excludes admission) Minimum 30 paxN.B. - For every 10 students, 1 adult admits free

Venue:
Auditorium (Learning Centre) unless stated otherwise.

Booking Procedure:
Note: All the programmes are available on a first-come-first served basis.

Pregnancy Loss - Dealing with Miscarriage and Other Forms of Loss

How to cope with grief and every day living after the loss of your pregnancy or baby due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, preterm labor, stillbirth or neonatal death.

Here's some brief information for your knowledge. Most importantly, Take good care of yourself.

Pregnancy Loss: Pregnancy loss is defined as the loss of a pregnancy at any point before birth. It can be at a very early point in the first trimester due to miscarriage or near the end of pregnancy as a stillbirth. Each type of pregnancy loss is different and is experienced differently for each family suffering the grief of that loss.

Miscarriage: Miscarriage is usually defined as the loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation, about the half way point, before your baby can survive outside of the uterus. The vast majority of miscarriages occur in the first trimester. Sometimes they are caused by a blighted ovum, or egg that failed to develop.

Tubal Pregnancy: Tubal pregnancy is also know as an ectopic pregnancy. This is a pregnancy that grows outside of the uterus, most frequently in the fallopian tube. Since other structures are not capable of carrying a growing baby, the pregnancy is doomed. This can be a very serious and often life threatening situation for the woman.

Preterm Labor: Preterm labor does not always lead to preterm birth, but when it does, there is a greater chance of neonatal death. When a baby is born early, it is unable to survive as well and faces extra challenges from the premature birth. Even with vast amounts of technology we cannot always save these early babies.

Stillbirth: After the midpoint of pregnancy, around 20 weeks, if your baby dies for any reason before birth, it is said to be still born. The stillbirth rate is about 1% of all pregnancies. Birth is usually induced right away, though not always.

Grief: After a pregnancy loss you may feel very numb and not know what to do. Seek help from a group of parents in similar situations, your hospital should be able to help point you in the right direction. There are other ways such as memorial services and grief counseling that work well. Others find that individual counseling is helpful. Doing what is best for your family will be what you need.

Family Issues: If someone you know has had a pregnancy loss, you may not know what to say or do. You may worry about how to act around them or be unsure of what they want you to to help them. The best advice is to always ask what you can do to help.

Having Another Baby: Many families go on to try again. Having a pregnancy after any type of pregnancy loss is often very scary for you and your family. You may need to have extra visits with your doctor or midwives to help you emotionally deal with being pregnant again. Be calm and patient with yourself and each other.

Barbie Girls Lastest Cool Toys

I got to know this new cool toy of BarbieGirls from my niece. I think it's pretty cool too! It's a MP3 of barbiegirls.

Not sure if it's selling in Singapore. Here's some photos of the new toy and the barbie girls website screen shots!

http://www.barbiegirls.com/home.html

Sorry, you didn't have cancer

It is the news no woman wants to hear: You have breast cancer.

That was the diagnosis for Darrie Eason, a 35-year old single mother from Long Island, New York.

Eason had both of her breasts surgically removed, only to hear the unthinkable: She never had cancer.

"All the things that I had gone through with my family, my child...it was unnecessary," said Ms Eason.

According to the New York Health Department, Eason's misdiagnosis was the result of a laboratory error.

The state says the technician who handled her biopsy cut corners and mixed up two specimens.
Eason's lawyer, Steve Pegalis, says his client was told she had cancer, while another woman was told she did not.

"This other young woman has to live with the idea that she has breast cancer and hers was not diagnosed at the earliest possible time," said Mr Pegalis.

Now, Eason is suing the laboratory. "Something should have been done to tell me that there wasn't anything wrong with me before I had a radical double mastectomy," she said.
For years, women have been urged to seek second opinions and to have their lab results rechecked. But that is little comfort for Eason, who now has to live the rest of her life with an irreversible mistake.

Eat fish while pregnant

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who want to become pregnant, are pregnant or breast-feeding should eat at least 12 ounces (about 341 g) of fatty fish such as tuna every week to help themselves and their babies, experts will recommend later on Thursday.

Fish including mackerel, sardines, light tuna and salmon are rich in omega-3 fatty acids -- components of fat known to help brain development. Walnuts, flaxseed oil and leafy green vegetables also contain the compounds.

Women need the nutrients to prevent postpartum depression and babies need them for brain and motor skill development, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies coalition says.
The coalition, which includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says "90 percent of women are consuming less than the recommended amount of fish."

But these fish can also carry high levels of mercury, which is a brain and nerve toxin.
Because of this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency issued consumer advisories in 2001 and 2004 advising women who were pregnant, breast-feeding or trying to become pregnant, as well as young children, to eat no more than 12 ounces weekly of certain types of fish.

Estimates on the dangers posed by mercury come from people exposed in chemical spills. No major studies have shown evidence mercury from food or vaccines has caused brain damage to mothers or children.

Michael Bender, director of The Mercury Policy Project, an advocacy group that believes mercury exposure has damaged children, said women should choose fish not likely to be contaminated with mercury.

"While it's recognized that fish is an important source of protein, especially for pregnant women, this new emphasis on eating more than 12 ounces of fish per week, without mention of the need to avoid mercury contaminated fish, appears to throw the baby out with the bath water," he said in a statement.

The FDA and EPA "recognized that there is enough mercury in certain fish to pose health risks, especially for heavy and moderate fish consumers, women of child-bearing age and children.
Mercury is released mainly in industrial and power-plant emissions. It settles into lakes and oceans and builds up in the flesh of fish and the animals that eat the fish.

Carnivores such as tuna and sharks thus carry high levels of mercury in their flesh.

Sleep trouble not an inevitable part of pregnancy

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnancy doesn't have to mean nine months of sleep deprivation, a noted sleep expert says.

Myriad factors can disturb sleep throughout pregnancy, from getting up at night to urinate to trying to accommodate a giant belly comfortably, Dr. Jodi A. Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told Reuters Health. However, she added, "almost all of those things you can manage at some level."

And getting enough sleep is important for an expectant mother's health, as well as that of her fetus, added Mindell, whose book "Sleep Deprived No More: From Pregnancy to Early Motherhood," will be published November 15.

She points to a study that found women who got less than 6 hours of sleep a night for their last month of pregnancy had longer labors (29 hours vs. 18 hours) and a greater risk of having a C-section compared to women who logged at least 7 hours of sleep nightly.

Mindell is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which is seeking to increase awareness of the importance of sleep for pregnant woman as part of its National Campaign for Healthier Babies Month this October.

She offers several tips for pregnant women to help battle sleep troubles:
* Get daily fluid requirements before dinner to prevent frequent nighttime bathroom trips.
* Eat a snack before bedtime to stave off nighttime hunger and nausea.
* Use plenty of pillows to get comfortable in bed; a pillow to support the belly and another between the legs to support the hips can help.
* Stay away from caffeine after lunchtime
* Use good sleep hygiene -- have a soothing pre-bedtime ritual, make the bedroom a comfortable haven for sleep, and try to keep a consistent sleep schedule.

One in four women will develop restless legs syndrome during pregnancy, noted Mindell, which is "a very uncomfortable, creepy crawly feeling in the legs" that can only be alleviated by moving them around. The syndrome can be related to iron deficiency, which becomes increasingly common after 20 weeks of pregnancy, so women who are experiencing it should get their iron levels checked, she advised.

Getting enough sleep after baby is born is essential, too, but more difficult, especially in the first six weeks of an infant's life, says Mindell. New moms should follow the time-honored advice to sleep when their baby does, and should get all the help they can, she adds. Being sure to get outdoors into bright light, especially in the morning, can also help new moms sleep better, according to Mindell.

"You've got to make sleep a priority -- you really need to put aside those visions you have of being the perfect new mom with the perfectly clean house and gourmet meals on the table," she said.