Sentosa KidZ Flea Market – What We Learned

In our previous blog, we shared on Sentosa Kidz Flea. This is an event in which children of 7 to 12 years old become PLAY-trepreneurs and learn about the business of FUN, by being their own MINI boss at the award-winning Sentosa KidZ Flea. Its truly an exposure for children to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

We thought it was an interesting idea to engage Big and Small M during their school holidays and so we signed up for them. They had no idea what to expect except knowing that it was going to be fun and educational. Just the mention of Sentosa was enough to attract them to come.

KidZ Flea Training

So before the actual day comes, we had to attend KidZ Flea training.

The children were taught how to be little bosses of their own such as pricing, layout of their products, customer service skills and many more. Wow, looks like there are so much more to learn as they had an opportunity to catch a glimpse of doing business in real life when they grow up.

G – Greet

S – Smile

T -Thank

Thanks to Service Excellence!

Above and beyond all these, everyone was here for a cause – that is doing a part for Autism Association (Singapore). Yes, we want to do our part to raise funds for the association. This allows the children to know the importance of helping the less fortunate and it’s more bless to give than to receive.

A sneak preview of how our stall would look like.

Actual Day

We didn’t take too much time to think about what to sell. Eventually we settle on doing “kampong fishing”. Still fresh from our Taiwan trip, we were excited to let children experience fishing at the KidZ Flea. Yup, they do not need to drive to far-flung fish farms to experience this.

From creating products for sale to dealing with customers, participants – also known as ‘PLAY-trepreneurs’ – will have fun acquiring life skills through experiential learning. In addition, expose kids to the values of compassion and empathy by encouraging them to donate part or all of their earnings of total gross sales revenue (donated 50%)  to the Autism Association (Singapore), the designated charity for the event this year.

Big and Small M were the bosses. They learned to pick up their courage to approach passers-by to patronize their stall. Some rejected politely while some were persuaded by them. School of hard knocks?

 Name tags, Aprons, Price tags/ Redemption tags were provided.

Not forgetting to share with the public that we were doing all this for love of charity.

We were surprised that business was brisk! $2 per game with a SuRe WiN pRiZe..

Children were fascinated by our stall and we thought real fishes certainly strike a chord with them. Some pestered their parents to let them play. Well, after all we were all doing this for charity 🙂

There were even little entrepreneurs from neighbouring stalls who traded with our booth their pre-loved items(toys, story books etc) to fish and came back regularly to admire the fishes 🙂

“Can I help you to hold your bowl while you fish?” Mindy showed her customers she sincerely want to help.

“Hello, would you like to try ‘kampong fishing’ $2 per game, $5 for 3 games! Overheard how Big M engaging with customers. Being sincere is what matters. 🙂

Lil M watched in awe, how her elder sister(Big M) interacted with her customers. Life skills not to be taught but to be caught!

We felt it was all worth the effort when it brought smiles to the passers-by.

Tourists joined in the fun as well.

After standing for few hours, it’s time to take a breather. Big M and Lil M were working really hard! (Lil M went for toilet break, the sisters took turns and make sure their stall is well taken care of! Kudos, team work rocks!

And the crowd formed again…

Even the adults joined in the fun as well.

In the last hour, the sisters came up with a plan for the very last boast for their fishing business. HALF PRICE, $1 PER GAME!

Customers were still streaming in as KidZ Flea Market was coming to an end.

Catch of the day.

Overall, it was an educational experience for us. Small M got to learn how to count and change money fast, negotiate on barter-trade (yes, some kids use their items in exchange for free fishing) and many more. It was an eye-opener for them. We hope to participate in such events again in the future. Thank you Sentosa for organizing this wonderful event!

A glimpse of other stalls.

To find out the latest family activities in Sentosa, check out our previous blog here.

It’s all in the state of FUN!

Proudly

Organised by Sentosa

Entertainment & Programming Team

General Feedback:

Kidzflea@sentosa.com.sg

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