Children's Season 2014 @ National Museum Singapore

This year I noticed there is a Children's Season festival from 24 May to 29 June 2014. I think this is not the first year they ran this but I definitely did not notice previously until this year.

So this is organized by the National Heritage Board with children centric programmes running most of the museums in Singapore. This year according to museums portal, the festival is made all the more special with the launch of PLAY@NMS. It is a new, dedicated space designed for the young ones at the National Museum of Singapore. Kids get to play and learn at the same time!

We decided to head to National Museum to check out what this Children's Season is all about? Good news too its free admission. However if you are keen to visit other galleries within the museum, its free only for Singaporeans and PRs.

When we reached the museum, we were greeted with these colourful cubes that says MASAK MASAK. It is in Malay and it means playing with toys. Before starting the PLAY journey, these cubes are already enough to cheer you up and get you all excited with what's in store, isnt it? :)

At the lawn outside the museum, there are balloon slides suitable for toddlers and kids age 3-7. The larger slide is designed to resemble one of the oldest slide that is still in use in Singapore! I think its such a great idea to get kids to play but at the same time learn about the heritage we have come so far! The slides are not available the entire day. There are time slots to take note of.

The only drawback of this outdoor play is its parked directly under the sun. The slides were burning hot and it was kinda challenging for the kids to play in. We didn't let our boy go on it for long. I think he only managed to climb in b4 he started complaining it was too hot for him to carry on. What a pity!! Nice if they can park the slides where there's some shade.

Kids were having a go at these objects, trying to explore how it works and what will happen after making some moves. Some activities are kinda dangerous though. I see heavy balls flying because visitors threw them too hard. I hope no one gets hurt in this event.

I cannot stress more that there should be more of such (read: FREE) activities in Singapore! :) To be frank, we are all a fortunate bunch living on this tiny sunny island. Which countries has so many different themes of festival and activities all year round for its citizens? 

Not only Singaporeans and PRs attend such festivals. Even the foreigners find them interesting and beneficial! Nice that everyone gets to learn through each other from such activities.

I would think the museum is not so bustling on normal days. Because of this Children's Season, it has brought heaps of visitors who wants to let their kids experience learning through play.

This is a small section at the museum but its really interesting. There are tiny peepholes (well they are not exactly that tiny. You don't need to close an eye to look at the hole.) that showcases cutouts. Kids were really fascinated by these!

Kudos to the organizer! There are activities at many of the stations to allow kids run wild with their creativity through craft work. 

Signages are everywhere so you don't get missing or miss out anything!

This little play area is really good for kids age 3-5. There's a living area, a kitchen... kids get to play with finger puppets, cook, puzzles as well as embossing on papers.

The huge wooden puzzle tree. I would think the younger kids might find it intimidating. After all how often do they see such a huge wooden puzzle set?

But it was a good learning activity for the kids to find the correct match.

The kitchen area complete with ingredients for little chefs to cook up a storm!

Kids get to choose their favourite food and have them embossed onto a piece of paper.

Awww.... a sense of familiarity albeit a bit too huge! Aint these the four or five stones we used to play as kids? The ones at the museum looks like bean bags to the kiddos rather than stones since it was made so huge. LOL

This section is really interesting. The displays are all made of card boards!

It really depends on how creative you are. Kid's creativity can really go beyond what you think they are capable of.

You can make a donation of $2 for a set of materials for the kid to do some art craft on the spot.

I must say this Children's Season festival is such a delightful festival for both the kids and parents. I hope they hold this every year. All kids should go experience this! Hopefully more museums will participate in such festivals in future. 

One drawback is that parking at the National Museum is really really limited. The carpark at YMCA isnt any better. It is almost always full the last 2 times we went. This time we parked at SMU's carpark and walked over. It was kinda hot walking over but definitely beats having no carpark lot.

Website: http://www.museums.com.sg/

Will I Return to This Place / Festival: Yes