Children's Season at the Museums

A week or so back, I wrote about visiting the National Museum and International Museum Day 2010.  Stardust and I (and the reluctant Aged Ps) did actually go to the National Museum that day, but it was crowded and noisy, so we wandered through a few exhibits and decided to call it a day.

I promised Stardust that we would visit the museum later that week so that he could really enjoy the new Children's Season exhibits. 

We went with a friend of mine and her little boy whom Stardust affectionately nicknamed 'Mr Happy'.

Mr Happy was unfortunately not so happy during our outing as he was feeling very tired (which is why he doesn't feature in any of these pictures).  After patiently struggling with him for nearly an hour, his mum wisely decided to cut our playdate short and run off home. 

I didn't really mind because Stardust was quite happy to enjoy the museum by himself.

Here he is by the giant felt wall in the lobby, playing dress-up in a chicken-insect constume (you can see that he is clutching a Thomas the Tank Engine toy which is his new best friend). 

We did not spend too long at the National Museum because there were some unfriendly children around who refused to share toys, and the 'facilitators' were too busy messing around with their antibacterial hand wipes to notice.  I left when one of them chucked a wooden block at Stardust's head and then ran crying to his mother when Stardust (quite rightly) said "NO!  Don't throw blocks!  It hurts and I don't like it!". 

I walked him round to the Art Garden at 8Q, which was four floors completely dedicated to child-centred installation art. 

It was awesome!

Stardust was very excited about the giant rabbit mascot, Walter, who was perched on top of the building.

There were lots of interactive exhibits there, but Stardust's favourite was Floribots, the robotic flower garden that responds to the 'mood' of the people in the room.  He was running around and jumping and the flowers reacted by growing and blooming.  It was really cool.

Here he is standing straight and still so that the plants will also stand straight and still.

We will definitely visit again before the end of Children's Season in July!