Thursday, May 6, 2010

Free and Fun Kids Activities in Kuala Lumpur: The National Science Centre

Mummy L from the GIS Playgroup asked me if I wanted to come along to the National Science Centre with her and I said yes. She takes Z there quite a bit as there is a children's play area where he can have fun and she can actually sit down for a while and take a breather. Until you are a mother of an active toddler, you can't really appreciate having a breather.


So we drove out to the Science Centre which isn't very far from where we live. I'm sure you've spotted a big green glass dome if you're driving on the road from PJ/Bangsar to Mont Kiara. That's the place.


Entrance is FREE! Yay! Just pull up and park. You do have to sign a visitors' book though. We weren't there for very long as Connor normally starts to wilt around 10:30am. I thought it'd be too advanced for our little one but he actually had a lot of fun.


The entrance has a walk-through aquarium much like Aquaria KLCC but the fishes weren't as colourful. Still good fun for the kids. You walk past a couple of experiments and Connor really like the one where you press buttons and the bulbs light up. He must have thought this was his lucky day because when he doesn't get to play with the lights at home though he dearly wants to.


We went into the main area under the dome but we didn't get to see a lot as I was only there for an hour. We spent most of it in the children's playarea and us mums got to sit down while the kids played. There's an accordion slide that plays a tune when you slide down - freaked Connor out though. LOL There's a little treehouse that Connor enjoyed climbing, a dolphin sculpture with a ball pit that Connor just loved, some toy instruments (Z was singing while banging on one of the drums! So funny), some stationery rides (car, train, space shuttle, boat) and it was good fun.

It's nowhere near the Singapore Science Centre, a lot of the experiments looked poorly maintained and Mummy L told me the glass dome leaks when it rains. She was there once when it was raining and one of the little kids slipped and hit his head on the tiled floor. Not good.

But for a free place, it's not too bad. We'll go earlier next time and do more of the experiments. I think it's better for a slightly older child (there were 2 busloads of primary school kids who went nuts upon entering) as they can appreciate the experiments better. Seriously I wouldn't mind if they charged an entrance fee and used that revenue to run the place better.

Click here to see a location map of the National Science Centre.

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