[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Children who love museums and parents who are in need of a change are sure to enjoy Museum Playdates, the latest kid-friendly activity at the Melbourne Museum in Carlton.
With a different theme each term, these 1-hour workshops for children 3-5 years aim to add a fun, learning element to your standard museum visit and to enliven the museum’s collection for preschoolers.
Museum-loving Layla and I are invited to attend the International Day of the Forest playdate in March 2019. We arrive in a darkened room, where five little tables are set up with a selection of leaves, crayons, and paper for leaf rubbing.
Phia, an experienced museum educator, greets each child at the door. This is a welcoming touch, as the kids share tables together and even the most outgoing child gets shy when entering a room full of strangers.
Phia leads the children into the leaf-rubbing activity, going from table to table encouraging the children and remembering their names. Layla and our table buddy respond very well to this and immediately recognize Phia as an adult to pay attention to!
This attention is then transferred to storytime, as Phia reads us all a book about trees. This is exactly like a library event lead by an enthusiastic educator, and the children are absorbed. I relax completely and this is my favourite part of the workshop (Layla loves this and the leaf rubbing).
As the children listen attentively, I can’t help but feel there’s a lot of extra adults in the room. As well as Phia, a photographer, a volunteer, there seem to be five or so extra members of staff.  Perhaps they want to create a feeling of security for the parents or be on hand in case anyone has questions?
For the second half of the playdate, we move into the Forest Gallery. This isn’t a big hit with us: the group is too large, the activity isn’t interactive, and the school groups visiting at the same time overwhelm the younger kids. The bigger kids are just much more interesting to the children in our group than anything we’re doing!
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The event finishes with planting a sapling in a take-home container, a nice touch that allows the kids to make a bit of a mess.  The event has run slightly over time, so we hotfoot it to the café.
Museum Playdates is a great event to get behind but in my view, an hour is too long for children that young. Aiming for a total activity time of 45 minutes is more realistic, and will take account of children’s attention spans and hunger needs.
Click here for more a review of the Melbourne Museum Children’s Gallery
Click here for more great museums in Melbourne for kids
Click here for a review of the adjoining Carlton Gardens playground
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- This activity costs extra on top of your general admission, so both you and your child are paying to attend. If you aren’t a Museum Members you’ll pay $31 total for one adult and one child to attend the session;
- Museum Members receive a small discount for each child, Museum Member adults get in free;
- Afterwards, there is so much to see in the museum, the challenge is keeping the kids out of the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery. It’s such an amazing space;
- Full marks to the museum for having such great baby-changing and baby-feeding facilities;
- Great healthy snacks and warm meals available at the café;
- Only downside to the café is the number of pigeons inside. I don’t know what they can do about it but it’s probably the only element of bringing nature indoors that you don’t want when you’re eating!
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