National Museum of Singapore with 3 kids 7 and under

by Rebecca

We signed ourselves up for an annual Family Membership of Friends of the Museum for $120.  

This pass gets us into any museums managed by the National Heritage Board. They're mailing our member card to us, but I didn't want to wait. We needed to get out of the house and the haze was keeping us inside. The National Museum of Singapore let us in just with just a photo of our Membership number. Friends of Museums is eager to have you volunteer to do work with the affiliated museums, which actually sounds a little amazing to me. I'll be watching for those opportunities.

The Museum is housed in the most beautiful heritage building. Check out the stained glass ceiling in the lobby.

The Lobby looking up from the Lobby.
Looking down on the Lobby.

We started in the Singapore History Gallery, which walked us through the past 700 years of Singapore's History. It started with the island's use as a natural harbour and it's long history of trade - long before the British settled here. We saw a piece of the legendary Singapore Stone which was found at the mouth of the Singapore River with it's Sanskrit writing. The kids remembered the story we had read of the legend involving the throwing of this giant stone.

We wove our way through the British era, and found ourselves in a hallway of rattan hats and baskets. We slipped quickly through the war era - Ms.E found the lighting creepy there. The kids bypassed the factory era altogether. We stepped inside a model of the first HDBs (apartments) in Singapore from the 50s/60s.  We lay down on the astroturf in the "park" highlighting Singapore as today's "Garden City".

The last thing in this showcase was a light show which we watched in it's entirety, showing a summary of the 700 years of the exhibit in one place. The changing colours and images kept the kids entranced.

We headed up to the second floor. There the kids had us go through The Story of the Forest twice. The exhibit is inspired by Natural History drawings commissioned by William Farquhar of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore in the 19th century. Farquhar was the first British resident of Singapore and was the Commandant of colonial Singapore.

The exhibit walks you though a magical forest illustrating Singapore's ancient days with gently drifting floor to ceiling  pictures. Images of flowers and "Fairy dust" (as the kids called it) appear to float down from the ceiling. Soft music is playing. It's very serene.

One of the ceilings 
The kids weren't the only people lying down in this room to absorb the scene. 
This wasn't just a picture; it extended down an enormous hallway.

Some of this exhibit are in 360 degree rooms (actual those rooms are more like being in a dome), others areas are gently angled ramps leading slowly back down to the exhibit exit on the first floor. It's enchanting. I didn't mind doing this exhibit twice in a row.