It’s still winter, it’s pretty cold outside and the girls want to play and have fun so we need something to do indoors. What can we do to entertain them and have fun as a family without spending too much money? Let’s visit a museum! Which one? It’s never easy to find an interesting museum for adults and children, especially if they are three under 5 but we found a very good one:
To get the children involved we always try to ask them simple questions. When we arrived we saw one of the Berliner Bären so we asked the girls: why is there a bear here? What colour is it? Has it got any name? Which one? Why?
This one is called Candy Bär because during the Berlin airlift the allied used to launch from the aircrafts lots of food but also chocolate and candies. My girls love the Berliner Bären and we have now started our own special collection of photos with them wherever we find a new one (The Bear is the symbol of Berlin, they are spread all over the city and each one has a special design). So this Bär was the first attraction outside the museum.
From the outside we could see that the building is an old American cinema and I really like the idea of using it as a museum.
Inside there is still the sign saying “now playing the national anthem, please wait”, my 5-year-old asked me what it meant and it was nice seeing her so interested in the building. Once in, you can find interesting realia like an American military jeep (which my girls wanted to drive, but you can’t), military uniforms, Christmas cards, a wedding dress made out of an old curtain (my girls asked me why it was made from a curtain), models of aircrafts, cans of food allied gave to the Berliners and even a video about this historical period. Me and my family learnt a lot about the Berlin airlift and it’s always nice to know something about the past of the city where we are living; it’s as if it becomes more real and part of ourselves. Outside the building there is a real aircraft but unfortunately we couldn’t visit it because it’s open only during Summertime nevertheless the girls studied it closely, especially they could touch the big wheels and propellers (very exciting experience!).
We’ll probably come back here to visit it as my girls were really interested in going inside the airplane. Oh, I was forgetting to say that we also visited the temporary exhibition called “Fair play, the allies and sport” and this too was also well done and the girls got easily involved and kept on asking questions.
Did I mention that the entrance is free of charge?!It’s been a lovely Sunday and I can only suggest to visit this museum with your kids, they will positively surprise you with their questions. Have fun!