I arrived at the National Museum of Singapore on Sunday afternoon, and was taken aback by the sheer number of baby prams parked outside the entrance of the museum! The second thing that grabbed my attention was the snaking queues at the tents  of the National Museum. Parents were queuing with children and prams and domestic help.

“What were they queuing for?”. I wondered.  Ah, fascinating! Free popcorn was being given out! But that was just what greedy me saw immediately. The children were probably not as fascinated as I was by the free popcorn but the interesting craft activities in store for them! At first glance, I saw lots of coloured stones on a table. Then I realized that some children were seated on small chairs and painting these stones diligently. How fun! This completely reminded me of Easter, when one paints the Easter eggs with lots of colours!

A little boy ran past me as I was observing the coloured stones. He took me by surprise because he looked like a miniature Spiderman! Well, at least his face looked like one. I whirled around to face the direction where he came running from. Ah, the answer to my unasked question. One snaking queue right in front of the face-painting booth! As I went forward to take a closer look, I saw plenty of other Spiderman-faced boys as well as fairy-faced girls! Look at them! How pretty! And they could even ask to have their arms painted too!

And just right next to the face-painting booth was this man who was drawing the face of the boy seated right in front of him on paper! Looks remarkably similar, doesn””t it?

Two other booths were closed at that moment, but after patiently waiting for another couple of hours, I saw the balloon woman approaching! On her was a pouch with lots of balloons, which she then blew up and twisted into shapes of dogs and other animals for the little children. I even saw her blowing up a heart-shaped gift to be held by the ballooned puppy!

And you know how children love playing with sand at the beach? Well, this is no beach, but children were enjoying themselves playing with sand just as much as they scooped coloured sand and sprinkled on their designed paper! I saw several really pretty completed pieces, so kudos to those children!

The roaming juggler then came into my sight. Children oohed and aahed and clapped wildly. Even though I was certainly no child, I did my fair share of clapping and cheering. As she juggled the balls, she invited a couple of young children forward to aid her in some of juggling tricks! Look at how the involved child concentrated on performing his task!

As I walked along the National Museum,  there were heaps of children everywhere! And I do mean everywhere, at every station – Public Power (where children get to play with magnetic wires and magnetic walls – I did try that out, and it was fun. Nothing to do with science, but it””s always fun playing with magnets no matter how old you are), the Colouring Station, and Play – an interactive playground that had lots of weird shapes and cushions.

I made my way up to the Atelier, where I knew there would be a storytelling performance at 2pm. Unsurprisingly, parents and children have started queuing up. I went to the back of the queue and waited till the doors opened and we slowly made our way in. Children were ushered to take a seat on the ground in the middle of the room, while adults were encouraged to be seated on small stools or stand around in a semi-circle that surrounded the children. The storyteller started the storytelling performance with a song. She taught the children to sing the chorus of an old children””s song that many parents could sing along to. Also, she asked for several children volunteers to go up to make the song much more interesting – by holding props, doing actions or making certain sounds. Look at how entertaining the children looked while the song was being sung!

On the very same level in the National Museum, a fashion design workshop was being held concurrently and started off in the very same manner the storytelling performance did – with a song. As I listened to the children””s rendition of one of the songs from Barney – Mr. Sun – I smiled wistfully as I recalled my own childhood carefree days.

The instructor showed the children how plain, normal, unattractive bags, briefcases, hats and clothes can be made interesting and exciting by adding colour and scrap materials to them. Look at how one can look with all these interesting and exciting-looking accessories!

The children were then instructed to design their own bags. A plain piece of paper (in the shape of a bag) was given out to each child, and they were told to draw on one side, and to design the other side of the paper with glue and scrap materials like lace, raffia, straws, shimmering paper etc.

Look at what the children came up with! Some ideas and designs were really quite refreshing and interesting! The instructor went through each and every design with the children to explain certain interesting design concepts like colour and space, which was fairly entertaining as the instructor was really quite dramatic throughout.

And when the workshop finally ended, the children and their parents were led to the Christian Lacroix exhibition where they can view the works of one famous fashion designer.

I, however, made my way down and saw young children making interesting stick figures using leaves and twigs. It was a very hands-on and creative experience as they could come up with anything they want to with the materials given to them.

And finally, at 3pm, I sneaked into the Salon, which was already filled with parents and children seated on the floor, waiting for the screening of the environmentally-friendly show Descendants.

All in all, I had a really great time at the National Museum of Singapore. I also noted down several really interesting exhibitions they have right now, which I would love to see the next time I go down to the National Museum. I””m going to see Christian Lacroix the costumier, and the works of legendary Danish designer Verner Panton, that””s for sure!

This event is part of the International Museum Day 2009 (IMD’09) which happens from 23 to 31 May 2009. For more information and updates on IMD’09, please visit www.museums.com.sg/imd09 or call 6346 6438. (Daily: 9am – 7pm)