Sense of discovery for all the family

An imaginary town will have the kids acting as grown-ups

Transportation is the theme for children from 18 months to 3 years old

It’s a sad fact that there are few facilities for very young children in Bangkok. Of course, there is no shortage of pre-schools but recreational and informal educational settings are a little thin on the ground. This is all set to change, however, when the Unilever Family Learning Centre opens later this year in Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit Park.

“Learning by doing” seem to be the buzzwords of the moment in education circles and this is very much the philosophy behind the new centre. It was a creed adopted by the popular Children’s Discovery Museum when it opened in June 2001 and has helped it to become a huge success with around 650,000 visitors per year. Those behind the museum are also heavily involved in the family learning centre project. After completion, the purpose built two-story structure will house all manner of educational activities aimed at 0-6 year olds. In addition, there will be a floor devoted entirely to teenagers.

Chanida Intravisut, director at Family Creations Company

Chanida Intravisut is a director at the Family Creations Company, an organisation that runs the Discovery Museum and specialises in child development. “The target group for the current museum is six months of age until 12 or 13,” she says. “We did the research and found out that 50% of our visitors are families with children under six years old. At the moment, the facilities for young children take up only 200 square metres of the museum, so there was a need to cater more for these families.”

At first, it looked like funding would be a problem until Unilever Thailand, part of the global consumer goods group, stepped in with their corporate-social responsibility initiative.

Leo Oosterveer, Chairman of Unilever Thailand

“This year we will have been 72 years in Thailand,” explains chairman of Unilever Thailand Leo Oosterveer. “Coincidentally Her Majesty the Queen is celebrating her 72^nd anniversary and so we decided to do something special. When we met the people from the museum, we were very excited. We thought together we could really make a difference.”

At a cost of 50 million baht, those behind the learning centre hope that it will be an ultra-modern facility which families will visit not just once but many times over. It is certainly a unique development for Thailand. The fact that a sizable portion of the building is designed to appeal to small children is an unusual feature, particularly when compared to what most public educational facilities have to offer.

Much thought has gone into the design of the interactive displays that visitors will encounter at the centre. The early childhood areas, in particular, require special attention.

Woranart Raksakulthai, education advisor to the project

“Children learn in a different way to adults,” points out Dr Woranart Raksakulthai, an expert in childhood psychology who acts as an advisor to the learning centre team. “They cannot learn by memorising things or receiving information. They need to explore, to create and to develop thinking skills by themselves. They need to learn through each of the five senses. At age three to six, for example, children need something like an interactive approach and they need the right medium for learning. I think that the family learning centre will be a good medium because the children will enjoy it.”

Importantly, Dr Woranart believes that parents have a special responsibility when it comes to educating their children. And this doesn’t just mean sending them to a good school. Close social interaction between parents and their children is imperative if the child is to maximize his or her potential.

“People around children have to support their learning,”insists Dr Woranart. “Not just by showing a picture, for example. You need to discuss with them what kind of picture it is and ask them questions about it. You can support your children by guiding them, talking with them, even teaching them.”

This is one of the reasons the word ‘family’ is in the centre’s title. It is very much intended to be a whole family experience, with parents and children interacting with the exhibits and learning together. Facilities have been designed to be inclusive, so that parents or older family members need not sit on the sidelines. Instead, they are expected join in.

“Parents are a partner in the education of young children,” suggests Dr Woranart. “It is their responsibility to come and learn with the kids. They should enjoy learning with them. If parents enjoy learning, then kids will enjoy learning too.”

The same, however, does not necessarily apply to teenagers. They will have their own space within the centre in which to explore their abilities.

“Teenagers are very energetic and want a place to express their talent but there aren’t many places to do that,” says Chanida Intravisut. “It will be helpful for the teenagers themselves to find out which is the gift or the talent that they have. This will be a place where teenagers can spend time with their families or with their friends to do something which is very useful for them.”

mini zoo

If you go along to the Queen Sirikit Park site today, you won’t see much beyond concrete and scaffolding. But thanks to computer technology, it is possible to get a realistic glimpse of what’s in store.

The entrance is flanked by two small exhibitions. The first is a display showing the work of Unilever Thailand, whilst the second is a tribute to HM Queen Sirikit. Her Majesty was responsible for inaugurating the Children’s Discovery Museum as it was her original intention that there should be an informal education facility available for the people to use.

The ground floor is split into three sections, each catering to a different age-range within early childhood. Dr Woranart explains the thinking behind this. “Children aged three to six need to use initiative by telling adults what they would like to do. It’s all about making choices and decisions. That’s why we have divided the centre into different areas, so children have a choice.”

The first choice is a section bristling with colour and vitality, aimed at stimulating the imagination and sensory awareness of toddlers from 6-18 months old. Nature has been recreated giving kids the opportunity to watch grass grow and feel the rain coming down from the clouds and watering the plants. It’s all designed to stimulate the senses in a rich but safe environment.

playground

“At this age, they need to develop their physical motor skills,” says Dr Woranart, “so they can touch and smell things like the flowers and plants.”

Slightly older children from 18 months to three years old will find the second section a treat. Designed around the theme of transportation, children can climb aboard ship or straddle climbing frames contained within a vibrant play area. They’ll also be able to meet animals such as cows, monkeys and tigers, although they won’t need to be afraid as the animals aren’t real. They are all friendly, approachable, pretend animals. Children can even get there by train or run across the shallow pond if they’re feeling adventurous. It’s an imaginary gateway to the world, where children can start questioning the environment around them, experiencing everything at first hand.

“Toddlers have started walking and running,” says Dr Woranart, “so we introduce them to things outside the house. The main idea is to let them move around as much as they can. We also help them to realise their talents in spaces such as the drama area and construction area.”

Children between the ages of four to six years old are getting a bit more sophisticated and the exhibits reflect that. Their minds function with greater complexity as they are able to use reason and understanding in a more direct way. To facilitate this development, an imaginary town in the third section has a supermarket and a hospital where children, and adults for that matter, can role-play people from the grown-up world.

“Children love to play doctors and nurses,” says Dr Woranart. “When they play doctor and patient, they communicate. So one might take another’s temperature and find that the patient has a problem. It’s very important that they learn how to interact because, at this age, they are developing language skills as well as thinking and social skills.”

Education comes in the form of displays, such as those showing what diseases you can get if you don’t wash your hands. The supermarket also has an element of learning through play with all the products having bar codes, allowing children to score points for the nutritional value of the products they ‘buy’.

On the second floor, teenagers will be able to explore their talents in ways that perhaps aren’t open to them at school. There will be a drama area for budding actors and singers and special workshops where kids can learn the art of sculpture or carpentry. Each workshop will be equipped with state-of the art technology and staffed by skilled professionals. It promises to be a useful resource, especially for cash-strapped schools whose equipment may be a little outdated.

Education is very much at the forefront of the family learning centre and those behind the project want it to become a landmark in Bangkok. The initiative to cater for younger children will no doubt be welcomed by parents and educators alike. In fact Dr Woranart, who also runs Kasem Phithaya School on Sukhumvit 71, sees the learning centre as being something of a catalyst for resourceful educational projects.

reading corner

“Kindergarten schools in Thailand still concentrate only on academic skills like reading and writing,” she notes. “There seems to be a lot of homework and no play for them because we have a first grade entrance examination. This is very bad for children, so we have to reform our education. We have to let the parents know the alternatives about how learning can be fun. This is also a good model for Thai educators to help them understand the concept of how young children learn.

“Right now, the children in Thailand have a problem in that they lack self-confidence. So, if they come here, I hope that their experience at the family learning centre will help them to gain self-confidence by learning how to question and challenge things.”

If the centre can make any impact in this regard, then it will certainly have been worth the investment. Giving back to the community is, after all, what corporate-social responsibility is all about.

“We are very grateful for what the country has given us,” says Unilever Thailand Chairman Leo Oosterveer. “We have had the space and opportunity to develop this company, to serve the consumers and also to get some great people in. It’s also in our own interests to help the development of the country and we intend to continue playing a role in that. But, of course, it’s not a real business case. We feel it is part of our social responsibility in helping to develop the country.”

You can find out more on the Children’s Discovery Museum by logging on to www.bkkchildrenmuseum.com

If you would like more details about the Unilever Family Learning centre, contact Khun Waralee at: Waralee.Bunnag@ogilvy.com

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Last modified: August 30, 2004