Anjana Menon, on her return from US, spent two years worrying that there were no places in Delhi where her twins could spend their time creatively.
"I could either take them to the usual play areas or go to the zoo or some garden. Then, my husband and I came up with the idea of Stellar Children's Museum (SCM)," says the creative director of what she claims is first-of-its-kind 'museum' in the country.
Currently there are hundreds of such children's museums across the world.
Menon's husband and director of SCM Akshay Sethi explains the idea as being that of 'self discovery through play.'
Targeted at 2-8 year olds, the sprawling 10000 sq ft space inside a mall in Gurgaon consists of seven galleries - Create it!, Invent it!, Build it!, Discover it!, Live it!, Explore it! and Splash it! - as well as a theatre area.
In each of these galleries, children can indulge in activities like painting, building structures, designing, making puppets, learning about geography of the world and even understanding scientific concepts - all while playing.
Also, starting mid-December, Sethi says there will be workshops ranging from drama to music to allow kids to explore themselves.
"All of this helps children understand things practically, rather than just theoretically," says Aparna Pasi, an educator at SCM.
Having spent seven years as a teacher herself, Pasi believes there is a vast difference in retention and application of knowledge when a child explores things herself.
"One just needs to nudge them in the right direction," she adds.
"The best way is to ask questions of kids, help them whenever needed and then step back to let them discover the answers," says Sethi.
So, for instance, when a child walks into the science- based Invent It gallery for the first time, she will be told about how the ball track (which explores the idea of energy conversion through a self assembled roller coaster) works, the staff or the educator will then let the children's imagination take over.
Devoid of enough play spaces for children, parents seem to welcome the idea. Supreet Oberoi, a child counsellor and special educator, was at SCM with her 4-year-old son and 9- year-old daughter.
"Children get so much information from different sources these days, they hardly stop to think about it all. However, here they can experiment and learn on their own," says Oberoi. MORE
