Museum Ceria Family Weekend Special: Aku Diponegoro

If you haven’t been to a Museum Ceria event, you probably should. We’ve gone twice on the past three months and each event is equally educational and fun! This time, we visited the temporary “Aku Diponegoro” exhibition at National Gallery, finding clues and learning how to behave in a traditional museum.

Aimed at kids aged 5 to 12, Museum Ceria brings another fun craft, detective game and storytelling to “Aku Diponegoro,” an exhibition held from February 6 to March 8 at the National Gallery. The Special Family Weekend is free of charge and was held four times over two days. We signed up for the one on the morning of March 1st.

How to Have Fun Mall Dates in Jakarta

It’s rainy season and mall seems like the best weekend destination. If you're in Jakarta (or most big cities in Indonesia), going to a mall is unavoidable. Be it for food, movie or checking out the latest sale. Despite the different shopping center selection, we're never that fond of malls. But when we do have to end up in a mall, this is what we do to make an out-of-the-box trip:

1. Takeover Oma’s shopping list. Mama can’t really cook and is clueless when it comes to groceries. So, if we’re going to a mall with a large supermarket, we try to play detective by taking Oma’s shopping list. This was a favorite when Andrew was younger because it’s like a show-and-tell of fruits, vegetables... and seafood.
2. Hit the game center. The gadgets at home are hard to resist but game center doesn’t deprive you from social interaction. At least not for us because once we’re at the game center, we always find something we can both play. We learn to tolerate each other’s preferences because we have to play together. From basketball and bowling to racing and zombie shooting games, game center dates are always awesome! P.S. Challenge yourself with a dancing game.
3. Bring your homework. When it’s hard to concentrate at home, just bring your stuffs out and hit the corner of your favorite cafe in the mall. Set an hour or two only for homework.
4. Bookstore stop. Checking out the latest books and comic collection, English-language publications on sale, or just sit and read for the rest of the afternoon.
5. What’s on. In “winter” some malls like our favorite Pondok Indah Mall has ice skating. Others may offer seasonal attraction as fun as snow fall, mobile planetarium, cartoon shows and different events at different time. So, check out the calendar before starting your car.
6. Sign up for holiday classes. Some malls have playground and kids informal school of some kind. Check out what they have to offer for the holiday and if there's anything that might spark an interest, why not giving it a try?
7. Mix and Match. I did this with Dudu sometimes when there are sale at the department store, where clothes are dumped in large baskets. We have to dig in to see what's available and to prevent Dudu from being bored while waiting for caught-up-on-a-sale-mom, I would give him task such as "find a green shirt." He would be busy treasure hunting and I'd be happy to have another pair of hands searching for the item I wanted.

While we don't go to malls, if we have other places like park, nearby zoo or science museum we can visit any weekend, these places never cease to amaze us. The never-ending attraction, like they're trying their best to win visitors' heart. Some malls are more family-friendly than others, simply because they have labelled themselves as "family mall." 

A research and forecast report released by Colliers.com showed 27 new malls on the pipeline for at least the next three years. Not only Jakarta, shopping centers are expanding to the suburban area of Bogor, Depok, Bekasi and Tangerang. So, hopefully, when these malls are being more creative, we can actually see them as a destination instead of merely an extension of shopping and another branch of stores we have in nearby shopping centers.

Museum Ceria Family Weekend 10 Niewslezer

After a few conflicting schedules for previous events, we finally participated in Museum Ceria Family Weekend. The event this time is called Niewslezer, teaching the children about communication and journalism before the internet era. So it’s like showing Andrew what news was like when Mama was a little girl.

We arrived at 9 AM for registration and the program started right away. As this is our first time participating at a Museum Ceria program, we didn't know we can start right away after given the mission. We thought there were a briefing or introduction from Museum Ceria. But watching other participants eagerly completing the mission, we decided we can start.

This is what Dudu has to say about out date: 

"Today, me and Mom went to Museum of Communication at Indonesia Miniature Park. When we arrived there, we line up to get out mission by the museum door. The mission is to find items spread out in the museum like Morse code machine, golden pen, old TV camera, famous people statues and others. We also have to read using the old Indonesian spelling, like my grandpa! The old spelling is like code! I also made a bookmark using magnet and reading a story..."

The story is a radio drama. Each kid got a role in a fable and they have to act out like they’re playing a drama. It’s a great way to introduce today’s children with how the parents enjoyed radio back in the days. Aside from displaying items from the old days of media and communication, there are also some history, pictured through diorama spread out in the museum.

The smaller children got a storytelling, singing and dancing while going around the museum and seeing different artifacts. Andrew totally enjoyed the adventure – never been to Museum of Communication before. I found this fascinating too as I couldn't recall if I ever been to this museum. But, here in Indonesia, we often need a reason and an extra push to visit museum. And the Family Weekend Program gives us just that.

Contact Museum Ceria at:
Twitter: @MuseumCeria
Web: http://museumceria.blogspot.com/

When: December 28, 2014
Where: Museum Penerangan (Museum of Communication) at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Indonesia Miniature Park)
Fee: Rp120k for kids and Rp20k for the accompanying parent, excluding TMII entrance fee. There’s also a fun storytelling program for younger children with different registration fee. 

(This post is also available in Bahasa Indonesia: Museum Adventure, Museum Penerangan TMII) 

Loka Indonesia

Curiosity sparked by a radio commercial brought us to Alam Sutera to pay this bright yet kids friendly supermarket a visit.

Our Story
My first impression with the visit is how this supermarket reminds me of the ones I found abroad. The bright-colored trolleys and baskets take us by surprised and get Dudu excited. Even better, it comes in children size. Without hesitation, Dudu goes with his favorite green. 

Holiday Inn Express Semarang

While Semarang is our second hometown, it's always hard to find a place to stay.
This time we decided to go for something new.

Our Story
We arrived at 9 AM and the hotel check in is 12 PM, but the receptionist let us put our luggage up front so we're free to walk around. The hotel is 5-minute walk to the city center (Simpang Lima), and it was early enough to explore the city without the traffic and the heat. We returned in the afternoon, to find the room beyond our expectation: It was bigger and nicer than expectation. The view is actually great, but the development next door obstruct our view to Simpang Lima.

Jakarta Kids Run 2014

Our second participation sees more excited kids, more enthusiastic adults and a crowded route.

While the first Kids Run was awesome, the second was a little disappointing. We're super excited to know that the registration has opened and signed up right away. The fee had tripled from last year, but we thought it was worth it. The T-shirt has brighter color and the medal is a lot nicer. I picked up the race pack without Andrew and was excited with the fresh orange uniform. It matches Andrew's shoes too.

The Biggest Timezone in Indonesia

Game center has always been one option to go on a date with Andrew. We usually visit the small one near out house. But this time, we decided to go take the toll road and visit the biggest Timezone in Indonesia, located just off the Karawaci exit.

Our Story
I used to visit this mall when I was a kid and Jakarta traffic jam wasn’t this horrible. The Timezone apparently got a revamped back in March and turned an indoor theme park. The shoe-shaped roller coaster is still there, but now there are more fun things to do than just the indoor roller coaster. Andrew had fun.