Akira, my son, asked me to go back to what he called, the Piano Stairs, one of his favorite areas at The Mind Museum. He was so blown away every time he climbed up and down, and the different sounds it produced. He was so fascinated that he would deliberately go fast and slow to somehow compose a tune.
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Now at three years old, one of Akira’s favorite cartoons is Peppa Pig, and there’s this one episode where the characters went to a museum with their teacher. Since then, he would frequently ask me to go to the museum. But as much as we wanted to expose him to nature, museums, and such, sadly, his early years were spent inside our house because of the pandemic.
So when the travel and health restrictions were eased up in Metro Manila, we gradually introduced him to the “outside world”. We were somewhat more lenient with our finances ‘coz we saved some of our travel fund during the pandemic. But, of course, not everyone has extra funds. For those in need, you can get the money you need online as well as financial advices. 
It was one Friday in December last year when we brought Akira to The Mind Museum in BGC, Taguig City. At noontime, the museum was almost empty. Our friend, Darwin, who works there told us that it was the perfect time to explore the museum as it tends to get crowded on weekends and during the afternoons.
There were many hands-on experiment areas and lecture areas but I felt that those stuff would be more apt for older kids, so we skipped those. Our tickets were valid for three hours and we went with no particular order on where to go first.
There are five main galleries in The Mind Museum—Atom, Life, Earth, Universe, and Technology. The open layout of the museum provided a seamless transition from one spot to the next. It was my intention to not visit each and every exhibit but to just play it by heart depending on Akira’s mood.
We first went to the focal point and the centerpiece of The Mind Museum, the t-rex skeleton. Akira was so overwhelmed by its size and started to climb the stairs to have a closer look. The towering tyrannosaurus rex was cast from real fossils. It also happened to be the first permanent t-rex exhibit in the Philippines.
We then went to the Space Exhibit where Akira came face-to-face with a life-sized astronaut. The darkness in that area added an outer-space kinda feel to it. The ceiling is a dome with stars. He started to point out the different planets that he saw hanging as if he knows each one—he only knows the Earth and the sun.
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After going around, we saw a stair that led to a tube-like tunnel with a bridge. What’s interesting about it is that the tube was rotating. Akira started to move away, I thought that maybe he’s not interested, but I asked him if I could carry him so we could cross the bridge together. He said yes and I ran to the bridge as fast as I could. I felt dizzy afterwards because it felt like we were about to fall. We laughed so hard after getting out from the other end. We carried on and continued to explore the other exhibits.
Our short walk brought us to the foot of another staircase. We didn’t immediately notice that each step was painted in black and white to make it look like piano keys. We went up and then heard a sound on each step we made.
The whole thing was basically a keyboard. We both exclaimed and went up and down to figure out how it produces sound on each of our steps—turns out its lasers. It instantly became his favorite. The exhibit was amusing both for kids and adults.
We walked to the next exhibit and found life-sized animal figures of a giraffe, whale shark, and manta ray. They all looked so real but Akira was neither afraid nor interested in them, so we moved on.
One of the exhibits that he loved was the beach balls that are being blown through the air. There were three of those and Akira would jump up and down just to get a ball and throw it back into the blowing air. It’s fascinating to see him really engaged and he would ask so many questions about almost everything that interests him.
We then went to the Atom area where everything is illuminated in luminescent light. Almost everything was glow-in-the-dark. We were there for a few minutes and shifted to the other displays. It obviously didn’t interest him.
Next to it was one of the main exhibits in The Mind Museum which is the static ball or the hair-raising Van de Graaf Ball. At first, I wasn’t interested in trying it ‘coz I know that Akira would be stubborn and wouldn’t listen to me when I tell him to keep still while holding the metal ball. But the lady who’s manning it told me that I could carry him and both of us would experience it without him holding the ball. And so we did, Akira was so surprised that he couldn’t keep his eyes from the mirror in front of us when our hair went all up. He was so amazed that I was forced to explain electrostatic energy to him. Well, I tried.
The next exhibit that we went to was the Shadow Room. I love how curious Akira was when we went inside. I purposely didn’t explain to him what would happen and just waited for him to ask questions, I let his curiosity lead the way.
The thing about the shadow room is that you have to pose near the green screen and then hold your pose until a flash lights up the room. A shadow will be left and will stay there for minutes before it fades. Akira was so ecstatic ‘coz we do shadow plays at home, and to see that our shadows stayed on the wall was truly amazing to him. We went back three times. Good thing there were only a few guests so the queue wasn’t that long.
We then went to the Light exhibit where Akira learned the different refractions that form colors. From there, we went back to the other exhibits on the ground level which we failed to visit earlier.
Moving to the second level, Akira went straight to the oversized wooden blocks and played with it. Then he went on and played with a real kulintang. Even if I didn’t teach him how to use it, he knew instinctively how to strike the gongs.
We then went to an area where there’s a ship simulation. It prompted Akira to move the wheel round and round. After that, we saw an area full of mirrors and played with our reflections.
Another interesting exhibit was a cylinder with vertical slits that lets you see sequenced images depending on how fast or slow you move it. Apparently, it’s called a zoetrope, and we had fun doing it the right way so as to see clearly the story it wants to tell you. It taught Akira the proper way of recycling and it was delivered in a very fun way.
There’s also an exhibit of different simple machines, and just like the other stuff in The Mind Museum, everything is interactive—you can actually tinker and play with it.
The last part of our museum adventure was a visit to the in-house play town—Playtales. It’s three-o’clock in the afternoon and the three-hour period was over so we went to the play area. It looks like those play towns inside malls but this one is more geared toward discovering the wonders of early childhood through the power of play, storytelling, and imagination. There’s a separate entry fee of ₱150 for an adult plus one kid (2 to 6 years old).
After our visit to the museum and going around BGC’s High Street, our friends—Akira’s godparents, as well—showed up and we ended up hanging around an outdoor restaurant for dinner and drinks while Akira was busy running around the grassy park.
What I love most about our trip to The Mind Museum was that we had no plans on how to see all the exhibits. The spontaneity of it and the sheer joy from discovering stuff that we don’t normally get to do anywhere else was not only fun for Akira, but for me as well. The open layout of the museum made it feel more spacious and made it easier for us to roam around at our own pace. I think it helped that there weren’t that manylayout people during our visit. We will definitely go back to The Mind Museum when Akira grows up a bit more so he can explore some older kids' stuff and see if he will still love it.
The Mind Museum
Address: JY Campos Park, 3rd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, 1634 Philippines
Contact Number: (+63) 2.7796.0189
Email Address: inquiry@themindmusem.org
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