Nikki's Nurturance: Museo Pambata Part 1: Introducing Kids to Philippine Architecture

We want Narra to grow up rooted in her country's culture. Manila's Museo Pambata (Museum for Children) will help us achieve that goal. We visited it last Saturday and I have plans to keep coming back. I was so impressed that writing a single blog post won't do the trick, so I'm going to write a series of posts.

Oliver and I are fortunate to have in our employ our driver Michael, who is married to our housekeeper Chie. Together with their 5-year old son Basti, they've stayed with us for the last few years, first in our very secluded house in Lipa, Batangas, and our second house in congested Metro Manila. While in Lipa, our two families used to go to outings together - to have dinner out, to watch movies, or to do a little sightseeing in Tagaytay. Since moving to Manila, we haven't had the chance to go out and tour like we used to. So last weekend, we decided to head to nearby Museo Pambata. It was originally meant as an exposure trip for the kids, but it ended up being entertaining and enlightening even for us adults!

On the ground floor of Museo Pambata is an exhibit on the Spanish period. Kids are introduced to colonial architecture through a recreation of some design features of a typical 19th century, 2-storey illustrado home. Narra and Basti enjoyed looking through the window grills done in the buntis (pregnant) style, and peeking through the windows on the second floor. There were also small-scale antique furniture inside the house, which the kids absolutely loved to sit on.

There's a small-scale version of a typical Spanish colonial-era church which museum-goers can actually enter (adults and kids alike). It's pretty fascinating to stand inside the structure feeling like a giant! At the altar, Narra inspected the figures of Jesus and some of the other saints, while Basti had fun pretending to be a priest.

There was also a sample from the American colonial period, a scale model of a 1930's home inside a glass case. The former Elks Club Building which houses the children's museum is, in itself, a historic architectural treasure. I loved climbing its wide staircases, and walking on its old tiled floors.

On the second floor, there were more interactive exhibits to explore. In particular, Narra enjoyed the kid-size bahay kubo. It was a bit of a challenge for her to climb the bamboo ladder to enter the hut, but we didn't assist her, since it was low anyway and posed no threat to her safety. She clambered up rather clumsily but I enjoyed watching her figure out how to make her way up on her own. Once inside the hut, Oliver and I could only supervise her from the windows, but she was pretty much on her own. She enjoyed playing with the clay stove with the kawali on top, and spent a good many minutes pretending to cook.

"Ay ganyan ho sa amin" (oh that's how it is in our home) said Chie who hails from Bicol, and whose parents make a living as farmers in a remote part of the province. She was excited to see the carabao-drawn cart on display and demonstrated to her son, and to my daughter Narra, how her father would use it. I realized how the Museo Pambata plays an important role in bridging generations. It is a means for Chie to introduce her Manila-born and Manila-raised son Basti, to the rural livelihood of his own grandfather. Oliver's own family hails from Malolos where they have an old ancestral house with beautiful touches of colonial architecture. I hope Narra can learn to appreciate that when we next visit Malolos.

While we were at the second floor of the museum we happened to look out the window to see a traditional Ifugao house being re-furbished on the grounds below. I'm waiting for that exhibit to be completed so I can take Narra back there again to explore traditional architecture from the North.