Eureka! has created our Little Explorers programme specifically to help families with young children to play together, not just because a trip to Eureka! is always great fun, but because it’s vital to a child’s ability to develop core life skills.
Why is this important? We believe that key skills like confidence, communication, creativity and critical thinking are all crucial to their wellbeing as children and to their success as adults.
Eureka! believes play makes people, and from birth to the age of four children undergo intense neurological growth. As they see, hear, feel, smell and taste the world around them, millions of new connections are forged in their brains each second – exhausting! It is the most rapid period of learning and development a human being will ever experience, and by the end of it, a ‘blueprint’ for the adult they will become has been laid down. Joining in with Little Explorers at Eureka! can add to each child’s blueprint through playful engagements with family, friends and Eureka! Enablers.
Our Little Explorers programme of activities for under 5’s, is now focussing on the theme of: Our Wonderful World.
When we look at the current challenges for our planet, we know we need to have a lot of young people thinking about how we can create the transformations which will secure our nature, habitats and environments into the future, and there’s no better time to start engaging with the leaders of tomorrow than in their very early years.
Our Wonderful World activities have been designed to help children connect with the world around them, playfully introducing our youngest visitors to;
- Learning about our continents and the animals that live on them.
- Becoming a recycling superhero and sorting out our rubbish.
- Working as a honeybee – making a hive and collecting some precious pollen.
- Learning about the creatures of the Arctic and Antarctic while playing with ice. Do penguins and polar bears live together?
At Eureka! The National Children’s Museum we have been providing children and families with the opportunity to play and learn since 1992. We provide hands on experiences which support curiosity, wonder and interaction, creating the opportunity for the exploration and experimentation of interests, ideas, emotions and social relationships, in other words – Learning through Play.
We are recognised as advocates of play and playful learning and have supported other organisations to become more playful.
For more information on the importance of play a great place to start is the Lego Play Well Report https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2018/august/lego-play-well-report
