Sand in the City and Demolished Sydney at the Museum of Sydney - Review
We recently took a trip to the city to visit the Museum of Sydney for the first time and really enjoyed it. Located corner of Phillip and Bridge Streets, the museum was built on the site of the First Government House. It is a good size museum for the whole family which has a good permanent collection as well as new exhibitions that change periodically. We ventured last week to checkout the Sand in the City and the Demolished Sydney exhibitions.
As we headed to level 2, we had the choice of checking out the Sand in the City or the Demolished Sydney first, needless to say which one little Miss chose! She was instantly drawn at the sight of Lego!
As you enter, you are welcomed to enjoy the beach with a large sandcastle made by sand sculptors and two digital sandboxes with projected colours, coastlines and scenery. The room is filled with information about the northern and southern coastlines of Sydney and a video of Sydney beach lovers is also shown in the space.
The pair of sandpits is filled with kinetic sand and sand moulds and spades for kids to build their own colourful sandcastle. For those who have never experienced kinetic sand it is a three dimensional 'toy' made of sand and silicone oil which mimics wet sand and helps you form shapes easily with it.
Once the kids have played with the sand in the pair of sandpits as well as the sandpit around the large sandcastle, they can colour in and complete a picture or write down about their favourite beach. They can also build something from the giant pile of Lego available while overlooking at the giant Lego coastline made by the 'Brickman' himself, Ryan McNaught.
We were in the room for a good hour playing in the sandpits and with Lego and Lego Duplo. Little Mister who is 1 now also joined in and liked playing with the sand and the Lego Duplo.
Little Miss was more interested in the original Lego form shapes putting little men on each piece she was building.
Once built, the kids masterpiece can be put on display.
We continued our tour of the Museum of Sydney and browsed the Demolished Sydney exhibition. This exhibition looks at the stories behind thirteen buildings which were demolished to make way to an ever changing Sydney.
The exhibition has the right amount of information, historical facts and heritage pieces and is easy to do with the kids.
It is nice for visitors (like me) who haven't grown up in Sydney to read about the history of Sydney and the people who lived there. I took a liking in reading about Henriette Lamotte, a French lady (like me) who moved to Australia for a better life.
Following the Demolished Sydney exhibition, you can see permanent collection pieces covering the design of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge and more.
We headed further down the hallway to make our very own jellyfish in the viewing cube. There's also an impressive seagull there too!
We finished off the tour by looking at the beautiful First Fleet Ships Models, watched to a video about the First Government House and headed to the Warrane Theatre to watch a video on Sydney's history - this time the video was about the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which was quite interesting.
We had a great afternoon and I highly recommend a trip to the Museum of Sydney with the family especially on those rainy days! Do grab an MOS 4 Kids little booklet for the kids at the entrance for them to fill during their visit.
The museum has toilets and a parents room on the ground level. The Museum does not have parking however we drove in for ease with our youngest and booked a parking spot online at the 131 Macquarie Street Secure Parking. We visited on the weekend and it cost us $17 for the day online vs. $28 the standard rate.
For more ideas and reviews for what to do with kids around Sydney, head to our blog where you will find reviews as well as useful guides like our Daily Spots List.