The old charm of Singapore comes back to life as you take a lovely stroll through this very quaint and interesting museum that is housed in a tiny shop house. Tucked away in the historic Bussorah Street within the Kampong Glam area, the Children Little Museum is for the children to see and understand the things of our good old days and a place for the adults to reminiscence. you can disappear from the present into a tiny two-floor museum filled with childhood memories. At first glance, the shop seems to have the usual two dollar trinkets, but once you come closer you'll see that the toys are the kind you haven't seen in a while. Adults will walk down the memory lane as they reminisce about their childhood, while children will find it a delight to discover the vanishing activities from the yesteryear. At the Children Little Museum, visitors can get lost in childhood memories and kids can see what playtime used to mean. A tin robot greets you with a welcoming grin at the entrance, where marbles, plastic balloons and other simple toys are sold. The exhibit of Children Little Museum will give us an insight into people’s habits whether it is a tin toy, or your favourite 'kids' magazines. One will be able to ponder and daydream of how life might have been. Children Little Museum is a treasure trove of childhood curios including everything from old school supplies to old wooden rocking horses. More than just a museum, it is a place where children get to see and understand the remnants of the good old play days and a place for the adults to reminisce about their childhood. One should view the toys of our yesterdays and get a glimpse of the past in relation to our present. Embark on a journey that takes you through the snippets from the past. The privately owned Children Little Museum sits fairly inconspicuous in one of the first few two-storeyed shophouses in front of the Sultan Mosque. However, an adult-sized robot mascot along the five-foot walkway and a large kite and chapteh below the window sills of the second-storey, lure in curious tourists and passers-by. On the ground floor are vintage paraphernalia reflecting the beginnings of this museum, started by three vintage collectors out of their desire to share things from the good ole simple carefree days and to allow us to appreciate our heritage. Here, you can browse and buy only certain items they are willing to part with. There are old watches, jewellery, clothes, toys, gramophones, telephones, radios, and a bright red 1950s art-deco fridge amongst other delightful finds. Besides being great photo backdrops, the interactive exhibits (mostly painstakingly built by hand by the owners) can also be great conversation starters with the kids. A cabinet of wind-up robots, the wonder objects of children and placed at the foot of the stairs, marks the entrance to the Children Little Museum. A visit to the Children Little Museum saw the selves’ exhibit with things that girls and boys played to a collection of old primary school books. A special highlight is the famous street mobile cinema where the children once pay 5 cent to watch 5 yards of film. The supermarket and television commercial have revolutionized our existence for better or worse. The days of friendly carefree chat has passed. Relics and trivia tell us about our not too distant past. A wooden drinks stall lets you 'serve' coloured syrup and old bottled favourites like Green Spot and Kickapoo to friends. The place is small, but every inch is neatly packed with carefully curated, multi-faceted olden day gems to keep young and old mesmerised and astounded for a very long time. Kampong playground favourites like guli (marbles), gasing (spinning tops), darts and parachutes. Shelves with old cinema reels, biscuits, drinks, tin toys, stuffed toys, plastic guns, plastic soldiers, musical toys and school supplies from uniforms to yellowed textbooks line the walls. This place will portray a reminder of life when school was the gathering point for the community. Everybody knew each other and the talk was about home life, illness and matters pertaining to the betterment of the area. Almost everybody treated each other with honesty and kindness. Children Little Museum conducts a DIY Toy Workshop to help one to go back to a world where entertainment was achieved through creativity and improvisation with materials from our natural surroundings. It is a workshop that aims to bring back the kampong spirit of creation rather than the modern concept of consumerism.
Children Little Museum is more than just a museum itself, it's a place that educate, playing, taking photos, buying old school goodies and explore what our parent play during kampong days where people can't afford to buy toys, except making DIY wooden toys and traditional games. The owners of Children Little Museum's aim is to help to converse our history and heritage within our limited capacity. Although Singapore is a young country, starting to conserve the things even from the 1950’s is never too late and of significance to many Singaporeans. Children Little Museum definitely gives everyone a chance to reminisce many of their good old childhood memories. Make a special pilgrimage to Children Little Museum, unlock the memory vault and show the younger generation how the kampong childhood was like.
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