Pop-up kids learning centre just the start
New hands-on museum space features activities based on early education theories
Parents in the city with wee one are endlessly on the hunt for stuff to do, preferably stuff that does the young brain some good and is not paired with corporate messages.
At the new Children’s Discovery Centre, there’s stuff to do that’s not just fun, but is also based on sound early childhood education theory. And there’s only a smattering of corporate logos in sight.
The new centre, on Strachan Ave. just south of King St. W., is the baby of real estate industry veteran Jeanhy Shim. A decade ago, Shim visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum in San Francisco with her nieces, and thought the concept would be perfect in Toronto.
Then she began raising her own daughter in a Toronto condo and became convinced that a hands-on museum for the young set was not just a cool idea, it was an essential part of a great city.
Just18 months ago — with daughter Maya a school ager (she’s now 6) — Shim began planning in earnest. She connected with experts in child development and tapped into her considerable contacts in the real estate industry.
She got donated space from the developers putting together the Garrison Point complex. The building is slated to be demolished in October, so Shim’s centre is actually a pop-up.
Unable to get bank financing or much in the way of corporate funding — the rejection for which Shim found “very humbling” — she used her own line of credit and credit cards, plus any money and donations she could get from family, to finance her project.
Along the way, Shim did find people who gave her appliances and toys. “I’ve learned if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” she says.
Curators helped her design 10 zones in this crisp, white 20,000-foot space. In one area, kids push themselves around on vehicles, in another they build with blocks. There’s a faux vet clinic, a place to do art, a campground, a storytelling area and a place to “buy” food and cart it around.
“This is not an indoor playground,” Shim clarified. Each zone stimulates kids mentally and physically — toys and objects can be played with, but none of them direct the play. There are a few brand name items, but many of the musical instruments in the “Boom Room” are pots and bowls hung on the wall. The faux food is apples and avocados. There’s nothing for sale at the front desk.
It’s odd to think that this huge, beautifully designed and executed venue will be no more in just a few months. But that’s OK with Shim: she’s using this first centre as proof of concept for a permanent space. She wants it to be on the base floors of a new condo building. She’s just not sure which one yet.
She does real estate research in her day job — which she’s somehow still managing to do — and is “measuring everything” at the centre to help her industry understand parents and what they want and need in the city.
She says she’ll use that data to help her get government, private and corporate funding for the next phase, which would be a larger site serving kids age 12 and under.
In the interim — a gap that could be a few years long — expect to see Shim and her zones popping up around the city. There are always empty spaces to be had, just as there are always kids and parents looking for educational things to do.