On the weekends, we are always looking for something that is FUN for the kids to do. Something "kid approved" A few of our friends were telling us about KidSpark located in the Ontario Science Centre, so we decided to go check it out.
KidSpark is a place for kids 8 and under where they can learn-through-play with their caregivers. They call it the Children's Museum at the Ontario Science Centre. This place was amazing! It was HUGE. So much for the kids to see and do.
My son had so much fun at the Pin Walls. They have 2 walls -a small and a large wall. You push the pins in to create impressions using your body. He would push his hand, face and body into the pins and laughed at the way it looked.
He loved was the Waterplay Area. He got to catch fish, play with waterwheels, boats, and make bubbles!! They also had cute little plastic aprons for the kids to put on, so they wouldn't get wet. Of course he had to be one of those kids that refused to put on one. I think it was because he was so excited, lol!
I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Toddler Playspace. They had 2 sections of KidSpark, and both had a Toddler Playspace inside. Since my kids are 3 years apart in age, they definitely like to do different things. My daughter isn't even walking yet, so this play area was golden! She spent most of the time there with either myself or my husband. Every now and then we would switch and hang out with our son at the other stations. He even liked the toddler area too, and sometimes he would join us.
Everywhere we turned there was something different to see and do. My son never wanted to leave!
He had a lot of fun playing the matching and memory game. For the matching game, you had to match each reptile with the right head, body and feet by spinning the cylinder around. For the memory game, you had to have all the cube "faces" out. Then, turn one cube to see a shape or colour, then turn around another cube to see if you can find a match. If they didn't match, he had to turn the "faces" out again. If they did match, he would then have to turn both cubes until he got a piece of the mystery picture.
Another fun section was learning about the body. They had a large Doctors table where you could pretend to play Doctor and check out your patients x-rays. They also had a scale, eye chart, and a camera eye that magnified 240 times. My son had so much fun putting his sweater and hand under the camera eye.
In the other portion of KidSpark they had a section where you could build your own Roller Coaster. This was pretty neat. You could change the length of the track, and shape of the loops to create your own Roller Coaster. After that, you could test it out by grabbing a ball and putting it down one and watching it go.
I loved how they had scientists walking around KidSpark, helping kids at different stations and seeing if anyone had any questions.
My son loves anything construction, so when he saw you can "Build-A-House" he couldn't have ran over there fast enough. He worked together with other kids by adding foam bricks to the house.
They have a cute miniature Market as well. Kids can shop for everything from fruit, juice, fish and eggs, and take turns being the cashier.
The music studio was another big hit. My son loved dancing to his favourite songs against a colourful screen.
If you have kids under the age of 8, I definitely recommend checking it out. It has plenty of activities to keep your children occupied for a while. We were there over 3 years and could of stayed longer if we didn't have to put our daughter down for a nap.
The Ontario Science Centre is located at 770 Don Mills Road in Toronto. For more information on KidSpark, hours and admission, visit their website HERE
Disclaimer: I was provided complementary tickets for this review but all opinions are my own.
