Continuing our looks back with the Philippines! We were looking for some uniquely kid activities for my son to do while we were on our trip to the Philippines a couple of years ago. There was a little a cousin who was a couple of years younger than our guy is and they played well together, but as our guy was mainly traveling with adults we needed to make sure there was plenty of fun for him. We definitely found that at Kidzania!
Kidzania Manila is an amazing place where the entire “world” is scaled down to “kid-sized” and run (essentially) by kids. The whole place is sponsored by real world businesses where kids go in and “work” for 20 minutes at a time and earn Kidz Bucks (which they can later use to buy souvenirs at one of the stores in Kidzania).
Like the real world, it has working transportation and currency systems and kids get to pick where they want to
“work.” They can work as many jobs as they want in the allotted time slot and the jobs range from fire fighters to making hamburgers at McDonalds. Parents are not allowed into the training sessions or to do any of the work, but can watch through big windows. The kids get to do everything themselves which is incredibly empowering for them. The age ranges for the different jobs are posted on the signs at the front door of the “business” along with how much the kids will earn and how long the job will last. In places like the Holiday Inn or on the airplane there are different jobs available to try in one location.
Nearly everything was done in English making it easy for westerners to participate. We felt like this would be great for kids between the ages of 4-12. Different aspects were best for older kids and younger kids often got to work along side their older counterparts.
This was something our guy talked about for the rest of the trip! Check it out!
Leave a Reply