At KidZania, kids are invited to try different careers and test their skills, learning about salaries and money at the same. A great day out for kids and parents!
We were lucky enough to be invited to try out KidZania, a place that I had wanted to visit for a long time. We had a nice easy trip there from Hackney on the Overground all the way to Shepherd’s Bush, which took around 50 minutes overall.
The kids were already incredibly excited so it was hard to contain them in the queue. When we got to the desk, we were asked a few questions and given a bracelet to wear (adults too!) that was used for tracking the kids in case they got lost, and was also a record of the jobs they chose. They were also given a credit card each, loaded with some KidZania currently, kidZos, which they could spend on a toy at the end and also to access some careers. I’ll explain more later…
Inside, there is basically an indoor city created solely for kids. Adults are not allowed to join in the sessions but there are places to watch from. There were so many jobs and the hardest part was knowing what to try! The kids diverged quickly and wanted to try different things. My four-year-old was a vet (which was one of the careers you had to pay to try), while my six-year-old tried being a courier (a paid one). So a note for any single parents, do drag along someone to help if you have more than one child because they may well want different things!
After that, we managed to get the four-year-old being a courier too and he was delighted to ‘get paid’ for it! He needed more help than our older one but it was still great to start explaining the idea of working and getting paid. After that, they tried being a shop cashier and a customer. They also tried out being cabin crew, air conditioning workers (they got to crawl through some tunnels for that one) and window cleaners.
There are also a few paid activities you can do – making a food wrap, decorating biscuits and a few more, but you don’t need to do those if you don’t want to.
The whole concept is interesting and I’d love to return in a few years when the boys have a bit more of an idea of what they might like to try out as they get older. There was sometimes some talking and the four-year-old struggled a bit but it was still really interesting for him.
Best of all, at the end, they could cash in their kidZos for a toy in the Department Store. It wasn’t anything big but they both went away quite happily with a rainbow pen. You can also save your kidZos on your credit card for when you return so your child could save up for the bigger toys.
Overall, we had a very exciting and interesting day at KidZania. It was a very stimulating environment and some of the queues were long (we couldn’t get into the fire fighting one as it was so popular) but it was great to see my kids trying things out. I would definitely return there in the future to help them explore possible jobs and if nothing else, it’s an interactive day out where they get to be independent from you for short periods and explore.
More information about KidZania can be found here: https://kidzania.co.uk/
