W5: Belfast’s Big Hit for Kids…
Parents raised on a diet of ‘Don’t Touch’ signs should take a deep breath before entering W5 in Belfast’s Odyssey Centre.
From the moment you step into this interactive galaxy, kids are touching, feeling, smelling and pressing everything in sight.
It’s like a child’s imagination laid out over several storeys.
Within seconds of shedding her coat, Rosa (5) is pumping air into giant tubes of water, watching jellyfish-like bubbles rise towards the ceiling. Beside us, another father and daughter figure out how to inflate hot air balloons.
Upstairs, you can even take a lie detector test.
Almost 200 interactive exhibits are spread over four dynamic areas – labelled ‘Start’, ‘Go’, ‘See’ and Do’. Seeing as both of my kids fall into the 0-8 bracket (Sam is one), we make a beeline for ‘Start’, a hands-on discovery area that will be familiar to fans of Dublin’s Imaginosity.
It’s like being in a candy factory, only the candy is educational rather than edible. Rosa hits the supermarket, filling a basket with plastic food. Sam can’t get over the fact that he’s allowed to sit into the driver’s seat, and spin the wheel, in a bright yellow Mini-Cooper.
Over the course of an hour or so, the kids get to lift foam tiles with a crane, shoot plastic balls into an air vortex, compare the size and texture of their hands to a gorilla’s, work a boat sail, and serve toy buns and cake to adults in the mini-café.
They can’t believe their luck.
As well as the permanent exhibits, W5, stages regular exhibitions, science demos and events. It’s clean, well-maintained, and astonishingly, there’s very little evidence of the thrashing it must take from kids on a daily basis.
An A-plus all round.
Details: 028 9046 7700; w5online.co.uk. £7.70/£5.70.
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