Review: KidZania London for a fun and educational day out for kids

The other day I showed Grandma N a picture of Big Girl, and I could tell she was impressed. It looked like Big Girl was on radio.

Our five-year-old was sitting in a radio studio reading a news report and a light on the wall indicated that she was on air. What the picture didn’t show was that outside the room there were mums standing and giggling, feeling very proud of little girls who had their first experience as radio journalists.

We had been invited to KidZania at Westfield London to review, and being a radio journalist was just one of the many fun job-based activities the children did during the visit to this indoor city run by children.

KidZania is designed as a small city with a supermarket, a hospital, a university, a bank, restaurants, a football stadium, shops, a theatre, a tour bus, a newspaper, an estate agent and much more, and in this city it is the children who can do the jobs.

We had originally arranged to come for KidZania’s World Book Day when KidZania had partnered with the Little Tiger Group to celebrate reading and writing books, and introducing little visitors to all sorts of publishing job functions, but we postponed our visit due to the snowy weather that week and the focus became on doing a wide range of different jobs.

I think the range of jobs children can try out in KidZania is impressive, and although there were no queues when we visited on a Friday after school, the girls did seven job-based activities before we felt it was time to go home. The jobs they did ranged from working in housekeeping at the hotel to being cabin crew on an airplane, and after completing each activity, which typically lasts 10 to 20 minutes, they were paid in Kidzos, the city’s currency.

They also did the training to become firefighters and helped put out a fire in the city, and later they had a go at flying, completing the training to become pilots. For these types of activities, the children pay a fee in Kidzos for their training, which I think helps teach young visitors about money.

I also think KidZania London gives children a unique insight into what jobs people do and helps increase their knowledge and understanding of the world. I walked out feeling the girls must have learnt so much in the few hours we spent there after school. In fact, it feels pretty fantastic to have an educational London family attraction like this so close by, and I think KidZania is somewhere we will be coming back to regularly for a number of years to come, as it is equally relevant to much older children.

On the way out, we had the opportunity to buy photos taken by a photographer during the activities–where parents typically wait outside–and after checking out of the city the girls could also spend the Kidzos they’d earned in a special shop with a selection of little pocket money toys like stamps and pencils.

This was one fun afternoon out for the children–and a very relaxing one for me who sat outside each experience chatting with my friend while the children were on their learning adventure.

I would recommend KidZania to families with children aged from 4 and over, as 4 is the minimum age for the majority of the activities.

Tags: Activities for children, Attractions, Careers, KidZania, London, Review, Westfield, Westfield London