PERMANENT EXHIBITION:
“Children’s Worlds”

Miiamilla is the museum where a child can have their very first museum experience. In our museum child leads and adult follows.

The activities in the permanent exhibition are designed so that the whole family can explore, investigate, experience, and play together. Exhibits and thematic spaces that support social skills and emotional well-being guide children through hands-on and minds-on principles and active learning methods to:

  • Manage their basic emotions
  • Understand the feelings of others
  • Perceive their environment, home, and the wider world around
  • Stimulate free play and creativity

The permanent exhibition opened on January 11, 2024.

The core method of our exhibition is learning through the free play. Across the different rooms, All activities and methodological approaches are guided by the underlying theme of empathy – toward oneself, in relationships with others, and toward the living environment around us.

In the permanent exhibition, we have created sensory mini-environments:

  • The inner world – a safe personal space  a room to feel safe to explore and learn about emotions
  • The outer world – the surrounding environment the children’s city, where we encourage to play together and socialize through creative spaces
  • World of imagination – a playful space world of shapes and colours to re-create the world as children wish to see. 
  • In addition, the Unity space (Üksmeeletuba) – encourages children to face conflicts together and find collaborative solutions. 

While the indoor spaces reflect the life of today’s child, the outdoor exhibition allows visitors to explore the activities of children from the past in Children’s Park. The history of the park is presented through:

  • A gateway gallery with historical photos – explore the changing view of the Children’s Park from the 1930s to the 1950s and compare it with present-day park activities
  • The grand children’s Best Child in the World monument for every child in the world.
  • The ringing musical flower garden invites everyone to create harmony with the sounds of nature.
  • Other playful activity stations designed for exploration and discovery of the Children’s Park.
 

EXPLORE AND LISTEN (in Estonian)

Listen to an interview with the curators of the permanent exhibition, Sireli Uusmaa and Jane Meesmaa-Roos, and learn how the Children’s Museum Miiamilla created the new exhibition “Children’s World Spaces”. Tune in to the museum podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

In addition, the museum has published a small guide on emotional literacy, related to the thematic rooms and exhibits in the permanent exhibition. The practical book, Journey into Children’s Worlds: A Small Emotional Literacy Guide for Adults, gathers valuable expert advice and is recommended reading for any adult, both parents and professionals working with children.

OUTDOOR EXHIBITION “Children with Green Fingers” AT OUR MUSEUM’S MINI GARDEN 

Miiamilla’s mini garden hosts an always-open outdoor exhibition, “CHILDREN WITH GREEN FINGERS”, which allows visitors to engage independently, learn gardening skills, and cultivate a green mindset. The outdoor exhibition is open 24/7 and free of charge for everyone.

The Children’s Museum Miiamilla mini garden was opened in 2014. The environmentally themed exhibition “Children with Green Fingers” was launched on 14 May 2021. 

This exhibition, dedicated to an eco-friendly way of life, guides children – and all visitors – step by step toward becoming friends with nature. Miiamilla has always been a hands-on museum, where things can be touched and played with. Activity is also the key word in the garden exhibition, as seven differently shaped activity points invite children to explore nature more closely and take part in engaging tasks around the museum grounds. While playing in the mini garden, children gain environmental knowledge through experience:

  • From a large leaf, visitors can learn about biodiversity in nature. 
  • The insect hotel and oversized leaves green leaf help explain why insects are essential to the environment. Children can also help nature, like bees, by moving from flower to flower. 
  • At the “sun table,” visitors can listen the surrounding to silence and notice that nature is never truly silent. City noise can be left behind for a moment to focus on natural sounds. 
  • One of the giant carrots helps explain the life cycle of plants and how everything in nature is part of a natural cycle. 

You can learn more about the exhibition by watching a video of the Miiamilla mini garden or reading an interview with the exhibition curator and head of the museum director Jane Meresmaa-Roos on the Tallinn City Museum blog.