Dozens of children sitting in front of kite frames, pieces of paper and glue tried to concentrate while listening to the directions given by an instructor during a Weekend@TheMuseum event held at the Indonesian Layang-layang (Kite) Museum in South Jakarta on Saturday afternoon.

Bigger children eagerly applied the glue to the frames, while the smaller ones impatiently waited for the guide to help them.

The children, aged from 4 to 12, then cut the paper to fit the kite frames after assembling them.

'€œYou can name your kite after gluing the paper to the frame,'€ the instructor, Dayat, said while distributing crayons.

One parent, Euis Handayani, said she was interested in bringing her 5-year-old daughter, Dinda Ghania Althafunnisa, to the event because she loved playing outdoors. '€œDinda loves playing outside, but I am running out of options for venues. We usually end up going to shopping malls on weekends.'€

Euis said she did not really prefer malls, whose games did not trigger creativity. '€œTherefore, when learning about this event, I directly signed her up,'€ she said.

The 41-year-old said she hoped Dinda would learn about kite-making and meet new people.

'€œI also want her to be more patient through following the steps of making the kite,'€ she said.

Besides making kites, Weekend@TheMuseum also offered activities like touring through the museum to learn about different types of kites from across the country and around the globe, watching videos about kites and painting umbrellas and puppets.

Dayat explained to the children about dozens of types of kites '€” traditional and modern '€” with various shapes like fish, traditional houses, birds and dragons.

'€œKites have been part of our culture for many years. Some tribes even use kites to catch fish,'€ he said while showing kites made of leaves from Lampung.

There were also kites from Thailand, China and Malaysia.

Shanti Persada, director of the Bina Museum Indonesia Foundation that initiated the event, said Weekend@TheMuseum was held because of concern for local museums.

'€œWe always visit museums when we travel abroad, but many of us do not even recognize that we have many museums back home,'€ she said.

Shanti said the first event held at the kite museum was aimed at giving an alternative to parents looking for more interactive and educational weekend activities.

'€œThey can learn how to make kites as well as get knowledge about kites here,'€ she said, adding that 70 children were registered to join the event.

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