One of the activities on our trip to Northern Europe was to visit several community activity venues in Finland - the Hjorika Science Center, the Anthem Library and the "Children's Town". Finns care for and respect children, and the entire society provides many All Rights Reserved for children. Benefits. Whether it is the science center, the library or the "children's Town", what we feel is the efforts made by Finns to build child-friendly communities.

Heeureka Science Center
Our first stop was the Heeureka Science Center. The center was funded and built by the Helsinki municipal government, enterprises and scientific groups, and is open to all, including free for children under the age of six. We saw mothers pushing baby strollers in at the entrance of the science center. The activity programs set up in the center include those for younger children and those suitable for teenagers to explore. The center is open all year round and attracts nearly 300,000 visitors each year.
Here, abstract scientific knowledge has transformed into an engaging exploration activity. The entire science center offers a wide range of facilities and equipment that can be viewed, experienced and operated. It is also equipped with smart panels as operation AIDS. People can choose different languages of various countries on the panels to understand the operation instructions. Even illiterate children can understand how to operate through the vivid demonstration pictures provided on the smart panel. This kind of visual explanation is a manifestation of being child-friendly. Meanwhile, the various exploration activities set up by this center do not involve abstruse scientific knowledge, but common scientific phenomena in life, covering mechanics, acoustics, optics, electricity and other knowledge. This knowledge has been carefully designed and presented to children in a way that conforms to their cognitive characteristics. It is easy to understand and combines education with entertainment, which can arouse children's strong interest in exploration. The Science Center also offers excellent interaction opportunities for parents and children. In the venue, parents can explore together with their children and complete experience projects together. The instructions on the smart panel include brief introductions to the scientific principles behind different projects. Parents can explain them to their children after reading to help them understand.
The following introduces several impressive experience projects.
As soon as we entered the venue, we saw several simulation car models. This is a car driving experience project. The car model looks exactly the same as the real car. The only difference is that its front windshield is an interactive display screen. The experiencer can select the driving scene and mode they want on the screen. After "starting" the car model, they can experience the feeling of driving by controlling the steering wheel, the accelerator and the brake. Both adults and children can participate in the experience of this project.

In the "Classical Physics Experiments" exhibition area, there are many visual experience projects. For instance, in an experience area, there is a small projector and a wooden stick. If the tester stands in front of the projector and quickly swings the stick up and down to form a flat surface, they can see the image played by the projector projected onto this flat surface. For instance, a vertical rotating pole is installed on a table, with a magnetic panel at the top. Different magnetic stickers can be attached to the front and back of the panel. When we stick the magnetic stickers printed with birdcages and those printed with little birds on the front and back sides of the magnetic panel respectively, and then move the panel with our fingers to make it rotate rapidly around the pole, we will see the scene of "birds in the cage".
In the "Classical Physics Experiments" exhibition area, what impressed us the most were three tall cylindrical water tanks. Although they look similar, they are designed for different scientific phenomena. In the first water tank, there is a small boat. The experiencer can press a button to create bubbles in the water. As the number of bubbles increases, the boat will gradually sink into the water. After the bubbles disappear, the boat will rise to the surface again. For the second water tank, the tester can press a button to form circular bubbles in the water and watch these bubbles rise from the bottom of the tank and gradually grow larger. For the third water tank, the tester can press the button to form a vortex in the water. The greater the pressure applied, the more vigorously the vortex will rotate. Through actual operation, the tester can adjust the pressing force and speed, and observe the changes taking place inside the water tank.
There is also a very interesting interactive project in this exhibition area - a terrifying "bed" covered with sharp steel needles. When the visitors lie on it, they will find that there is no pricked sensation, just like lying on a flat plate. Older children may be able to associate it with physical concepts such as pressure.

There are many lifelike dinosaur models in the "Dinosaur World" exhibition area. They can turn their necks and open their mouths, with a very high degree of simulation. The real-time changing background and the intermittent rumbling of thunder also create different climate scenes, making people feel as if they were in the Jurassic era. On one side of the exhibition area, there is a sandy patch. Hidden in the sand is a model of a dinosaur skeleton fossil. Children can pick up the "archaeological tools" placed beside it and imitate paleontologists in excavating "dinosaur fossils". In addition, there are VR experience devices in the exhibition area. After putting on VR glasses, the visitors can obtain the perspective of a newly born dinosaur baby and truly feel the world as seen by the dinosaur baby. This immersive experience project has attracted many parents and children.
In the "Our Brain" exhibition area, there are many interactive mini-games. Children can play the piano, sing and dance in the music room following the prompts, exercising their brainpower and exploring the impact of the activities of the cerebellum and cerebellum on people. You can also sit on a soft cushion that makes different sounds and feel the memory patterns of your brain. Or perhaps sit in a small room with a sofa, hold a chocolate in your mouth, close your eyes and listen, follow the prompts, and let both your body and mind relax. These interesting little games can all be experienced by children together with their parents.
There are also some small rooms in the science center, providing a wide variety of low-structured materials, such as plastic rods of different colors that can be joined together and water-clear building blocks, etc. The quantity is sufficient, allowing children to freely build with their imagination.
It is worth mentioning that in the science center, there is also a machine that can produce a unique commemorative coin exclusively for each participant. After scanning the QR code, the participant takes a profile photo of themselves. The machine will then read the photo and produce a commemorative coin engraved with the participant's profile image. The machine is equipped with transparent partitions, so the experiencers can see the entire process of commemorative coin production through the partitions.
In conclusion, the Heeureka Science Center is filled with equipment that children can operate and experience personally, featuring extremely strong interactivity and fun. More importantly, these projects are all ones that parents and children can operate and experience together, providing opportunities and space for parent-child interaction.
Ode Library
On the same afternoon, we arrived at the Oddi Library, the national Library of Finland. It is said that the library was built by the government at a cost of nearly 100 million euros. It is a fully open library with no security guards and no need for security checks. Both Finns and foreigners, rich and poor people can come here to borrow books.

The library has three floors in total. The first floor is a public space, featuring a multi-functional hall, a cinema, a restaurant, a coffee shop and a space for readers to freely communicate. From the first floor to the second floor, there is a spiral staircase. As you ascend the steps, you can see interesting sentences printed on them: "For those worthy of love", "For those who have failed", "For the innocent"... It is said that at the beginning of the design of this library, the designer once solicited ideas from the citizens - for whom was this library built? In the end, a total of 400 answers were collected. From this, everyone concluded that this library was built for everyone. The designer engraved these answers on the steps.
The second floor of the library is the creative activity area, where interested readers can study. Here, there are screening rooms, music production rooms, media rooms, discussion rooms, maker Spaces, etc. Here, there are also 3D printers, sewing machines and other manufacturing tools and equipment that anyone can use. When we were visiting the library, we happened to see a mother and daughter borrowing a sewing machine to process their own fabric. They were comparing the dimensions and recording the data at the same time, trying to sew a floral dress. The concentrated expressions of the mother and daughter were deeply engraved in our minds.
On the third floor of the library, all the physical books in the library are displayed. There are only 100,000 volumes of books here, which is just a small part of the 3.5 million collections of the entire Helsinki Public Library system. The bookshelves only occupy one third of the entire floor area, and they are not tall, making it very convenient for people to get books and flip through them. Meanwhile, the third floor is also the most open and lively space in the entire library. It not only has a spacious outdoor balcony with a great view, but also features large areas of step zones and slope zones on both sides of the interior. The step area is equipped with movable soft cushions, while the slope area has fixed seats where readers can sit, lean or lie down to read in a relaxed manner. People can read books, work or enjoy the beautiful scenery outside the window.
On one side, the step area and the slope area are the playgrounds for children. Here, they can even run, climb and jump to their heart's content. Above the steps, there is a large flat area covered with carpets. We saw that many children had taken off their shoes and were sitting on the carpet, building with the building blocks provided by the library. They also made small tents out of the soft cushions made of non-woven fabric in the library and hid inside. Parents also build with their children or sit on the carpet and read picture books together with them. The children's book area features floor-standing bookcases specially designed for kids at an appropriate height. Even the books in the top compartments of the bookcase can be easily reached by children. The way children's books are placed is also different from that of adult books. They are placed diagonally, exposing a large area of the book cover to facilitate children's understanding and selection. Each small bookcase is labeled with letters like "ABC", and children can return the books they have read to the bookshelf by themselves according to the first letter of the book title.

The care that the Ode Library shows to children has touched us deeply. It respects children's independent consciousness and the right to make their own choices, and does not forget their future development. While providing services to everyone, it has never forgotten to create an autonomous space for children.

Children's Town
We also visited the "Children's Town" in Finland, which is a space entirely for children and a great place tailored for them to play role-playing games. There are many rooms in the "Children's Town". Some are decorated like classrooms, some like ships, some like kitchens, and some are furnished with traditional Finnish ethnic costumes, and so on. Each room has a different layout. Here, parents and children play games and perform together. We came to one of the rooms, where a performance stage was set up. Four children dressed up independently and wore beautiful performance costumes to perform. When they finished their performance and walked off the stage, a mother sitting in the audience gave them a warm round of applause and took a photo as a memento. The children's fantasies and their curiosity about each character were all fulfilled in the "Children's Town".
By visiting these venues, we felt the Finns' friendliness towards children. They truly place children in an important position and focus on their development. Whether it is the numerous exploration and experience projects in the science center and the "Children's Town", or the areas in the library reserved for children to read and play freely, all reflect the care of adults for children, truly allowing children to be autonomous, independent and free.