Move and Play exhibition at Science Museum

Move and Play, a special exhibition at the Hong Kong Science Museum, proved the ideal indoor escape for my 11-year-old daughter Francesca on a recent sweltering hot day.

As the name suggests, it is an interactive show encouraging children and parents to challenge their co-ordination and physical skills on 20 activities ranging from those that test your balance to ones that measure the body's reaction speed.

Located in the museum basement, the setting is somewhat dark and functional but this didn't put off the families rushing excitedly from one activity to the next.

Despite some initial scepticism when faced with a low-lit warehouse full of young boys kicking balls, Francesca said she liked the uncontrived experience of walking about and trying out what she liked in no particular order.

She particularly enjoyed the Tightrope Walking exhibit, which had a thick woven rope spread above a floor mat with a bird's eye view of Hong Kong that recreated the sense of walking between two high-rise buildings.

Soccer-related activities are especially popular, and offer an opportunity to test how accurately you shoot at goal, to test foot-eye co-ordination, or to act as a goalkeeper in lifelike virtual reality settings.

There is a good mix of old-fashioned activities such as rope skipping (surprisingly popular with mothers), classic hula hoop and Disco Donut, which tests how quickly a visitor seated in a wheelchair can follow an erratic pattern of coloured lights that illuminate different floor panels.