Another Day, Another Museum

It is the Easter school holidays so the challenge is to keep 2 children busy without them killing me, me killing them, or them killing each other. In predictable English tradition, the school holidays begin and the heavens open up and the rain falls. Do NOT underestimate the scale of this challenge.

Our desitination this time was the Museum of London to which I turned for my salvation. As we were traveling with a rather large group I was determined not to make that classic marble mistake again! We had organised a small group of 5 boys (ages 8-9) and our wee little Abigail to descend all at once. What could possibly go wrong.

We caught the train and so far so good. We got a bargain basement group ticket for 4 adults and 5 children for only £13 more than it cost for just us 4 to go a few weeks ago. How exactly does that work? I am reminded of that line in the film Sleepless in Seattle where the little boy asks the little girl how much it costs to go to NYC. The little girl replies, "I don't know. No one knows."

I have discovered that train travel with boisterous children is a sure fire insurance policy for securing an empty carriage. People started to head towards the empty seats in our direction, heard the noise, and promptly retreated. Woo Hoo!

We were greeted upon entering the Museum and given maps and told of the day's events. Soon after Merja & William joined us and we were shown the various children's challenges and duly picked up each and every one of them. Abigail and I broke off from the group of boys to follow the medieval London tour which was incredibly informative and captivating.


We took a break for lunch and despite our best attempts to get the children engaged back into the swing of the museum they were a group of boys in desperate need of a run about. We headed for the Barbican. In typical English luck the rain started pouring down just as we headed outside. It stopped raining as soon as we were under cover of the play ground and then started again when we went to enter the park. Once again we ran for cover in the coffee shop at the Barbican.

We went home a bit soggier but with an enhanced appreciation of the Museum of London and Barbican and swore to return on a less wet grey day!

PS The Museum of London is completely free!

British Museum

A few weeks ago during the school half term, Marc and I took the children to the British Museum. I'd heard all sorts of rumours that this was allegedly the best museum in the world and I wanted to be the judge of that myself.

I also have a fairly strong opinion about how the British came to have of this stuff to put in the museum. Basically, the Brits went round the world pillaging and plundering all the great civilisations in every corner of the globe and brought home the best bits. The British Museum was built for the express purpose of showing the world these ill gotten gains.

The defenders of the museum will tell you they've got paper work for it all. Yeah, right! And pigs fly.....I didn't want any part of that.

My curiosity (and the children nagging) got the better of me. With my morals well and truly compromised, we set off for the day.

We headed straight for The Hamlyn Library in the museum which has numerous sets of trails and challenges designed for various age groups and they are all free. They not only teach the children about many items in the museum but also how to navigate a museum and scrutinise historical objects. They learned how to translate Latin (always a useful skill?). They even got to handle some objects under the watchful but not too over protective eye of a museum volunteer. Abigail can tell you all about an alabaster pot which held kohl for Egyptian eye makeup.

We worshipped the stone statue lifted from Easter Island. Seb sketched the remains of a sculpture of a roman foot in a sandal. Abigail copied the names of the busts of the Greek gods. They thrilled a woman with their knowledge of the countries of Africa (and taught us a thing or two).

I stood in awe at the Rosetta stone as I gained a better understanding of just how incredibly valuable this piece of history was in helping us to uncover the mysteries of long forgotten languages and how this has led mankind to a greater capability in translating all different texts.

As the long day drew to an end and we had seen just about all we had the energy for, Marc reminded me that we still hadn't seen the Elgin marbles. Oh yeah.....I'd always wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The Brits took these marbles from Greece a couple hundred years ago at the height of their empire building. Of course, Greece was taking very good care of them before they were taken away since they were being used as a gun powder store. But I didn't understand what that all meant.

We walked into a room and on every wall was a stone sculpture. Marc started reading the exhibit in front of us. I patiently reminded him that we were at the end of the day and if we wanted to see the marbles we should probably get a move on. Marc looked at me like I had gone completely bonkers, an expression he has perfected over the years. I gently reminded him that our highest priority right at this moment were to see the marbles. Exasperated he pointed to the four walls surrounding us and said "See!"

Oh.....but I thought marbles were little round spherical things that little boys played with in a circle on the ground and carried around in little leather bags.

No, of course not. The sculptures were taken from the walls of The Parthenon. This article can tell you specifically what they are. And this link will show you some incredible photographs of these precious treasures. Just wished I'd looked at these before I'd made a right idiot out of myself.

No matter how these treasures were acquired, they are housed here with incredible care. The museum is free. The curators take care to ensure that everyone gets the most out of their visit: adults and children alike. Our school's half term was a week earlier than everyone else's so we practically had the museum to ourselves. The only disappointment was the tea in the cafe but I can overlook that.

The children got some fantastic certificates with their names on them for completing a couple of the challenges. Everyone is still laughing about my interpretation of the marbles. And I will definitely be going back to the British Museum. Sod the morals! And the marbles.

Science Museum

OK, first of all, let me say if you are trying to access my blog using http://www.ladawn.co.uk/ you are probably experiencing some difficulties. I apologise for this. We are in discussion with my domain hosting service and will be making a change shortly. If you have been able to get here you might want to book mark http://clare-panton.blogspot.com/. That proves a bit more reliable in the short term.

Secondly, here in the UK we are drowning. It has been raining cats and dogs since midday Saturday. there are several flood warnings and watches although the River Thames does not currently have any warnings and we are not at present in any threat of danger.

Thirdly, the weather is causing havoc for our 3 day weekend. We had plans to go camping but saw the weather forecast and abandoned that plan. Quite sensibly. We had hoped for at least some long walks. But unless we want to get soaked and chilled to the bone we have decided to give that a miss as well.

Yesterday we decided to go to the Science Museum in London. Along with a gazillion other people with children all descending on the capital city for a bit of diversion.

There was a queue to get in. We stood there in the rain with all of our brollies (umbrellas). the queue moved quickly. then we stood in another line for the SpyMaster exhibit. We paid an exorbitant fee of £28 (~$50) for the 4 of us. The exhibit was so crowded we couldn't really participate in any of the computer games. Most of the exhibit was targeted at older children so Seb and Abby were not impressed. We walked round the rest of the crowded museum and tried to enjoy ourselves.

Seb liked the oldest Steam Locomotive. Abigail was not impressed with the space rockets. We then found a patterns exhibit targeted for 3-8 year olds and this was nirvana. Seb spent his entire time trying out the solving puzzles with magnetic shapes. Abigail rain from place to place. She especially liked the dancing bit that showed your form with lights on a screen. I was amazed at how quickly she learned to operate the touch screen exhibits to make shapes and patterns on a big screen in front of her. Marc and I sat on a bench and just let her wear herself out running around!

We left exhausted and stopped for some sushi at Yo Sushi at Fulham Broadway (a groovy part of London). Abigail fell asleep in the car. Seb was shattered so we skipped bath time and they went straight to bed about 1/2 hour past normal bedtime.

This morning we awoke to more rain and gale force winds ripping through the garden. God only knows what we will do to keep from driving each other crazy!