A day at the British Museum

Last Saturday my son and I had time to kill in London before going to a friend's house. I dragged him into the British Museum as it was one of my favourite museums at his age! He had been there as a toddler and was OK but as a tween he was not at all impressed...

The lady on the family desk did her best to persuade him by talking about Night at the Museum and Indiana Jones but he was not convinced! She gave us one of the children's trails but he was not at all interested... He did want to see the Crystal Skull from Indiana 4 but that was it..

However I wanted to see more so insisted that we looked at the other must see items: 

As you can see it was pretty crowded especially in the famous parts. We did manage to find a few more of the must see items, which includes the Crystal Skull:

Then I attempted to take him on the Anglo Saxon trail. He was really not interested and I barely had time to snatch a few photos as he whizzed through the exhibits:

A photographic walk through Kendal

I have taken so many photographs of Kendal that I have put some of my favourites together on YouTube:

Historic Kendal: Yard 46

I am making the most of my free time to explore more of Kendal and its interesting places and history. Today I met a friend for coffee at Yard 46 which is tucked away off the historic Branthwaite Brow. It felt like we were in Narnia with the old fashioned street light down the yard:

It wasn't a day for sitting out in the courtyard so I had to make use of the very unusual front door:

I need to find out more about the history of the building as it is so intriguing and quirky! On top of that the coffee and cake were delicious...

#CountryKids in Waterford

A change of scenery with a drive down to Waterford which is the oldest city in Ireland and the only one still bearing a Viking name. We parked on the waterfront and then walked down to Reginald's Tower, this is a medieval structure built on top of a Viking one:

Each floor of the tower had an exhibition about a different aspect of its history from Vikings to Medieval to a Georgian prison. It still very much felt medieval with the low arched doorways:

There were peep holes to act like a scary Viking through too:

Exploring Kilkenny

For our first full day in Ireland we didn't fancy going too far after travelling the whole day before. So we drove the short distance to Kilkenny to explore what the city has on offer. The first thing we spotted was our very own bar (but we didn't go in!):

The one thing Kilkenny isn't short off are pubs and bars! We wandered down to the River Nore with its colourful buildings:

Luckily for us there was space on the terrace for a late lunch with a view of Kilkenny Castle:

#CountryKids at Sudbury Hall and National Trust Museum of Childhood

I had a twitter conversation with the National Trust the other day and they suggested stopping at Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood next time I was heading down south.  So this Saturday I plumbed the address into the sat nav and off we set... My son was pretty good at helping me follow the directions and it only took just over 2 hours to reach the car park. After a little walk along a path we soon came to the actual hall itself:

As the hall was not yet open to general visitors we went into the Museum of Childhood first. It is very much a hands on museum with plenty of toys from the past to look at and play with. There was also a section showing how hard life was for children in previous centuries. My daughter was happy to crawl up a replica chimney as sweep:

It was dark and pretty cramped though a light was half way around:

The Educational Value of TV

It is amazing what my children have picked up from watching certain programmes on the TV. Yes some of what they watch appears to have no educational value whatsoever but they have learnt an amazing amount about history and art. 

Like many families we love Horrible Histories my children have been brought up from an early age to have a keen interest in history and the way this show is presented is perfect for them. They love singing along to the show especially the Kings and Queens song:

Such a fun and catchy way to learn English monarchs. Its a show I don't mind them watching over and over again.

Amazingly The Sarah Jane Adventures introduced them to the Mona Lisa:

And the show Leonardo is a fictual account of Leornado da Vinci's teenage years with amazing inventions and art.

Then there was an episode of Dr Who that introduced them to Vincent van Gogh:

They can now recognise some of his paintings such as sunflowers:

We are going to be visiting Paris in the summer and the children at age 9 & 6 are really excited about the thought of going to the art gallery that they saw on the television to see van Gogh's paintings. They also want to go and see the Mona Lisa (hope they aren't as disappointed as I was by her size!

What have your children learned from watching television?

Monday Review: A Girl For All Time

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I was sent a press release last week that shocked me about the number of secondary school aged girls who are ignorant about historical events and people such as Henry the VIIIth. Now maybe my family are unusual but I was brought up with a love of history - visiting castles etc., watching documentaries and reading history both fact and fiction. I have passed this on to my children and they took up medieval re-enactment as babies:

The founder of A Girl For All Time has decided to do her bit to turn this statistic around with the launch of a range of dolls, novels and keepsake books for girls aged 8 and over. I was lucky enough to be sent one of these to review with my daughter who has just turned 8. Her reaction when she looked in the box was ecstatic (think this is her favourite review product so far!):

With the doll having an RRP of £89.99 this a gift that I hope will be passed down the generations! The attentions to detail are incredible and when you read the book (Matilda's Secret £6.99) you can match the description of her outfit:

All of her clothes can be removed and my daughter was amazed at how many layers there were. It is also possible to buy her additional outfits to go with the story (let's just say Santa has a list of all of these from my daughter!).

We have been reading the story together at bedtime. It is written as a secret journal of Matilda Marchmont sent to court by her uncle the Duke of Norfolk to help engineer the marriage of her cousin Katherine Howard to Henry the VIIIth. It is full of little details of life at court and Tudor times such as men peeing in the fireplaces and the daily routine of the Queen's maids of honour. As a history buff I know how it all ends in tragedy but hearing it from the point of view of an innocent 13 year old caught up in it all makes for gripping reading. My daughter keeps asking for "one more section" at bed time! 

I can see why this has won awards this year. As a fabulous change from a high tech Christmas this would make a marvellous gift. Just make sure your child is beyond the stage of drawing on her dolls! Yes it comes with a large price tag but if looked after well it will be a family treasure for generations to come.

There are more dolls to come in the series (Elizabethan, Restoration, Georgian, Victorian, WW2) as Matilda's descendants tell their own stories. An amazing collection for girls 8 plus or even grown ups!

Monday Book Review: Discover the Extreme World

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We were sent this book for my 8 year old to review. She is a science nut and history buff so this was right up her street. The back cover says:

Our awesome planet as you've never seen it before

Feed your imagination with this unique insight into the world of extremes. Dedicated to exploring only the explosive, extraordinary, and incredible, these adrenaline-packed pages reveal everything from speed machines and storm chasers to ferocious predators.

The book has been put together by the Discovery Channel and has 6 sections:

• Active Earth
• Awesome Animals
• Incredible Science
• Ultimate Machines
• Super Humans
• History Revealed

When I handed the book to my daughter on the way home from school she immediately dived into a random page and started reading me facts about alphabets around the world. I was then regaled with the timeline of the history of the universe!

Each double page is dedicated to one theme with a bite size paragraph on each sub topic and plenty of illustrations. These manage to engage a child's attention for enough time for them to learn some fascinating facts. This is one of my daughter's favourite pages:

The other thing designed to appeal to its target audience is the gruesome details on some sections! To get my daughter to hand the book back to me to write this review took some coercion as she wants to keep it on her bed. As an adult I actually enjoy reading bits to my daughter and I'm being distracted by dipping into it now as I type.. The only negative thing I have to say is that the book is American and so therefore uses imperial measurements first (metric in brackets) which my daughter needed to have explained. It also uses American English which caused some confusion to her. 

The book has an RRP of £17.99 but I have found it on Amazon for only £9.17. It would make a great Christmas present for a child 8+ or indeed a great addition to the coffee table for adults to peruse.

Mystery Photo of the Week

Sometimes when I capture an intriguing photograph for my daily blipfoto it sends me on a search to find out more. Today's was a great example as what I photographed in Burneside Rd, Kendal was this:

My initial thoughts (and what I put on the description when I uploaded it) were that F.P. stood for Fire Point and that the measurement indicated the distance like on the modern metal yellow FH plates we all see on UK streets. There was a good discussion in the comments on the site which persuaded me to check out the Ordnance Survey for their abbreviations list. This gave me 3 options:

1. Foot Path
2. Face of Paling
3. Fire Plug

Now Foot Path was ruled out as there isn't one anywhere near! So time to investigate the other options. Nothing on Face of Paling but I found Fire Plug on The Free Dictionary:

a plug or hydrant for drawing water from the main pipes in a street, building, etc., for extinguishing fires.

a street hydrant to which hose may be attached.
So looks like I was almost right with my original idea but I just didn't get the name right. Wonder what mystery I can solve next week..