london

We spent the weekend in London, and had a busy time, although most of our original plans were changed at the last minute. We had intended to visit The Portrait Gallery with our home ed group on Friday, as a follow-on from the art session looking at paintings from there. However, this had to be postponed at the 11th hour. We had also planned to go to The Science Museum as a family on Saturday, which we had postponed from last month, when we cancelled our trip due to snow and ice. But with the G20 protestors planning to march along our route to The Science Museum, we decided to postpone again to avoid getting caught up in that.

So ..... with some late rejigging, Tess, Brodie & Carole spent Friday in Greenwich Park. Even then, things didn't go to plan, as we had simply intended to go to the large playground there, and maybe have a wander around the park. But the weather turned cold and wet after a sunny start, so we decided to go to the National Maritime Museum there for a while. I hadn't prepared for this, and hadn't been there before, so have since discovered that there was a whole interactive section for young children which we totally missed!!! Still, it's right on the doorstep of the flat, so we will be able to go for another visit very easily. Things we did enjoy seeing included the maritime artwork in the cafe, the large propeller in the main hall, the steam paddler wheel, some very grand royal rowing barges from 300 years ago, naval uniforms from the past, a large collection of swords, compasses and sextants ..... and the shop and the pirate ship playground outside! 

On Saturday, we travelled on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Stratford, and got our first views (for Carole, Tess & Brodie) of the Olympic Stadium building site. We then went to a place called Discover, which had been recommended to us by some other home educating friends who used to visit family near there. Discover describes itself as a story making centre, and has lots of different activities to fire children's imaginations and get them involved in 'the interactive story trail'. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there, and as it was fairly quiet when we got there, we were able to stay for 4 or 5 hours. They've got a pirate exhibition and activities from mid-May, so we'll definitely be going back over the summer!! 

Brodie crossing the sparkly river using the Trip Trap Bridge .....

Brodie in the secret cave ......

Making noises with the mystical sound machine inside the secret cave ......

Jumping around to make music in the Polka Dot Sounds room .....

Making spoon puppets .......

Tess's sparkly princess and handsome prince unicorn spoons .....

Daddy's spoon .....

Setting out a tea-party for the imaginary friends ....

Making up & recording stories in the story telling machine ....

Putting on a puppet show in the puppet theatre ....

Working puppets by turning the handles .....

Posting a post card .....

Shadow puppets ........

Discover puts on lots of special activities at weekends and in the holidays. On Saturday, they had a Jungle Book day. Someone told The Jungle Book story to the children, in a very interactive way, using puppets and getting them to join in with the noises and actions. Afterwards, they could get their faces painted as a Jungle Book character. Brodie didn't want to do any of this, but Tess thoroughly enjoyed herself, joining in with the story with great gusto. She wanted to be painted as Baloo the Bear, but unfortunately none of us could really think what he looked like (I think they were hoping mainly for tigers!), so she ended up looking a bit like a cat!!!

Tess's best Baloo the Bear pose ......

Outside, there was a fantastic playground, made mostly of natural materials, and including a letter climbing wall, a pirate ship, a space rocket, a monster slide, and a willow tunnel......

On Sunday, we met up with an old friend of Carole's and her family in Kensington Gardens. They have a 5 year old girl and a 7 year old boy, so all the children enjoyed playing together. We met at the Princess Diana Memorial fountain and played there for some time, then had lunch at the nearby cafe at the Lido on the Serpentine. We then went over to a playground in the park. Our friends had to leave after that, so our family went to pay homage to the Peter Pan statue again, and then wandered back to the river boat via another playground and the London Eye (though we didn't go on it). We had a lovely day.