No - this most definitely is not a post about The Addams Family, it just happened to be the only quote about museums that I could think of...
Anyhow. Before the kids break up for the holidays, I have been trying to take Gracie to some museums (with Ella as well, of course!). It has been really interesting to see how a 4 year old takes to it all.
I thought I would mention a few of the places we have been over the past few weeks. Whilst reading my (entirely personal) thoughts, the following needs to be borne in mind:
1. Gracie has visited museums before, her favourite being the Museum of Childhood . It has the right mixture of exhibits and interactive things. It also isn't too big, but has ample space to hurtle around in (the cafe is rubbish, but we will get to that). We go here on a regular basis. This, therefore, is her benchmark.
2. We live in east London, and Gracie attends pre school 4 afternoons a week. Because of this, we tended to stay away from the South Kensington places - it takes too long to get there if you're only going for a morning (we did take a jaunt to sarf London for a museum visit, but more on that later).
3. We didn't do any special exhibitions. This is because these usually have an entrance fee (for the adult, children are usually free).
So, where have we been? The place I wanted to see was the Museum of London. We arrived and, for a £5 deposit, got an Explorer Pack. This was a rucksack containing activities, like I Spy and a jigsaw puzzle. There was also a magnifying glass.
We excitedly entered. We found a carriage pulled by horses. Not the best start. Gracie decided they were scary. To this day, I'm not sure why, as in real life she's fine, and I'm the one who gives horses a wide berth. So we tried another part of the museum. No - "I'm not going there," she declared, "it's too dark". So that was that. We did the jigsaw puzzle, discovered that we had a torch (for all the good it did us), and then went and had some cake (unsurprisingly extortionate, but more on cafes in a bit, promise!).
Definitely one to revisit on my own I think.
We had a bit more luck with the British Museum. Basically, I was dragged round at breakneck speed whilst Gracie shouted out items of interest. To be fair, trying to do the BM in a couple of hours was a big ask. We did pretty well, skipping some of the Ancient Egyptian rooms as they were "too busy. I don't want to go there".
The Horniman Museum was our day-long jaunt, taken with friends. It is a bit of a trek to do by oneself with two kids on public transport, but with others it doesn't seem as far, so we did it - 2 adults and 4 children in total.
That said, it is definitely worth the trip. The kids enjoyed it, and it was a beautiful day so we could also enjoy the grounds, including the musical play area. The music gallery is fun. You can listen to a sample of pretty much every instrument you can think of, and I was able to confirm that, yes, I really don't like the bagpipes.
There is a whole natural history section, which the kids found fascinating. Me - not so much. The massive walrus (which has its own Twitter account apparently) was, er, interesting, but I'm really not a fan of skulls and stuffed animals quite frankly. And I don't need to see a beetle close up, although I liked seeing bees doing their thing. A brilliant resource for kids though, I would definitely go again.
Whilst a student at Trinity College of Music (or Trinity Laban as it is now), I never visited The Wallace Collection, even though it was round the corner (not any more - Trinity is now in Greenwich, and the previous site is now The School of Economic Science. Nope, no idea). I thought it would be interesting to take Gracie, as it is very much a traditional gallery / museum. Not sure what some of the staff made of us clomping round, although some of them were clearly delighted to see a 4 year old passing comment. I love The Wallace Collection, not because of any of the contents, but just because the collection is so random.
Lots of paintings. Gracie doesn't do paintings, she's more into objects - vases, plates etc. And a lot of the paintings are 16th / 17th / 18th century (yawn). She does seem to be interested if the paintings are of actual people, with a story (so maybe I will try her with the Portrait Gallery). This led to a slightly tricky conversation about Joan of Arc - for some reason I couldn't bring myself to tell Gracie how she died. The following day she asked her dad. He also skirted round the issue of her actual execution, focussing instead, like I did, on her youth and bravery...
I would (affectionately) describe The Wallace Collection as essentially a well-kept tat shop. Even its own website calls it a "treasure trove". There is an AWFUL lot of armour, some of which you can try on, as well as ornate furniture and the odd sculpture. And LOADS of vases. I seem to remember an inexplicably large collection of spoons on a previous visit, but I didn't see them this time. I suppose I could have made that up...
The baby changing room is also a feeding room, so they also get extra points for that.
But our gem of a find was the Bank of England Museum. No, really. It's small, so won't take long, but is really interesting.
There's a search on the way in, through a metal detector, like at an airport. Then we were given a worksheet. They have several, depending on the age of the participant, so Gracie had I Spy. There are quite a few interactive activities, such as bank note jigsaw puzzles (pictured). There is also a boat game, in which you steer a boat representing inflation. The idea is to keep it steady, and at the end you are scored and find out whether you are any good at controlling inflation or not (insert your own George Osborne joke here).
You can feel a real gold bar and try to lift it. There's also a screen that converts an amount of money from any given year into what it would be worth today.
On the way out, once the pencil is returned, a badge is given for completion of the I Spy. A nice, metal badge / pin (pictured). A good way to kill some time in the City of London. There's no cafe ripping you off either, which I liked.
Which leads me onto another observation about museums. It is absolutely fantastic that most of our museums in London are free. Obviously they rely on donations and spending in the shop (£6.50 for a travelcard / credit card wallet, anyone?), but do the cafes / restaurants really need to be that expensive?
And why does Benugo seem to have a monopoly on supplying museums? Is this the best we can do? They are a constant, overpriced, disappointment. I can only imagine how a tourist must feel, having been suitably impressed by our cultural riches, to be confronted with daylight robbery being passed off as refreshment. Just because the menu is written on a blackboard (or, even worse, the glass that the food is displayed in), it doesn't necessarily follow that the food is any good.
So if you're thinking of taking young children to a museum, I would say do it. But do it in London, where they're free.
And take your own sandwiches.
