Thursday, October 30, 2008

Winchester City Museum

Class was cancelled today and you should have heard us cheer in the classroom. It didn't sound like a class of mature, post-graduate students, LOL. Even our lecturer called us b*stards (in good faith, of course)!

It was really a nice surprise because we've been in class from 9am-5pm, Mondays to Thursdays and 9am-12pm on Fridays. After 4 weeks of this, no wonder we sounded like a rave party when class was cancelled. Never before have I been so glad to hear of someone being stuck in really bad traffic. (My lecturer had been stuck for over an hour and couldn't get to us in time.)

Woot!

So what do you do when life suddenly presents you with a free day? :)

I decided to just amble about in town, and I stumbled into the Winchester City Museum by accident. And it was a good thing too, because I discovered how child-friendly it was.

"The museum welcomes families with children of any age. Don't worry too much about your toddler's noise; we're not the cathedral, you don't have to whisper! Try to relax about your children touching things. If objects shouldn't be touched they are safely out of harm's way."

http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Documents/Museums/Under%205s%20guide%20for%20web.pdf

And it's FREE. (So this is where some of their 40% income taxes go!)

A special exhibition on the Vikings just started. They cleverly used museum theatre and it was fun to see some ancient characters come to life. On one floor there was a soldier telling everyone about his chainmail, helmet and shield. The kids even got to try on helmets and carry shields. They couldn't wear the chainmail though, because (in the words of the soldier), "The chainmail's so heavy that after wearing it, you will have arms like a gibbon." LOL.


On another floor, there was a lady telling stories.

DN might still be a bit too young for these activities, but there were these little tables and chairs peppered all over the museum. If you look closely, you can see crayons and colouring paper for little ones to colour on.

I hope DN will like it here.

No comments: