Saturday 15 November 2008

Victoria and Albert Museum

I adore the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. Even the entrance hall is fabulous, with it's Dale Chihuly glass chandelier.I was hoping the boys would do the next assignment of their Art Course and my eldest chose this jug to draw, but was ultimately defeated by the fish scale pattern. (This would look great in my kitchen! I wonder how much it is?)My middle son didn't want to draw, but he did like these.In a rather gloomy side gallery we found an ancient book (or, more likely, a copy) with detailed descriptions of medicinal herbs. This led to quite a game involving my son as a doctor and my daughter as worried mother with a sick child. With it was a video showing how books were made, printing presses, ink, stitching and leather. They enjoyed this.To give some direction to our visit, they each chose one object from the Hightlights page of the map. This was my little girl's choice, a Victorian decanterShe also was very taken with this, and wanted to wear it, although my eldest was quick to read the label and point out that it is actually a boys jacket.And wouldn't all little girls love this?There was an audible "ooh" on finding this cabinet! and we had fun with the photos!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fun day. Have you ever tried their backpack tours? We did one a few years ago and Tigger really enjoyed it. They guide kids through a particular bit of the museum and have an audio-guide that really gets them looking at some of the artifacts. Very well done.

Kathy said...

Now *that* looks like an art museum I would enjoy visiting, lol! My children would have enjoyed the very same items.

Gaynor said...

Personally, I love trails but I have tried some with the children in various museums and they tend not to be too keen on them. Often it ends up with a very grouchy mum trying to get them to complete the trail which becomes an end in itself! However, I also get fed up wandering around with no purpose, hence this visit we each chose something from the 'highlights' on the map and used those to structure our tour. Having said that, my little girl has enjoyed the 'Bookasaurus' at the Natural History Museum three times now, and the V&A do adult activity trails, of which I have done and enjoyed one!