Funharmonics concert - Transport of Delight

We arrived reasonably early to the try an instrument and circus skills in the South Bank Centre's Clore ballroom but already it was busy and noisy, to start with The Buggies kept their distance; however after a little customising and cajoling both bigger buggies tried a violin and buggy-B (3 yrs) also had a go at a 'Cello. The event staff worked with them with such confidence and assurance that they both got a huge amount out of the experience; full marks for this.

The concert, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was a good balance of music against activity. Including a set of animations put together using drawing from a London primary school; this, I thought was particularly effective. The show was based around a transport theme, although this theme was sometimes rather over-tried in order to ensure a steady streem of popular tunes. That said, the best way to pressent music to young children, in my mind at least, is to provide a good supply of popular tunes in a relaxed, tolorant atmosphear with a confident and enthusiastic pressenter; full marks for this also.

There now seem to be a good number of groups providing music for young people. As we left my Grand-bug commented that when she was a girl she had to wait until she was seven before being allowed to a concert; what an oppotunity we have today!

What: Concert and try an instrument
Where: Royal Festival Hall (South Bank Centre)
Getting there: Walk from Waterloo or Embankment; map
Cost: £4 - £7 (Children) £8 - £14 (Adults)
Again: Yes; the group do three concerts a year
Try: BBC Children's Prom or concerts by Atarah Ben-Tovim
Top tip: Turn up early to try an instrument and work out where your having lunch in advance. Giraffe will be busy!

Boat making at the Maritime Museum

As always a day couldn't be better if is started with a trip on the Docklands Light Railway. This trip ended in Greenwich hoping to catch a sight of what is left of the Cutty Sark and take in a trip to the Maritime Museum. The museum is in the very impressive surroundings of the Royal Naval College, designed by Christopher Wren, which is always worth walking around on a nice day.

We only visited a small amount of the full museum on the ground floor; the only real hands on exhibits in this was a wave machine showing how waves form and break going up a beach, the Buggies all like to play with this. However, this was not the only thing that captured their imagination. An exhibition of the trans-Atlantic liners gave plenty to talk about, an exhibition of arctic exploration and a steam engine from a small boat also gave a lot.

So to the boat making; this was a paper craft affair along the cutout and glue together, the event was very popular and some kids made very creative models the Buggies, on the other hand, decided to keep things simple shunning even a deck for any would be sailors to walk about. Sadly, like many such events no real attempt was made to bring the museum into the activity, making boats could have been at the local children's centre and both Buggies would have got just as much out of it.

In conclusion a good museum for the Buggies and one we will visit again but if I'm looking for creative arts and crafts I would prefer something like the art trolley at the Tate.

What: Boat making
Where: National Maritime Museum
Getting there: Walk from "Cutty Sark" tube station or get the river boat to Greenwich; map
Cost: Free
Again: Definitely will visit the museum again to see the other exhibitions.
Try:
Arts and crafts: The art trolley at the Tate
Transport and boats: London Transport Museum, Science Museum, London Canal Museum
Top tip: Go on a nice day, although the museum is indoors the area is very nice to walk around.

Apple Day at Vestry Museum

Vestry Museum is one of Walthamstow's real treasures; housed in what has been both a workhouse and then the local police station the museum charts local history covering much of the last two hundred years. The best exhibit is the first petrol powered motor car built in Britain. A garden outside houses various herbs and flowers along with various outdoor exhibits including signs, sundials and a roman coffin.

Today's visit was all in honor of the apple.

On entry both bigger Buggies made a beeline for the car and various toy trains around the museum (no dinosaurs here for Buggy-D) and had to be dragged back to the garden. Apple cakes (complete with a paddy from Buggy-D), apple bobbing, apple drawing, apple crushing, apple drinking, apple growing were all on offer adding up to a surprisingly entertaining day. Not a vast amount for the Buggies but being local there were plenty of friends to be entertained by and there was always the fall back of some old toy trains and a very old car.

What: Apple Day
Where: Vestry House Museum
Getting there: Walk from Walthamstow Central; map
Cost: Cheap
Again: Yes
Top tip: Have a cake, yum.

Gamalan

With shadow puppets and the disappearing rooms so far the day had been quite a long one and the buggies were getting tired so we spend what little time was left listening to the Gamelan concert. I've heard a Gemalan orchestra once before in a Proms concert at the Albert hall; the intricate designs of the drums and gongs worked very well against the high Victorian setting, the setting behind this orchestra was the rather more incongruous Heywood gallery!

Surprisingly both Buggies listened quite attentively to the music and, even after a long day caused little trouble until Buggie-D had to answer the call of nature and we decided to call it a day and return home.

What: Gamalan orchestra
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Try: The south bank have many concerts in their free spaces.

Disappearing rooms

At lunch time we met up with Mrs Bug and ate lunch before investigating the disappearing rooms on the terrace. The fountain is made up of four “rooms” whose walls are 7ft high fountains that switch on and off allowing people access to the room. While the fountain or wall is off you can walk into the room, when it is on you just have to wait. The same fountain was here last summer where a nearly two year old Buggy-B unwittingly wandered into a room as the fountains around it started. Not wishing him to be cut off from the Bug even for the few seconds by a wall of terrifying water I jumped over the fountain as it started; the result was a wet Bug and a screeming Buggie. This year was much more successful, both buggies ended up soaking but very happy.

What: Disappearing rooms
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Again: If I'm around, its around and the weather is good, I'm sure we will pay a visit!
Try:I'm not aware of many good fun fountains in London. The play area in Finsbury park is well worth checking out though. Map

Shadow puppets

The shadow puppet workshop at the South Bank Centre were based around the stories of Kancjil the Mousedeer; Kancjil may not be the biggest or strongest of the Indonesian jungle dwellers but his brains and cunning get him out of many problems.

The workshop contained kit and instructions for making various characters from the plays and a couple of light boxes to then try them out in, I suspect that the intention was to then put on the plays at the end, if this happened then it was after I left and it didn't look like it was going to! Also provided were a number of story sheets with various stories of Kancjil's adventures.

The puppets were too complex for either Buggy to manage, but the opportunity to cut up pieces of paper is never missed. However, Buggy-D (4 yrs) was engaged enough with the idea to help with sticking and some cutting and things while I told Kancjil and the Crocodile to him. Afterwards he did get a lot out of trying the puppet in the light box; since he could not see this I videoed it on my phone which he enjoyed watching.

Conveniently placed next to the workshop were some lifts in a glass lift shaft, this managed to stave off sufficient boring bits for Buggy-B who, at nearly three, was still to young to really enjoy the workshop.

What: Shadow puppets workshop
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Again: I'll possibly try making a light box and puppets at home
Try: Plenty of arts and craft activities exist, try the art trolley at Tate Modern

Storytelling at Museum in the Docklands

For the two bigger Buggies a trip on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is a trip out on its own; as we left Stratford station Buggy-D wistfully remarked "This is my favourite railway in the whole world"
"Now, there's an accolade" I replied.
"Where?"

The Museum in the Docklands is housed in an old warehouse on the West India Quay, despite the time of year the weather was fine so we decided to eat our packed lunch sitting on a bench on by the side of the water. The added temptation of a group of boats to look at kept the Buggies more than happy. In order to generate some interest in London Bridge I told them the story of The Peddler of Swaffham in which a Norfolk peddler makes a journey to London Bridge only to find everything he wanted was back at his home in Swaffham.

Next step is into the museum and checking the times; the staff on reception didn't know it was happening, not a good start, but after a bit of investigation and talking on walky talkies the times were ascertained and we made our way into the Mudlarks education area.

Buggie-D refers to the Museum in the Docklands as "the stone museum" because of an exhibit in Mudlarks which shows how rivers pull stones down a river; the area also houses a soft play area (for the younger kids) and various docklands and river Thames related activities. As it turned out both buggies were more excited about the soft play on this visit and pursuading them to join me in the main museum was tricky.

The event that we had come for, aside from the general museum which I'll talk about soon, was about London Bridge and set on the top floor of the museum next to a model of the 17th Century bridge (image from creative commons) complete with the houses and shops. I wasn't expecting anything in particular but was a little surprised to find that the story told was.... "The Peddler of Swaffham." I was half expecting Buggie-D To point out as mistakes any deviations from my version but, thankfully, he just enjoyed it for what it was. The group attending was small and, as can be expected with an audience of under 5s, attention wandered, but the storyteller did a good job of keeping it going and, I think, both buggies got a lot out of the second version of the day. However little use was made of the model, as I expected would have been, a prop that, to me, could have really set the scene against the London bridge up the river.

The museum its self is excelent, I've visted it in the past; sadly we didn't have as much time to look round it as I would have liked but both older buggies liked the the information about whaling (Buggie-D's love of all things natural has extended very much into the kingdom of aquatic mamals) the museum has in its collection a narwal spike and the lower jaws of a sperm whale; also various tools from London's old whaling industry. The mocked up docklands street was also popular as was the WWII exhibition; Buggie-D is beginning to put things together aboutt his piece of history and is aware that it is a huge war fort against Germany, this pressents a problem to him as he loves Germany due to a holiday in Berlin "they're not baddies now are they?" he asks pleadingly. In general this was a very good day out, in fact, as we left the museum an accolade was perching by the window, glancing in it took to the air flying along West India Quay towards Canary Whaff before flying off into the distance; it very nearly made an bigger apearance its self.

What: Storytelling
Where: Museum in the Docklands
Getting there: Near Canary Wharf Station; map
Cost: Adults £5 (annual ticket); children free
Again: Yes, probably when an interesting event is on
Try: Museum of London (BuG entry)