Firework Maker's Daughter - Opera at the Royal Opera House

A while back one of my friends was asking about books with quality child heroins that she could read with her daughter, the one that came to mind was Philip Pullman's The Firework Maker's Daughter.  This was one of his earlier books before His Dark Materials and when he was an out and out children's writer.  It follows the adventures of Lila who's dream to follow in her father's footsteps to be a real firework maker is blocked because she is a girl; along the way she meets a lovesick elephant, some incompetent pirates and a terrifying fire fiend.

There is a tried and tested formula for making children's films and plays (I'm sure it was pioneered by Victorian pantomime) of ensuring that sufficient jokes are provided to keep parent's entertained while sufficient slapstick is provided to keep the kids happy.  This did not follow the same pattern at all, and to its strength.

From the opening projection "Do this at home... But don't tell dad."  Nearly all the moments of humour were set at a level that I could easily enjoy with my children and the only real piece of slapstick that comes to mind was when the hapless Rambashi revealed he was a pirate "give us all your money!" he demanded; Lila responds "But I've given you all your money [as payment for crossing the river]".  "Well," responds Rambashi "you know what we'll do with your money, throw it in the river!"  Well I laughed, and so did my children.

Musically I found it very accessible; much of it was based around an oriental sounding pentatonic scale.  There were moments of referencing the operatic heritage; the lovesick elephant's aria and firework displays from German and Italian firework makers with faux Wagner and Italian opera respectively.  But one of the most magical moments was the use of onstage puppets used to project parts of the story onto screens.

Ignite 2011 at Royal Opera House

Opera House?  With Kids?  Are you mad?  You asked that last year.

Oh; sorry.  So its really just a venue for another art show.  Well; it was last year.  This year was a bit different.

The kids amuse themselves while we drink coffee

In what way?  did they expect you to understand the inner workings of a paper crane?  No; but it was all about ballet and music; like you would have expected from a venue devoted to opera and music?  Err, yes.

Last year they seemed very welcoming to such a young audience?  Same this year? They were very helpful; on no less than four occasions in the one hour we were there for I was warned that some exhibits were not appropriate for children.

What did they make of it?  Most of them just played around while we (grown ups) drunk coffee.  Then? We went to the South Bank and played in the disappearing rooms.

Do say: Oh well, win some lose some.

Don't say: I don't know if you've been warned but some exhibits are not appropriate for children.

What: Deloitte Ignite 2011
Where: Royal Opera House
Getting there: The opera house is in Covent Garden and only a short walk from Covent Garden tube station
Cost: Free for most activities
Again: possibly; but for kids it wasn't even half as good as last year.

Human planet? What other planet were you expecting? haha; to be honest, with my beautiful kids any planet wouldn't surprise me. I thought it was my job to provide the cheap gags sorry!

So what was Human planet in the park? Big screen showing of the TV show? Not far off; it was music from the various cultures from the show performed by members of said cultures. This was more about the music than the cultures so more like a micro-Womad.

Three children at Womad; sounds like fun. they also had a number of children's activities to inspire the little wonders to be tomorrow cultural leaders:

Proms poetry - Michael Rosen did not lead us on a bear hunt but did guide us through making a poem of our own based on a rhythmic structure. I helped 7-year-old write a poem about going to the beach while 5-year-old drew pictures of trains and 3-year-old jumped on me.

Junk Samba - made a shaker out of an old water bottle and then made music by shaking and hitting a tea tray with a wooden spoon. cocophonous fun? worked surprisingly well and all three loved it.

Head dress making - sticking feathers and things to a headband; to be worn at the children's parade. Did they? no; conversation went a bit like:
Me: "do you want to join in with the parade"
Children look desparingly at the parade
All "No"
7-year-old: "it won't make me famous"

So did they walk away full of the wonders of the world around them? sadly not; there could have been more about the people making the music which I think would have engaged them a lot more but, that said, they did have a great time and I think they all got something out of it.

Was there more? there was a PROM concert in the Albert Hall tied in but we, sadly, didn't go.

What: Proms Plus Family: Human Planet in the Park
Where: Albert Memorial; Kensington Gardens
Getting there: Short walk from South Kensington tube station
Cost: Free
Again: The BBC run family events connected to the PROMS every summer; I'll definitely look out for others. This year there will be a family concert based around horrible histories (sadly we can't go)

Ignite 2010 at the Royal Opera House

Three below 7 at an opera; are you mad? clearly; but this was not an opera and was 6 below 7 (with more adults) So what was it? The Royal Opera House's annual contemporary arts festival "Ignite" now in its third year So what was it? Well... on the theme of forests around the world the ROH was taken over by various performance and visual artists for the weekend. Kids are very welcome (in fact actively encouraged to much of it). It was fun, atmospheric, educational; what more could you ask for?

Fun? The opening exhibit was essentially a large number of very large balloons; easily big enough for the kids to sit on jump on, etc. BANG! only once "how many is that?" I asked the curator; "I've got twice the number I need" was the response. And what did this have to do with forests? No idea, but it was very fun; in fact this proved so popular that it was neigh on impossible to drag them to...

Atmospheric? the smaller of the ROH's main performance spaces was converted into a forest made with old telegraph poles; a floor of recycled rubber from tiers (I think) provided a convincing forest floor and a background of John Cage or Javanese Gamalan provided the soundtrack. Wildlife? 1000 paper cranes were suspended in a large rectangle making a screen with a film projected on it.

And educational? An exhibition of an archaeological dig which took place in Germany uncovering a house made almost entirely of sweets and gingerbread. A truly exceptional piece of work revolutionising, for ever, the way we will look at Hansel and Gretel. It's all true? "Well, clearly Englebert took some liberties with the opera but everything else; of course" the curator; dressed in long white lab coat and thick rim glasses urnestly tells the children.

If you tell a joke in the forest and no-one is there to laugh; is it still a joke?

What: Deloitte Ignite 2010
Where: Royal Opera House
Getting there: The opera house is in Covent Garden and only a short walk from Covent Garden tube station
Cost: Free for most activities
Again: Yes; if it is half as good as this year we are still in for a treat

Weather day at the Royal Institution

Is that the The Royal Institute of Michael Fariday fame? that's the one! Not exactly child's play then. well... they do the famous children's lectures every Christmas so they at least know a bit about child's play and if you surround any self respecting child with things to play with you will get child's play.

So what was it? dotted around the institute were various experiments hosted by everyone in science from student to professor and from water to fire all around a theme of what makes the weather everywhere you go-o-o you always enough of that.

What worked? probably my favourite was the fire tornado (see picture) one could also make a whirlpool or a cloud in pop bottles, others that stood out were experiments with infra red cameras and pulling apart a vacuum sealed ball. What didn't? it was too humid for the Van de Graaff and we never did find the top of the barometer! What else was there? The buggies liked making snowflakes and a sundial and finally they had a weather balloon. All experiments were wonderfully set amongst the grand setting of tomes such as "The electrician 1891"

Does the sundial work? To demonstrate how it would work we shone a torch at it to show what the sun would do; "it won't really work in here though because there isn't any sun" I pointed out. "Yes it does," came the response "look its 11 o'clock"!

Where does bad light go? To a prism!

What: Family fun day
Where: Royal institution of Great Britain
Getting there: Walk from Oxford Circus or Green Park
Cost: £5 adults; £3 children
Again: Yes; they do several such events although none are currently on their events list.

The culture line

There is an article about this on the London for Kids blog on golondon.about.

It seems that some South and East museums on the new East London Overground line (formerly the East London Line) have got a web page of all their museums together. Looks like a great way of exploring the new places this opens up; more to come I think...

Museum of London

Haven't you already been there? yes, but... and you didn't really like it? no, but... So why this? Well, when we visited nearly two years ago half the museum didn't exist, or wasn't open and the buggies were all a lot younger.

So what's new? Essentially the last visit took us from the stone age through the Romans up to the middle ages and then stopped. This is upstairs; downstairs the story continues through to the modern day. I take it you only bothered with the downstairs. We did the first bit in order; the fire of London had gone but the prehistoric exhibition was still there and the kids enjoyed it just as much as last time, if not more. The middle ages had a reconstruction of a Saxon house giving them a chance to play at witches and look at a thatch roof close up.

And downstairs? We went the wrong way round starting from the modern day (obscure sculpture giving one of those moments when you're asked "What's that?" and can only answer "I don't know") back to the 18th Century. Anything worth recommending? In the 18th Century? Yes, the mock-up of Vauxhall Pleasure Garden's was excellent Complete with Scrumpets? Err, no, but some terrific hats! and in another time? The Victorian street was quite good but took a while to get them past the Victorian toy shop window at the start. They also had a lot of use of touch screen table devices which for older buggies would probably work well. Finally a display of modern London landmarks complete with a projected river that showed ripples when you walked over it provided a lot of entertainment.

"London has now become almost like a gigantic frog! With its long tongue it draws curious insects from all over the world inside itself!" - Mehmet Ildan.

Diana Memorials

Ahoy me hearties and god rest her soul! Not two things that usually to together.
But here in the Diana memorial playground they go together fine. OK; I get the “god rest her soul” what about “Ahoy me hearties”? the playground is themed on Peter Pan, pirate ship, tree walk, tee pees you get the idea.
I take it all three Buggies immediately ran off in all directions true, but the playground is fully enclosed with a man on the gate right by the coffee shop.
What did they make of it? My only attempt at showing them Peter Pan resulted in them refusing to watch anything as soon as a pirate appeared so they didn't really get the reference; that said they had lots of fun in the sand pit making a desert island and lots of fun on general climbing frames and slides and things.

How about the other more famous Diana memorial Sadly Mr Health and Mrs Safety beat us to it. not allowed to drink the water?
actually, I think that is the only thing you are allowed to do, or at least the only thing they didn't tell us about. So what can't you do? all the fun stuff; splashing, running in the water, walking in the water, running near the water, walking next to the water But... on the plus side, it is actually worth a visit and standing in the water was allowed.


What did the pirate say when his leg got stuck in the freezer? Shiver me timbers!


What: Diana memorials
Where: Hyde Park
Getting there: Tube to Bayswater
Cost: Free; but the playground will have queues on a nice day
Again: Aghhhhbolutely
Try: There are plenty of other playgrounds in London but none like this one
Top tip: Did I mention they have a coffee shop in the playground?

Persian New Year at the British Museum

Happy Nowruz. Ahhh, that will be Persian new year. As celebrated by the people of modern Iran? and the British Museum.
So how do the Iranians celebrate. Big feast; painting eggs; music, that sort of thing (according to Wikipedia). and the British Museum we listened to music; painted eggs made monster wings and tail and contributed to carpet tiles (I couldn't find any reference to the latter two in Wikipedia for Nowruz; but the monsters were based on Persian art and the Persians were famous for their carpets. And the big feast we took ham and cheese butties.

So what were the tiles? Each participant was given a white ceramic tile, pens to draw on glass and a sheet about a type of Persian art (we had geometric shapes). Using only two colours the participant then drew something inspired by what was on the sheet. Finally these were arranged according to strict rules into a complete display. How did it go down? B drew his tile with his standard rapid fire approach leaving D to complete his with all the precision of a 5 year old; this took half an hour so I take it as a success.

D's favourite "Painting eggs" fairly standard egg painting; we can repeat the exercise at Easter. It has to be said he put more effort into the tiles.

B's favourite tile "my one"

What: Persian New Year
Where: British Museum
Getting there: Walk from Holborn
Cost: Free

Medieval Armour at the Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection; isn't that all about 18th Century furniture and paintings? yes, well, that and other stuff. We started off upstairs looking at these.

Did they find anything interesting? generally all D needs is an animal in a picture and he's happy to look at it and they had plenty of pendulum clocks for B & L.

What other stuff? we actually went hunting for a bowl made by Palissy showing snakes, lobsters and fish. did you find it? we gave up and started looking at armour on the ground floor instead. This showed armour and arms from various places throughout the world from European knight chic to samurai swards (horses and cannons included).

Any more? plus in the basement a few replica items including chain mail to try on? Sadly they only had adult sizes which kind of drowned L (aged 20 months). D's first reaction was "Hey! its like 'the return of the arthropods'"

On leaving the have-a-go-armoury we also found the relocated Palissy bowl; by then the Buggies weren't too interested though. Hey ho, another day...

What: Mainly armour
Where: Wallace collection
Getting there: Walk from Bond Street
Cost: Free
Try: The Tower has a good display of armoury; there is also the imperial war museum and national army museum (I haven't visited either).

What do you call a knight who is afraid to fight? Sir Render!

Glassblowing demo at London Glassworks

Forget the bull in a china shop how about a child in a glass shop? it was a bit frightening at times when you notice your 4 year-old reaching out for a vase that would require a new mortgage to replace but the shop was hardly the main spectacle?
What was that then? the mince pies that both the Biggers demanded on entry then decided they didn't like.
Really? no; it was a demonstration of hand created glassware. I was expecting D to be fascinated with this but he was too preoccupied with the need to spend my money. B however was interested and watched the demonstration very attentively. They variously demonstrated making glasses and did a couple of demonstrations with a commentary so we now all know the technical reason for thumbing in and that although making a handle looks difficult, it is much harder than it looks.
How did they take to kids wandering around glassware displays and near furnaces with temperatures in excess of 1000C? Quite relaxed, as it turns out. They were very friendly even answering questions from D (maybe he was interested).
And L? slept.

What: Glassblowing demonstration
Where: London Glassworks
Getting there: Short walk from Blackhorse Road Tube
Cost: Free, unless you buy something. There was a donation bucket with last months gas bill attached to it.
Again: Its quite local to us and its only on annually so perhaps next year.

African t-shirt printing at the British Museum

What was it? It was advertised as t-shirt making but the t-shirts were already made leaving the kids (thankfully) to just print them.

How did it work? the printing was done by carving shapes into polystyreen blocks; smothering them with ink and then pushing them onto a t-shirt. It proved quite effective. Didn't Buggy-L (18 months) try to eat the ink? thankfully he was asleep for that bit.

And what was so African? the idea was to use things from the African gallary to inspire the prints. The group met in the African gallery, the kids drew the shapes they liked from some of the exhibits. The gallary had a lot of sculptures and carvings a long with a lot of pots, some strange shaped knives and lots of fabrics. In other words a lot to be getting on with.

How did it come out? remarkably well; all the t-shirts I saw looked really impressive and it gave something good for them to take home

Going again? I'll keep an eye out for other things activities and I might try the block printing with the buggies again.

What: African t-shirt printing
Where: British Museum
Cost: Free
Try: Lots of activities at Discover

The Golden Hinde

Where better to go to celebrate international talk like a pirate day than a trip to the Golden Hinde, the reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's famous ship.

Entering the ship we joined three hapless pirates; Stinky Pete, Malicious Mick and the otherwise nameless "Captain". Through various activities including storytelling round the captains table, a tour of the ship and a treasure hunt we learned of the death of Blackbeard, the cure for scurvy (as provided by the ship's barber-surgeon, how to fire a cannon, raise an anchor and, in buggy-B's case smear our mouth with pieces of chocolate. I never knew just how much wee and poo were required in the upkeep and firing of a cannon!

This was a first class day out for the buggies; highly recommended.

What: The Golden Hinde
Where: Southwark
Getting there: Short walk from London Bridge tube
Cost: £6 adult; £4.50 concession; prices change depending on activities
Again: Definitely! The group also do various other activities
Try: Museum in the Docklands
Top tip: Careful when walking around, unless you are less than 4ft tall.

Thames Festival

Despite TfL's best efforts to stop us we made our way into London for the Thames festival starting at Tower Bridge and working our way through the streets south of the river to the Tate in time for the fire garden.

Along the we found such wonders as walking on the Thames side (buggies get muddy and find old discarded stuff), watching Tower Bridge opening (its very clever), The Golden Hind (subject of a future post...) and The Dukes Box (unexplainable; I try below).

The walk started with various stalls from many conservation, history and wildlife groups in London. Much of this interests all three buggies so a fairly good start, it also gave a good view of Tower Bridge as it managed a fairy rare mid day opening.

The Dukes Box; a car trailor containing a folky country band playing strange cover versions of popular tracks and allowing people to select the next track using a typewriter (I told you it was unexplainable) provided a good diversion from walking for a while and was the best of the day (as opposed to evening)

Further down the way we found various eateries, shows, craft stalls, etc. An opportunity to walk along the Thames by the water searching for old clay pipes and other discarded objects. And finally to the Tate in time for the Fire Garden.

I saw this in Manchester when Buggy-D was very small and was awestruck. Essentially it is artistic pyromania provided by French street artists Compagnie Carabosse. The setting outside the Tate lacked the hidden garden magic of the Manchester show but was still amazing. Buggy-L flaked at this point but both other buggies wandered entranced.

On the whole the day was rather heavy on craft stalls and eateries and perhaps a little lacking in the pockets of magic that old London could have provided. Also many of the events lacked the river theme I was hoping for. Perhaps my lack of preparation didn't help; I only walked half the length of it and don't know what wonders were to be found further on.

What: Thames festival
Where: South bank from Tower Bridge to the South Bank Centre and possibly beyond
Cost: Free
Again: Next year perhaps; but with a little more preparation!
Try: Many summer festivals

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