Discovering Vale and Downland Museum with my three year old
was a very joyful experience, despite the compromises the museum was having to
undergo with the enforced remodelling of their building to house a store for
their 5000 or so artefacts of which maybe 10% are on display. The café was in the middle of things, which I
quite liked in my funny way because it was the first thing we saw on entering,
warm and inviting.
Edward was thrilled to see that there were drawers at his
height to open which had cushioned linings in which nestled fossilized
ammonites, nautilus, corals and sponges.
He loved talking about how these had once been swimming creatures and
being able to hold and handle them. The
steps in the little auditorium were fun for climbing up to visit the couple of
stuffed animals there and take an interest
in them too. He was less impressed with
Mr Attenborough’s films about the area and we wandered on in to the Anglo Saxon
Room.
The skeleton isn’t all that shocking to a very young child,
because first of all they have no idea what it is. Unfortunately, if they ask about it not long
after a family bereavement this can lead to some unsettling conversation – for
the adult. For the child it seems to
place a context to the abstract “death” and helps with the idea that the soul
and the body are not one and the same.
I think most world views concur, whether or not they believe
in life after death, that the life before death is more than the body and its
internal mechanisms or outward appearance.
This skeleton was a person though and this is something with which a
small child really connects. My toddler
asking me if it was the person we had known was in that moment shocking and
unbearable, but actually it re-humanised the exhibit. People, whether they live
now or thousands of years ago are valuable and we should value them for more
than what they can tell us about the period in which they lived and, like a
small child, regard them with some compassion.
We talked about how her family felt when she died, which
wasn’t quite where I had expected viewing this exhibit to go. Then I steered this to how we all have
skeletons on the inside, and then we talked a bit about heaven and then we
talked about how we don’t know whether or not this person is in heaven now, but
we know they are not in this skeleton.
To which the response was “She’s in heaven now. And much happier there” and that we agreed on because the skeleton
was a damaged one, so death was caused by injury in a time before there was
anything that could be done for pain relief and with death all pain was
over.
So then we moved on and looked at the Alfred Jewel puzzle
where children can fill the empty spaces in the jewel with coloured pieces to
fit their own preference. He worked at
fitting the pieces in, despite not initially finding it easy and was very
pleased with it when it was finished.
We went through the market place and other rooms at top
speed so on this first visit we missed most things! But we did pause at the
racing car and at the trains. Pushing a
button and watching the train go made him very happy. Upstairs we looked through
the microscope which he found fascinating and less fascinating but quite fun we hooked
ducks. Did not make much connection with the letcombe brook display or water
wildlife though! The jigsaws up there were too tricky. Then we went and had something for snack in
the café. I think that was when I
decided I would like to volunteer at the museum.
In subsequent visits he has spent longer exploring – less
running and has so many questions. He especially likes the tram which somehow
we missed or was not working when we first came to the museum. He has learnt
the names of the engines, between the museum display and books I have brought
home from the library about the tramway – from the adult reference section
because there is no such thing as pre-school factual local history!
Following that visit, I emailed a request to volunteer and
began to discuss the possibility of an under fives group.
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