A festive farce from Twinkle and Jingle

It’s that time of year again when Santa’s Workshop sets up in the Eureka! Theatre. Inside our resident elves, Twinkle and Jingle, make the last few preparations before the big day. But (as always) something goes horribly wrong and the elves need a helping hand from some children in order to save Christmas.

This year’s play, 'Santa's Magical Toyshop' is not the first adventure that our elves have been involved in. Last year they found themselves in a similar mess for our 2009 Christmas show. I wrote last year’s show, and again volunteered to write the ‘difficult sequel’. I was determined to write a different script which contained new elements; it was important to me that the show was not the same as before and merely dressed differently. I also wanted to make sure that the 2010 play did not deviate too far from the framework we established the previous year as it proved very successful. As a result the activities the children (and adults) take part in during Santa’s Magical Toyshop are vastly different to last year but the dynamic interactions and banter between the two characters has remained constant.

Enablers turning the Theatre into Santa's Workshop!

The interactive quality of the show has been increased since last year, and requires many children from the audience to join the elves onstage and physically help them to complete their important jobs before Santa wakes up.

Where younger children will respond to the interaction of the performance, older children and adults will appreciate the humour in the guise of Twinkle and Jingle’s frantic dialogue. Jingle, the overworked and underpaid ‘line manager’ elf clashes with his docile yet kind-hearted worker, Twinkle. There are many one-liners within their interaction specifically aimed at an older audience that will amuse them while not confusing the young ones.

Writing for an interactive show differs in many ways to writing for the stage. A key difference is that you cannot be too narrow; that is, there must be room for the performers to improvise should anything go wrong including: the children not giving an expected answer or a toddler wandering onstage and starting to dismantle the set. The performers must be more fluid and be ready to change the contents of the show in response to the situations that occur, which is not possible if they have strict dialogue patterns or subtle punch-lines.

One of the main things that attract people to the show is, of course, the opportunity to meet Santa. All children can speak with Santa at the end of the show and get a photo with him should they wish. But the staging is beneficial for children who are intimidated by Santa as they have support, from all other children in the audience, a gentle introduction to him, and the choice to either go to see Santa up close or just  watch him from afar. So due to way it is staged no children have to miss out on the Christmas experience.

It’s fantastic to see a project through to the end and due to everyone involved the finished production is hilarious, heart-warming and full of Christmas magic.

Ben Healey is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Sledging

Wow, what a lot of snow! Can you believe it? And all before Christmas too!

If you’re anything like us here at Eureka! then I’m sure you’ve had a great time playing out in the snow on the days off from school and work. We might not have had a stretch of days off from work, but we did make time to go play in the snow. Across the Eureka! Park we made snow angels, threw loads of snow balls and, of course, went sledging.



Traditionally, people would use wooden sledges called toboggans, but these days you’re most likely to find sledges made of plastic. The great thing about sledging though is that anyone can do it, with almost anything! We didn’t have a sledge of our own, but all it took was some imagination and creativity to put together our own ‘sledging devices’ out of cardboard and plastic.

Now, if you ask me, I’m most likely to say the bigger the hill, the better the sledging. It’s just because I like to get the sledge going as fast as possible. For safety’s sake, make sure you should only sledge on a hill that you feel safe with, and before you start sledging take a look around. Can you see what is at the bottom? Are there any humps and bumps that might throw you off your sledge? It’s always good to make a thorough check. At Eureka! the hill we used had a nice, long slope, and we were able to go quite far and fast!

There’s a lot more to sledging that just sliding down by yourself. Why not take your grown-ups along for the ride? Or see if you can fit another person on your sledge. You might even try lying on your front and sledging, or if you have two sledges, racing against someone to the bottom to see who has the faster sledge.

There are so many different games you can play, and it’s completely up to you! So go on, get out there to play and discover as many different ways of sledging as you can. You might even show them off the next time you come to Eureka!.

And hey, if you don’t think that sledging is for you, then you can’t beat building a snow fort and having a good old snowball fight with your friends!

What’s your favourite way to have fun in the snow?

Ben Guifoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Making a 'Big Give' for Eureka!

As a charity, fundraising at Eureka! is always busy, as we develop and fund new outreach programmes for schools and the local community or raise money to improve the museum itself. But 2010 has been a particularly interesting and varied year, not least of which because we’ve been working to raise 2.9 million pounds!

The majority of our efforts this year have been spent fundraising for the new flagship gallery, Me and My World.  Me and My World will be the reinvention of the existing Me and My Body Gallery, one of our most famous and beloved galleries.  With the financial climate as it is currently it has been really difficult at times to make any headway, but now we are in a really good position, having raised £1.7m towards our final target of £2.9m. With the gallery set to be launched in 2012, we still have a long way to go, but the progress has been good.

Artist's conception of exhibits in Me and My World

Our most recent adventure in fundraising for Me and My World is something totally new for Eureka!.  We have been selected to take part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge.  This is an online fundraising idea that aims to get our visitors and supporters donating online.  All donations made between 6th December and 10th December will then be doubled.  This felt incredibly daunting at first as we have not tried to fundraise in this way before and we were unsure how it would be received, so we have been working hard to make sure that we get it right.

First of all we had to secure a £5,000 pledge to act as some of the match funding.  Eureka! is in the fortunate position that our Chair of Trustees wanted to make this pledge which made things much easier for us.  We could then set about talking to other trustees and ex-trustees to seek their support during the fundraising week in December.  This exercise was also successful and we have secured pledges to donate on the 6th December totalling £5,500! 

Our next step will be to send out e-mails to all our visitors and business contacts to seek their support.  It’s hard to gauge how much people will want to support our campaign, but we won’t know until we try.  With Eureka!’s success as a visitor attraction many people will not recognise our role as an educational charity which makes it even harder to ask for support in reaching our £20,000 target.

We hope that everyone who has visited Eureka! (including me back in 1992 when I was ten with my brother Dan and my Auntie Carol) and had an amazing experience talking to Scoot, learning about Archimedes and most importantly playing in Marks and Spencer’s will see the value in making sure the museum is renewed and refreshed for the next generation of children.

The Big Give will be taking place from 10am on December 6th 2010 and donations will be doubled up until December 10th.  You can donate by visiting the Eureka! Big Give website or learn more about what we have been up to on our website or by contacting the Fundraising Team.

Kate Goldring is the Fundraising Manager for Eureka! The National Children's Museum

Pirate Training Day

Yargh! Shiver me timbers and hoist the main sail! Light the cannons and climb the rigging! I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if Eureka! didn't hold a plank walking shivaree of a corporate event.

As much as I’d like to, I’m not going to write this whole post in pirate style. I will however write about how I spent most of my day as a pirate at the beginning of November. And believe me, I enjoyed it very much.

On 1 November, Eureka! opened its doors to staff members from a local primary school, coming to take part in one of our fun-filled corporate team building days. This was the first corporate event I had done at Eureka!, and we were trying out a new piratical, shipwreck board game-style activity that I had been working on with our Business Development Manager. It was a completely new game, and I was a little bit nervous.

Team building here starts with a few ice-breakers, and it’s ‘getting to know you’ for everyone on the course and us Enablers who are helping out for the day. This group was big enough we could split them into two groups. One group, with Enabler Jennie, got to put their engineering heads on and try their hands a spot of car building. The second group came with me as I transformed myself into my pirating alter-ego, ‘The Captain’, complete with foam cutlass. Yargh!

As ‘The Captain’ I quickly put my ‘new recruits’ through an intense spot of pirate training to sort out the scurvy and the sea sick before the terrors of the seven seas! I can happily report that all new recruits successfully graduated the training camp and earned themselves a place aboard my ship, the ‘Slippery Eel’.

It was then time to put the new game to the test. The Slippery Eel had been hit and was sinking. With only one life raft, the ‘crew’ had to decide which items to rescue from the sinking ship and take with them to a desert island where they would have to survive until rescue. Each item had pros and cons, an amount of space it would take up in the life raft, and a certain point value that only I knew. When each team had decided what they would be taking with them, I gave them the point sheet, and whoever had the most points would win the game. Sounds complicated I know, but believe me its not, and it was incredibly fun, and quite a success. I then put their teamwork skills to the test by getting them to build a catapult to protect themselves whilst on the ‘desert island’.

Exploring the galleries on a corporate event!

After a quick swap round of groups and repeating the pirate games, the teams then took to exploring the galleries and answering questions about them in the ‘Gallery Challenge’.
For my first corporate event, I was really happy that the whole day was, in my opinion, a great success.

Ben Guilfoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

For more information about corporate events and teambuilding at Eureka! please visit the Corporate Events section of our website.

From start to finish on the new Nursery play area

Part of my role here at Eureka! as the Exhibition Manager is to manage projects around the museum. Over the past few months I have been working on the new outdoor play area for the Eureka! Nursery. It replaces the old play area in front of the 1855 Building, on the grass of the Eureka! Park.

While my role calls for me to design exhibits inside the gallery, for this project, we have been fortunate enough to be able to employ the skills of a landscape designer, who was able to help bring our concept for the Nursery play area, as a natural play area to life.

As my background is in design, I was able to work closely with the designer to ensure we got a design that fulfilled all of our requirements. In order to get to the stage of issuing a brief, there were several stages we needed to go through first of all!

Before we were even able to hire our landscape designer, we had to apply for planning permission. This is because the proposed site was adjacent to our 1855 grade three listed building. As project manager, I was responsible for submitting this application. It can take several months for a decision to be reached, but thankfully our application was successful and we were able to proceed.

Once our application had been granted  I held internal meetings with the rest of the Eureka! team which included our Director of Play and Learning, and the Nursery Manager and communicated the project requirements to the designer. Before writing a brief for what we wanted to see in the play area, I went on research trips to visit other successful nursery play areas .

The brief had to include examples, to give the designer guidance on what we wanted to see. I produced some design sheets based on my findings, and other research I had done. It was also important that the brief recognised the practical considerations, such as fencing, entrance and exit gates to the play area and making sure it was sizeable enough to hold an entire group from the Nursery.

Based on our content, we gave a brief to the designer, who was then able to present several design concepts to us. We chose a final design picking bits that we liked from each design, which has resulted in the creation of a natural play area that we set out to achieve. The new play area will is very natural, using timber, sand and stone, in all sorts of colours, sizes and textures. A unique mosaic water feature encourages interaction, with children able to affect the water flow. A mini nature trail runs along one edge of the site, and come the Spring will be filled with different wild flowers, herbs and interesting shrubs like bamboo, and will encourage children to use all of their senses to explore their new outdoor habitat.

The design plan submitted for the Nursery play area

My favourite feature is the large, permanent timber story chair, which will be used for story time outside. I really like the idea of the new area having different uses, whether it is for play, exploration or story time.

Our designer then worked the concept drawings up into detailed plans, and, delivered them to a firm of contractors to start work on the play area. While I wasn’t laying sod or installing the tunnel, as project manager part of my job was to co ordinate deliveries and make sure things turned up on time! One of my main responsibilities was also to make sure that the site remained safe, as we want to ensure that even during construction, our visitors have a great experience at Eureka!.

It is always exciting seeing a project progress from start to completion. Project management is a challenging role, and at times quite stressful – especially when faced with adverse weather conditions. Despite this, I really enjoy my varied role here, as I get to meet and work with lots of different people, and no day is ever the same!

Amanda Phillips is the Exhibition Manager at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Walking the plank with Scurvy Sam

Life as an Enabler is full of challenges, and not all of them from the children we work with! Take outreach: you might not know that almost every day during the term times, one of us is out giving a workshop or programme at local schools. One recent visit was to Leeds, with my partner in the day's workshop, Enabler Michelle, where we gave the ‘Scurvy Sam’ workshop at Ingram Road School.

It was a two-workshop day, and we had just arrived from Todmorden, no thanks to our GPS. After lunch, we found our reliable van would no longer lock! Off we went though, there was a workshop to deliver!

Thirty-five children, aged nine to 11 were waiting to experience Scurvy Sam, delivered by Dr Lind, the 18th century naval surgeon who actually discovered the cause of Scurvy and Captain Sam, feared and respected pirate of the high seas. (That’s still Michelle and I, by the way). The ‘Scurvy Sam’ outreach is funded by the ‘Big Lottery Awards for All’ who are keen to put out a positive message to children about health.

Our stage was a hessian-cloth covered table with a huge pirate flag for Dr. Lind to hide on when he’s not on deck with Captain Sam. We put out a large treasure chest, covered in fishing nets and assorted sea-life, for the Captain sits to tell her story. To really complete the shipboard experience, there were assorted lanterns, fishing baskets and the aforementioned anchor and lifebelt strewn around for extra atmosphere.

Enabler Tasha with a heap 'o pirate treasure

Once we were set up I went to change into my pirate outfit; shirt, jewellery, jacket, fancy headgear and a great pair of buckled black boots I’d recently purchased from a local charity shop – perfect for Captain Sam. I walked back into the hall and nearly slid straight onto my behind! Fancy high-heeled boots and shiny school hall floors are not a perfect combination!

To describe the workshop in a nutshell; Captain Sam and her crew have been coming down with some '’orrible bodily conditions' and need to get better in time for her wedding in a month. They have captured Dr. Lind, who believes they are suffering from the scurvy; among other things. The children’s task is to diagnose the pirate’s symptoms, find out which vitamins and/or minerals they are lacking and what foods they need to eat to get better. They then examine the pirate’s diet – looking at ‘Ye Olde Plate that tells you how to eat well’ and remembering what they discovered in their research. Having come to the conclusion that it is the pirate’s diet that is the cause of all their problems, they then devise a new diet that will cure all the pirate’s and keep them fit and healthy.

The whole thing is a rollickingly good adventure; with very active pirate training (climb the rigging, fire the cannon and man the lifeboats for example) and, of course, a bit of song and dance for everybody to join in with. We take Dr Lind’s clinical trials and put them to the tune of ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’ – changing the words to:

What shall we do with a pirate sailor?(x3)
When he’s got the scurvy?

And the verses give the clinical trials and their results, e.g.

Gargle with sulphuric acid. (x3)
That just makes your throat sore!

(Incidentally, the real Dr. Lind is widely believed to have conducted the first ever clinical trials)

The song is accompanied by a hilarious pirate dance; which we knew would be a big hit because in training we were all practically crying with laughter when we learned it! The children did love it, and you’ll be pleased to know I did manage to stay on my feet, despite the fancy footwear!

Children getting 'hands on' at a Scurvy Sam workshop!

Near the end of the workshop the children, in four groups, had devised a day’s worth of food and drink from the range of food on offer.

Breakfast – corn flakes & milk, wholemeal toast with low fat spread and jam and fresh orange juice
Lunch       - baked potato & beans, crisps and cola
Dinner     - pasta Bolognese with salad and broccoli, water and a slice of cake
Snacks    - grapes, orange segments and carrot sticks

When we put the groups together they decided there was a bit too much sugar so the ‘lunch’ group immediately volunteered to change their cola for a strawberry smoothie. I thought overall it was a pretty successful menu.

The last part of the workshop involves us turning the children into a giant bar of chocolate … to show the relative percentages of sugar, fat, protein and flavourings contained in one! I do amuse myself sometimes imagining what a parent might think, when they ask their child what they did at school today, if they reply –

 'I was turned into a bar of chocolate by a pirate and an 18th century naval surgeon!'

After all the clearing away we set off to the car park with all our props to see if the van was still there - thankfully it was. Our satnav was still acting up, and she finally gave up the ghost, but luckily, we knew where we were and had a straightforward journey back to Eureka!

As always, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, despite the technical problems.

Jill Ward is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

How to make a Jack-o-lantern

Grab your coats, scarves and hats because autumn is finally here. With the chilly weather comes Halloween, one of the spookiest nights of the year. On the 31st of October the graveyards will come alive and the little ghosts and ghouls will all be out getting their ‘haunt on’.

All across the country, boys and girls will be finding their capes, fangs, and broomsticks and taking part in lots of different Halloween based activities. Some people will have a spooky Halloween party, and others will go ‘trick or treating’ around their neighbourhood. But for us here at Eureka! there is one Halloween activity that we like best of all, with the spookiest fruit to be found: the pumpkin!

Now you might think the pumpkin is a vegetable, but because it has seeds inside of it, like other hard shelled squash it’s actually a fruit. You see it mostly around Halloween, and it can be used for many different things. Boil, bake, steam, roast, mash or even put it in a pie! And, the best part about the pumpkin is you can have a fun art project and also get in one of your ‘five-a-day’.

Here at Eureka! we love to have a good pumpkin carving, and making our very own ‘Jack-o-lanterns’. Although the first Jack-o-lanterns in Ireland were made with turnips and swedes, most are now made with pumpkins and making your own is both easy and lots of fun!

Here are some tips on how to make your very own Jack-o-lantern!

Please remember that all of the carving must be done by an adult, as the skin of a pumpkin is very tough.

1. Find yourself a really big pumpkin. You can find them in most supermarkets around Halloween.
2. Take your pumpkin home and give it a good wash.
3. Using a carving knife, or a pumpkin carving set, carve a ‘lid’ into the top of your pumpkin. Do not throw away the lid, as you will need it later!
4. Using your hands, scoop out all of the seeds and hollow out the inside of the pumpkin. Why not roast some of the seeds to see how they taste?
5. Use a black marker pen to draw your design on to the outside of your pumpkin.
6. When you have your design just right, carefully cut out the pattern to make the scary face.
7. Then place a small candle inside the pumpkin.
8. Get an adult to light the candle and place the lid back on top of the pumpkin.
9. Finally, place your pumpkin in a window looking out on to the street, and give everybody a fright!

Top tip: If you don’t want to carve the pumpkin you can also paint the outside with a scary face or decoration!

Enjoy your pumpkin carving and Happy Halloween!

Ben Guilfoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

The Adventures of Captain Wheelio Bear

Taking inspiration from the CBeebies show ‘Barnaby Bear’ several members of the Eureka! Enabler team created Eureka’s own version: ‘Captain Wheelio-Bear’. Wheelio is a small bear on wheels usually found in the Creativity Space Classroom; that is, when he’s not jet-setting off around the world of course!

Members of the Eureka! team take Wheelio with them whenever they go off on their own adventures, whether they’re gone long for a holiday or just taking Wheelio with them for a fun day out.

In the year that Wheelio has spent here at Eureka! he has: visited Snowdonia, Prague (where he wheeled across Charles Bridge), spent a  Christmas at home with one of our Enablers, celebrated New Year’s 2009 in Disneyland Paris, taken a cruise from New York to Canada, and just this month he came back from a second American cruise. He is certainly a well travelled bear!

Wheelio Bear in Times Square!

In the Creativity Space Classroom at Eureka! he even has his own wall display called ‘The Adventures of Wheelio-Bear’, which shows our visitors all of Wheelio’s worldly adventures and some of his thoughts on where he has been.

This little bear has definitely captured the hearts of the Eureka! team, many of whom can be seen walking around the museum wheeling Wheelio behind them! He has also become a hit with many of our visitors, who often share in a cuddle with him whilst visiting in the Creativity Space.

Next time you’re visiting us at Eureka! please let us know if you’ve been out and seen Wheelio Bear. Here at the museum we love to hear about his adventures.


Penny Dargan is the Early Years Specialist Enabler at Eureka!

Early days with the Eureka! Team

If you’re reading this, then I’m sure that you’ve been to Eureka!, but if you haven’t then let me tell you about how I’ve just started experiencing it as a new Enabler working in the museum.

Eureka! is an amazing place. I’ve never worked with a group of people who are so ludicrously happy. When I started at Eureka!, it was already August and the summer holidays were already in full swing. Just tonnes of families, including hundreds of children, would queue up every day to come and visit us in the museum.

Enjoying the sunshine on the E! Beach and Park this summer.

I’ll be honest, the energetic atmosphere that Eureka! has, has been slightly daunting. Even for me, having left university with a Performing Arts degree! I thought I’d be used to dealing with masses of people and upbeat environments. As awesome as everything looked, it was all totally alien to me. I really had thrown myself into the deep end! But in retrospect I guess there was no other way of doing it.

I’ll never forget the first day that I was introduced to Scoot, yes, Scoot the robot. The way he manages to engage with the children about all the things they have seen and done on their visits to Eureka! is truly fascinating. The children’s faces light up as he shares his knowledge of the world and answers their questions. He once told me that he had auditioned to be in Star Wars, but came to work at Eureka! after he had been beaten to the part by R2-D2.

It’s all a bit surreal. I mean, one minute I might be the manager of a bank or helping children talk to Scoot, the next I might be accompanying a giant gnome or playing parachute games in the Eureka! park.

At Eureka! we try and run lots of different workshops that will fuel the imagination and draw out the creativity of the children that visit us. Now, I have done a few of these workshops and activities and believe me I have loved doing them all, but for me, my favourite (so far) has got to be the Carnival workshop.



Wow! It was awesome fun! First, we learned all about carnivals, and learn how to march and chant to our very own carnival beat. Then we got messy making funky carnival hats and shakers! We followed that up by going on a carnival parade of our own around the Eureka! Town Square and onto the Wonder Walk.

As the newbie to the Eureka! Enabler team, I couldn’t really ask for more. Everyone is super friendly and very welcoming as a team. I’ve already done too many things to write about in one post, and I know that there are going to be many more experiences for me to write about in the future. Okay, so I’ve only been here over the summer and I’m not a Eureka! veteran just yet, but believe me, I’m getting there!

Ben Guilfoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children's Museum

Playing with science: summer educational shows at Eureka!

With a successful summer just finished, I wanted to write a bit about the educational experiences we’ve provided schools during the summer term. It’s a time you might think is a bit more relaxing as everyone looks forward to the holidays, but here at Eureka! play and learning doesn’t stop. During the summer term, we offer schools the chance to experience science shows as part of an educational visit to the museum. Developed entirely in-house by our Learning Team, science shows are a great way of teaching scientific concepts to a large number of children in a fun and interesting way.

Feeling some forces during a science show.

Over the years we have developed a long list of interactive, drama-based workshops covering all areas of the curriculum, but the science show format with its ‘show and tell’ lecture presentation style marked a new venture for us when we embarked on our first show back in 2007 called ‘Splash!’  Aimed at Key Stages 1 and 2 this show looks at all things water related - where it comes from, some of its properties, fun things you can do with water and the importance of saving it.

Presented by our resident science duo Fizz and Flash, Splash! is a great show for a mixed age audience. Even though early KS1 pupils may not fully understand all of the concepts, they still find it visually stimulating and we’ve even performed the show in small rural schools where the audience age range has been from reception to Year 6! Highlights of the show include making water disappear, a water conservation version of Play Your Cards Right and the giant bubble finale where a lucky member of the audience gets to step into a giant bubble!

Fizz and Flash demonstrating the giant bubble in Town Square.

In 2008 we developed a new show based on forces called ‘Feel the Force’. Aimed at Key Stage 2, this time Fizz and Flash are joined by Ted the astronaut bear and explore the different types of forces, demonstrating what they are and why they are so important.   

Forces can be a difficult topic to teach so this show aims to turn a relatively dull subject into a memorable learning experience with lots of hands-on demonstrations and audience participation.

The latest addition to our science show repertoire was developed in 2009. We wanted to write a show with a human body theme and felt that focusing on the digestive system would give us lots of interesting concepts to explore so we came up with ‘From the Chew to the Poo!’ for Key Stage 2 pupils.

This show follows the fascinating journey of a banana and peanut butter sandwich from the moment it is eaten to the moment it leaves the body as waste. Through a series of interactive activities children find out how saliva in the mouth breaks down food in order for it to be swallowed, how our bodies retain the vitamins and minerals our bodies need and more amusingly how it gets rid of what we don’t need.

This is definitely the yuckiest of our three shows and I’m sure our Enablers didn’t think they’d be making ‘poo’ on a daily basis when they came to work at Eureka! but it’s a topic that most kids find hugely fascinating and we get some fantastic comments and pictures from schools following their visit.

It’s definitely been a challenge writing and developing these three shows but thankfully they’ve all proved to be successful additions to our school’s programme. So much so that they also form part of our Outreach provision where schools can book for our Enablers to come and deliver a show in their school.

We’re developing a totally new show now for 2011 which will have a chemistry theme and probably lots of fizzes and bangs - hopefully though we won’t blow ourselves up in the process!

Jenny Parker is the Play and Learning Coordinator at Eureka! The National Children's Museum.

On ‘Tour’ with Mission: Active Future

There’s so much to Enabler’s job, and not all of it is in the museum. Take last month. Along with two other Enablers, Sarah and Alistair, we were chosen to help bring Mission: Active Future out to Cross Flatts Park in Leeds as part of a Breeze on Tour event from 17 – 18 August. Thanks to funding from the Leeds Community Foundation, we ran eight free half hour sessions each day between 12 pm and 5 pm.

Mission: Active Future is a huge expanding trailer fitted out like a funky children’s gym, with activities such as steppers, bikes and rowing machines. The activities exercise the body and the brain, so there are computer games about health and fitness and tactile activities such as building up the bones and muscles of an arm.

At the start of each session we show the children a DVD from ‘Activ8’; a group of 8 cartoon children from the future. (The future is a bleak one with, among other things, overgrown tennis courts and football players unable to finish a game because they are so out of breath). The children are challenged to change that future by adopting a healthy lifestyle now – starting with the challenges on the trailer.

We help with a fun warm up, and explain all 15 exhibits before setting the children off on a circuit. They have a minute for each activity, so one of us is in charge of the stop watch and calling time. I like to add some variety, so I don’t just stick with ‘time to move on’. The sessions are short, so we leave enough time for the children to cool down and enter into a poster giveaway competition, which encourages the entire family to complete a further eight weeks of healthy activities.

Although Mission: Active Future is aimed at children from 6-11 years old we had some very cute 4 year old brothers and sisters joining in with some of the simpler activities – and one very enthusiastic have-a-go dad! It proved to be very popular with all the participants; we even had some of the children from the previous day having another go. It was summed up by one very polite little boy who came up to me afterwards and said: ‘Thank you miss; that was very fun’.

Once again though, we were multitasking. We arrived early Thursday morning to a lovely blue sky and friendly looking white clouds. After setting everything up, a photographer arrived. An enabler’s job is never short of variety; that morning we were going to be models in a photoshoot! It was a real giggle, posing for shots over the next hour. We applauded Mark, the driver from Marshalls, whose truck brought M:AF to Leeds. We leaned, tilted and above all, smiled, smiled smiled! I never realised that smiling could be such hard work, but to be fair there was a great deal of genuine laughter going around.

The Eureka! Team at Cross Flatts Park with Mission: Active Future

We left the park each day at about 5:45 pm, exhausted but with the feeling of a job well done. I know from feedback we’ve received from previous sessions, with both schools and general public, that Mission: Active Future and the Activ8 characters can have a really positive influence on children’s activity levels and, most important, in the words of one child, it’s VERY FUN! (And anything that gets children interested in a healthy lifestyle has to be good).

Overall it was an amazing event: the park was full of activities of all kinds. There were giant inflatables, including a ‘gladiators’ type course and an inflatable football pitch! There was paint balling, a climbing wall, a huge ‘Breeze has got talent’ marquee – and, of course, us.

I’m sure our Activ8 would like to see the kind of future envisioned by Thomas Edison when he said:  ‘The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but instead will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease’.

Visit the Mission: Active Future website to find out more and to meet the Active8.

Jill Ward is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum.

Who slayed our dragon?

Sharp eyed visitors to Eureka! may have noticed something’s changed this week: our Chinese dragon, who guards the fire exit from Me and My Body has been beheaded!

Before you ask, security hasn’t detained any wandering St. Georges. Instead it’s an explanation that’s a bit less magical. He’s quite an old dragon, you see, who has been here since the museum opened. Just over 18 years of weather and wear have taken its toll and early last weekend the metal supports which held him up finally collapsed. His scales were removed and he was taken in state to a new resting place in our Loading Bay, where he is awaiting appraisal. You can see the damaged support below, 18 years of wear on the metal has made it very crumbly.

My what big teeth you have!

Until the dragon’s head returns, I thought I would share some fun facts about him.

• The dragon was designed to cover the fire escape stairs that lead down from a balcony off of Me and My Body.
• Our dragon doesn’t actually have a name; as a creature of imagination it’s only fair that we let you, the visitor, make him come alive for yourself.
• Our dragon has been the inspiration for workshops and events for as long as the museum has been open: he’s seen Chinese lion and dragon dancers and has been the face of our ‘Dragon’s Mouth’ school workshops. 
• The dragon is now something of a celebrity. Even the Dragon's Den liked the idea of him and filmed him at the end of one of their roadtests. Maybe that's what went to his head!

Dragon & friends back in 1993 for the 'Dragon's Mouth' workshop

But you know, our dragon’s disappearance may have another explanation, especially since Eureka! is such a magical place. Being August, and a rather drought-filled one at that (in spite of weather appearing to the contrary!) it’s important to keep health and safety concerns in mind, especially when dealing with animals known for their flammable nature. So, with a few cosmetic repairs required already, we thought this was the perfect time to schedule our dragon’s annual maintenance for fire breathing capacity. After all, a healthy dragon is a happy dragon, and happy dragons aren’t naughty people-crispers.

Playing with a purpose for Playday 2010

Today at Eureka! we are celebrating Playday, the national event where communities around the UK host events that champion and support children’s right to play. In the process of preparing for our events, I read the research released this week by Play England to support the 2010 Playday campaign.

Taking time out for some sandcastle building during last year's Playday!

Play England found there is a profound loss of community spirit in Britain, which in turn is leading to children no longer being able to play outside. I have to wonder what has led to this lack of togetherness, and is it really the only reason why children don’t play outdoors any more?

In 2005 I returned to the UK after four years of living and working abroad. Bringing a six-year-old and a one-year-old back to the UK I became acutely aware of the lack of children on our streets. I noticed the ever-growing perception that children are ‘in danger’ if out of the sight of a parent, and we experienced the lack of play provision in many areas.

As I have written before, the evidence to support our multiple fears is not there. There have not been increases in child abductions and murders, compared to 20 or 30 years back, but there has been an increase in media coverage.

Playday 2010’s campaign theme is ‘Our Place’. Play England’s research states almost half of adults surveyed think it’s unsafe for children to play without supervision. However when 73% of children want to play outside more where they live, isn’t it our role as adults to enable this play in our home environments rather than install fear? I believe it is up to us to take note of these facts and figures, and to support the reinvigoration of community spirit by positively reinforcing the value of play.

It’s also encouraging to learn that the new ministerial Childhood and Families Task Force, chaired by the Prime Minister, has made Playful communities one of its priority areas – this is great news and I look forward to reading their conclusions, which are expected at the end of the year.

Taking time out to play today is just one in a series of steps to change our communities for the better. For Playday, I will be around the museum getting messy, crafty and active. We’re celebrating the right of all children to play, will you?

Rebecca Johnson is Play and Learning Director for Eureka! The National Children's Museum.

Archie's First Bath

Eureka! is turning 18 on 9 July 2010, and through the year we've been celebrating around the museum with our visitors, and revisiting memories behind-the-scenes.

The official opening of Eureka! was set to be a very exciting event, with all the supporters and members of the public ready to come through, and HRH Prince Charles, who had been key to getting the museum located in Halifax, arriving here just to open our doors. It was down to the wire though, with several of us Technicians staying well into the night putting the finishing touches on the paint job in ‘Me and My Body’.

It was all the extra security that gives me my strongest memory of the day. It started the night before when the museum was closed down so that the Prince’s security guards could do a full sweep. Closed down, except for us still painting in the galleries that is! They had dogs come through and sniff for explosives. The dogs were very thorough, one dog popped his nose in my paint can, but they didn’t find anything unless you count a snout full of paint.

I had one of the most important jobs on opening day: standing on the balcony, I watched for when the museum’s designer gestured up at the sculpture of Archimedes in his bath. As soon as all the guests looked up, I had to press a button from the balcony to give Archie (as he’s affectionately known here) his first bath.

As you might know, Archimedes is an important figure for Eureka!. He’s where we get our name, in fact. He’s set to a clock to take a bath every half hour during museum opening times, and he’s been doing so since 9 July 1992, give or take a few days off around Christmas. We hadn’t yet set him to the clock on opening day though, since we wanted to coordinate our inaugural show.

 Archie arriving at Eureka! 18 years ago.

Everything went without a hitch, and the moment for the grand descent came. The designer pointed upwards, the crowd’s eyes followed, and I’m interrupted by a firm tap on the shoulder as one of Prince Charles’ bodyguards steps behind me, thinking perhaps that I’m there ready to detonate a bomb instead!

We showed him pretty quickly that it wasn’t the case; the only harm to anyone might be if Archie displaced a little too much water, and just as quick we lowered Archimedes into his bath and opened Eureka! for an entire generation of children to enjoy.

18 years and still cool as a cucumber!

‘Bazza’ Barraclough is a Technician at Eureka!. He has worked at Eureka! from before its opening and looks forward to receiving his gold watch soon!

Fire and children's play: a discussion

Last week at Eureka! we hosted Yorkshire Play’s open meeting discussing ‘Playing with Fire’, after their DVD of the same name. We had an exciting programme of events, which included viewing the DVD, watching children from the Eureka! Nursery take part in a fire-based play activity and participated in a discussion about the risks and benefits of using fire as a part of children’s play.

Fire is a controversial subject. At the meeting it was agreed by all that making fires is a deep-seated need for many children. But it’s not clear what the best way is to fill that need while also balancing safety concerns for children and the people around them.

I believe that the best thing is to channel that need through exposure to the pleasures and risks of fire in a controlled manner, which is done in many play settings and uniform groups, enabling us to educate children about fire in an age-appropriate way.

We were lucky enough to have a break in the rain so that a group of children from the Nursery could demonstrate just how fire can be used in a play setting. Outside the museum, we watched as the children and Cindy, a PlayScape facilitator did a risk assessment of the area to make sure it was free of sticks and brush which could be set alight. They placed sand and stones to make a boundary that they all agreed not to step over unless they were invited, and they talked about being burned and what to do in case of an accident. Then, they were able to make a fire and cook marshmallows and toast; the only hiccups were when one of the children didn’t like bread!

Making toast over a campfire.

Clare Dean, Eureka! Nursery Early Years Professional, said the children got a good sense of the safety issues as well as seeing that fire can be fun, useful and not just dangerous.

We then spent an hour discussing some of the controversial issues surrounding fireplay, utilising the expert panel. The panel included a member of the Fire and Rescue Service, a child who engages in fireplay and practitioners/trainers who promote fire play. The differing viewpoints and the response from the audience has caused me to reflect. As a parent and a playful learning professional I am often torn about fire play, and in fact, many types of activities that we now consider to contain risk.

Research indicates that parents today are much more fearful and protective than they were 30 or 40 years ago. I want to let my children have the same freedom I experienced but I can’t help but worry. I know there is no evidence to support our fears, there are no increases in child abduction or child murders just more media coverage, and in fact there has been a 75% reduction of children killed on the roads between 1976 and 2006. Peter Cornell from RoSPA stated: 'We need to ask whether it is better for a child to break a wrist falling out of a tree, or to get a repetitive strain wrist injury at a young age from using a computer or video games console'.

When children spend time connecting with nature, getting dirty, getting cut by thorns, building fires they are learning important lessons for life and gaining a stong sense of safety outdoors. It is this knowledge that influenced my decision to be procative in providing experinces for my own children and their friends, I’m lucky enough to have a fire pit in my garden where I regulalry have groups of up to 10 children building and cooking on fires. They now have a clear understanding of the risks asssociated with fire, they have knowledge of what to use as kindling, what and when to add to make a good fire to cook on and the importance of using fallen wood so as not to interfere with the eco system. They also know not to leave the food on too long or else it get burned! When I see the kids in the school playground they always want to know when they can come again or recall stories from the evening before. I hope that, as well as the lessons learned, these are memories for life.

As a panel member, Kofi Johnson, 10 years old, was able to voice how important experience was for his learning and development. He said that he learns more about the health and safety aspects, and risks of using fire by doing and seeing, rather than being told.

The panel discussion touched on many different aspects of using fire in play, and sparked an active back and forth in the audience on topics such as:

•    Why does it appear to be more acceptable for uniform groups to use fire than it is for the play sector?

•    Is it the terminology we use in the play sector that influences people’s perspectives?

•    How do we encourage teachers to see the benefits of fireplay in schools?

We also learned some interesting facts about fire and its societal implications, which raised their own questions.

Peter Lamb, Hull City Council, reported that since the introduction of designated social gateway centres, places where fires are lit and youth and young people are allowed to gather around them, there has been a reduction in vandalism to play equipment.

Gayle Elvidge from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service commented that the number of deliberately set fires they are called out to are reducing year on year. Do you think this could be because more children are exposed to structured sessions? 

It was a constructive session but many of the questions remain unanswered; we’d love to hear your point of view and look out for footage and audio of the debate online soon.

Rebecca Johnson is the Director of Play and Learning at Eureka!

Searching for a story (Part III)

This is the last in our three-part storybook trail around the Eureka! galleries. You can also read Part I or Part II.

When Puffin Books released its handbook of the 70 best books for children, to celebrate their 70th anniversary of publishing children’s books this year, we were all excited in the Play and Learning department to see if our favourites had made it in. While I was looking through the list for The Tiger Who Came for Tea by Judith Kerr, I couldn’t believe how many different places at Eureka! reflected the different books.

With that in mind I’ve come up with a small trail that you can use to continue your learning after a visit to Eureka!—or use to get ready for a trip through the galleries!

This week we’re following the trail through Living and Working Together.

The Jolly Postman is by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. He follows his route through the neighbourhood, delivering the letters to all manner of fantastic fairy tale characters. Would you like to be a jolly postman? You’ll have to put on your post delivery clothes, and collect your packages from the post office. Once you’re ready there are so many places and people around the gallery waiting for their post!


Lauren Child’s retelling of The Princess and the Pea is our final place on the trail, and what better way to end a long day than in a nice comfy bedroom. Count the mattresses, are they enough for a picky princess? Do you think you could feel a single pea

To find out more (and download the list so you can read all of these books for yourself), visit Happy Birthday Puffin!

Jenny Goodall is the Bookings Administrator at Eureka!

Searching for a story (Part II)

This is the second in our three-part storybook trail around the Eureka! galleries. Part I is available here.

When Puffin Books released its handbook of the 70 best books for children, to celebrate their 70th anniversary of publishing children’s books this year, we were all excited in the Play and Learning department to see if our favourites had made it in. While I was looking through the list for The Tiger Who Came for Tea by Judith Kerr, I couldn’t believe how many different places at Eureka! reflected the different books.

With that in mind I’ve come up with a small trail that you can use to continue your learning after a visit to Eureka!—or use to get ready for a trip through the galleries!

This week we’re following the trail through Our Global Garden and SoundGarden. We'll start in Our Global Garden where there are two whole floors to explore!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? is by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carl, a famous children’s author in his own right. Martin and Carl’s polar bear hears all sorts of sounds during his day. Our polar bear is named Nanuq. Can you find him?

Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola series makes another appearance with Look After Your Planet. The book is all about recycling, one of the simplest ways that we can all make a difference in taking care of our world. Wander through the gallery, can you find a recycling centre?

SoundGarden is one of our special galleries for under-fives where they can discover and learn at their own pace in a vivid and warm environment.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl is a classic book that introduces younger children to the world of reading in much the same way through its gentle and vibrant illustrations. In SoundGarden it’s easy to experience life from a caterpillar’s point of view. Look around and find the butterflies, there's even one you can paint! If you were a very hungry caterpillar, what kind of butterfly would you be when you grew up?

Next time I’ll finish the trail with Living and Working Together, but don't forget you can still read Part I!

To find out more (and download the list so you can read all of these books for yourself), visit Happy Birthday Puffin!.

Jenny Goodall is the Bookings Administrator at Eureka!

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen

This weekend kicks off our half-term Pirates Ahoy adventure. We’ve put together a whole slew of high-seas hijinks for our visitors; Pirate Training School with sing-along sea shanteys, a treasure map through the galleries and my favourite, a galleon play structure that will be ‘run aground’ outside on the Eureka! Beach for the young buccaneers to explore.

Of course, before we can set sail, we need to hoist the sails. At Eureka! that’s where our team of Technicians come in. While here in Marketing, or in Learning and Education, we’re great about coming up with the ideas and programming that makes a visit to Eureka! magical, without our ‘techies’ keeping the museum at ship-shape, we’d be lost.

And the galleon was no exception. Here’s a sneak peek while we do our health and safety checks and get it ready to set sail in the wild, wild world.

In the Loading Bay 'dockyards'.

The jolly boat ‘Eureka!’ ready for her maiden voyage.

Without our 'techies', we might have had to settle for something less ambitious!

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing and PR Officer for Eureka! Her pirate name is Red Mary Bonney (what’s yours?).

Searching for a story (Part I)

When Puffin Books released its handbook containing the 70 best books for children, to celebrate their 70th anniversary of publishing children’s books this year, we were all excited in the Play and Learning department to see if our favourites had made it in. While I was looking through the list for The Tiger Who Came for Tea by Judith Kerr, I couldn’t believe how many different places at Eureka! reflected the different books.

With that in mind I’ve come up with a small trail that you can use to continue your learning after a visit to Eureka!—or use to get ready for a trip through the galleries!

I’ll start with Me & My Body:

Janet and Allan Ahlberg wrote Funny Bones to introduce you to your skeleton. Why not see it up close and personal?

The Charlie and Lola series book, My Wobbly Tooth Must Not Ever Never Fall Out by Lauren Child is all about baby teeth and the tooth fairy. If you want to play with a wobbly tooth (guaranteed to wobble and wobble and not ever never fall out), the Eureka! mouth is a good choice if your grown-up teeth haven’t come yet.

In Part II we’ll be looking at Our Global Garden and SoundGarden, and in Part III we’ll finish with Living and Working Together!

To find out more (and download the list so you can read all of these books for yourself), visit Happy Birthday Puffin.

Jenny Goodall is the Bookings Administrator at Eureka!

This is the way we brush our teeth

How do you take care of your mouth? It might be avoiding eating lots of sugary foods and drinks, flossing every day, visiting the dentist, or brushing your teeth after meals. Most of us use a toothbrush to take care of our mouths. In other cultures throughout history they have used cleaning twigs made from plants like neem or cinnamon or even porcupine quills. Some cultures use chalk or bicarbonate of soda to make their mouths clean and their smiles bright.

And how do we take care of Eureka!’s very big Mouth in Me and My Body?

We use paint of course.*

Just another day at the museum.

*We would not otherwise recommend the use of paint to achieve a healthy smile, but it’s very hard to source a large enough tube of toothpaste for a six-foot-tall mouth.

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing and PR Officer at Eureka!

And the winner is...

It’s tough running an election, even if it isn’t on the same scale as oh, an imminent General Election. When we decided to declare Eureka! an independent ‘State of Play’ micronation as part of our 18th birthday celebrations, we knew we needed to take it seriously and give children the chance to vote and express how they want future leaders to shape the world. After all, play is serious work at Eureka!.

Now that we’ve closed our polls and tallied the votes to find the leader for the Eureka! independent ‘State of Play’ I’m feeling sympathetic for the poll workers who will be busy all day (and well into the night) this week—and I only had to count about 250 ballots. With the results in, the clear winner was Scoot, though with 43% of the votes it wasn’t a landslide. Orby came second with 34% and Gordon the Gnome had a strong third with 21% of the vote.

It wasn’t hard to decide which characters at Eureka! would stand as candidates. Orby helps everyone who visits the SoundSpace gallery to expand their senses. Gordon the Gnome helps children learn about the importance of green spaces everywhere in Our Global Garden. And Scoot? He’s one of our best-loved characters and one of the first places children go when they visit Me & My Body. He’s also quite the chatterbox, and while I know there was no electioneering, I’m sure all his visitors were reminded to vote.

We also made sure that our voters could express their opinions with their ballot. We asked them 'what would be the first thing you would change about the place you live in' if they were in charge. Reading the responses, and accompanying illustrations, was the best part of the whole process for me! Many children were concerned about the environment: they wanted an end to pollution, more recycling, and more places to play ('like Eureka' as one nine-year-old said).

There were two office favourites here in the offices. The first was from a four-year-old named Daniel. He wrote: 'I would have a magic wand and make bad people disappear and I would make chickens look lovely by putting bows in their feathers. I would make it summertime all year to enjoy the flowers.'

The second, from Polly, age 4, is this picture:

The past few years have seen quite a few elections with historic or notable results around the world. Our election may not be quite so historic, but it’s great for children to have a playful learning opportunity closer to home. If you’re interested in further exploring the electoral process and upcoming election with your child, here are a few websites we’ve found useful.

United Kingdom Parliament: General Elections Explained (PDF)
CBBC Newsround: General Election special
BBC Teacher’s Notes: Democracy

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing & PR Officer at Eureka!

Bringing Reggio Emelia to Eureka! Early Years

Eureka! is hosting Early Years Week from Tuesday 11 May to Friday 14 May. More information can be found on our Early Years section of the website.

As the Early Years Specialist Enabler at Eureka! I am always looking for new ways to strengthen our Early Years offerings in the nursery and museum.  Last May, I experienced one of the big benefits of my position, when I had an amazing opportunity to visit and share our best practices with a bilingual school in Monza, Italy: ‘Play English’.

Pictures in the Play English atelier (Art Studio), May 2009

My visit to Play English was part of a two-year exchange programme the school had with the Eureka! Nursery. The Play English ethos draws heavily on the HighScope and Reggio Emelia philosophies. While I understood the philosophy, I wasn’t clear how the two approaches and the Early Years Foundation Stage would work together. That was where Play English came to my aid. Play English promotes a mode of learning that allows the child the freedom and independence to discover their own types of learning within a structured theme. Giving children this independence and the choice to learn in a comfortable and familiar manner has been seen to increase their confidence and improve life long learning.

‘Play English’ have a full time Art Specialist called the ‘Atelierista’, who works with small groups of children both in the classroom and in the art studio called the ‘Atelier’ where she develops and extends the children’s creativity as a language of expression. I spent time with the schools ‘Atelierista’ observing her sessions with children, her planning and had the opportunity to discuss her philosophies.

Working with the ‘Atelierista’ I discovered that children can have freedom of self discovery within a themed programme. I used this knowledge to design a programme for the Eureka! Nursery children. It was a huge success and inspired me to roll it out to a larger audience, so I developed the idea into this year’s Early Years Week programme ‘Light & Shadow’. 

Light & Shadow allows children to explore the world of 2 and 3 dimensional objects and to see how light affects the world around them, developing their curiosity of cause and effect. During the week children will have the opportunity to explore with torches in the dark crevices of the Desert Discovery Gallery; there will be large sheets with images and shadows projected on them in various places in the museum. Children will be able to look at their own shadows created through natural light on the balcony and much, much more. With the use of both natural and artificial light they can discover the effects created and by using their own investigation techniques they can explore form, colour, density, pattern and shape, through both natural and artificial objects.

One important aspect that I took with me from my experience, is the way to help children with their own personal development through investigation, experiment, and problem solving. I believe that the concept of child-led play with open ended outcomes is essential to the personal learning development of children.

It is this freedom to let children be creative without set directions and instructions that allows the development of independence, control, confidence, and the ability to learn by their own mistakes and successes

Penny Dargan is an Early Years Specialist Enabler at Eureka!

Never too late for play time

Just before Easter holidays started at Eureka! one of our local schools visited with their 7–11 year-old (Key Stage 2) pupils. They were from a village school in Cheshire so it was a smaller group, with only about thirty children in total.

Children pretend to be cashiers and customers
in the Bank, Sept. 2009.

Once inside the museum, it was hard to move the children on from the Town Square! They were having a whale of a time dressing up as postal workers and delivering parcels to the bank, the shop, the garage and the ‘Dig’, our miniature archaeological site. They went shopping, worked the tills and even stacked shelves in the miniature Marks and Spencers. At the bank some kids filled out withdrawal forms, handing them over to classmates in cashiers’ jackets, who then had to decide whether or not to give them a PIN. There were several keen mechanics in the garage, while the petrol pump attendants also worked very hard at their own jobs.

As we watched the children thoroughly enjoy themselves—and helped them use their Eureka! cash cards in our very special cash machine so that they could collect Eureka! bank notes with characters such as Scoot the Robot or Orby the Alien incorporated in the design —we had a chance to talk with the four teachers chaperoning the class. They said that, after observing the children’s obvious enthusiasm, they had made an unanimous decision to re-introduce role playing into their school’s Key Stage 2 curriculum.

This is exactly the reason I love working at Eureka! I believe 100% in our ‘learning through play’ philosophy and it always delights me when our ideas are taken up by other education professionals. I know, as does any parent, that all children are full of curiosity from the moment they are born and take enormous pleasure from learning. They begin questioning almost as soon as they can talk. Learning is fun – and good teachers, both formal and informal, should be doing their best to keep it that way. I’m extremely happy that at least one set of Key Stage 2 children will be finding that some of the fun they experienced here will be following them back to school.

Jill Ward is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Play is good for babies

This week we learnt of the importance of play for babies. Sue Palmer explained in the Guardian that children need to play and to interact with other people in their early years and called for a campaign to raise awareness of these needs.

Of course children under five learn through play - it's their way of exploring the world around them. Here at Eureka! we encourage children to play right from birth and we offer many different experiences and learning opportunities that are linked to the early learning goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Our two galleries dedicated for the under fives offer all sorts of challenging opportunities for supported and spontaneous play. And both SoundGarden and Desert Discovery give parents lots of opportunties to engage with their children and help them progress in their learning.

The multi-sensory nature of both galleries make them accessible for children at all levels. Whether by watching in shy awe, listening with great interest, taking small risks, playing alone or playing together, they let children explore at their own pace, helping them to become competent learners, skilful communicators and overall healthy, happy kids.

Play and the museum

The one indisputable fact about play is that it transcends time, geography and culture – children everywhere play and have played since the beginning of time. Children literally can’t stop themselves from playing because it’s as natural as eating and sleeping, and equally essential to healthy growth and development. But unlike eating and sleeping, play is the one thing that children like to do without encouragement from adults. In fact, research shows that children play even when it’s actively discouraged by adults.

But when it comes to museums, play is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Although things have certainly moved on, especially with Kids in Museums, there still exist many museums where children are not very welcome, and where they are the admonishments to be quiet and not to touch anything are, unfortunately, the memories they take away with them. 

Of course children’s museums turn the world upside down in this respect and encourage lots of active, noisy engagement where playing and touching is absolutely required. More than anything else, it is the emphasis on play and the application of relevant academic theories of learning and child development (Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Gardner), and methodologies of play-based learning that sets Eureka! and all children’s museums apart from other, more traditional museum approaches to children.

When children play they learn as well as have fun; they experiment, collaborate, test ideas, communicate and express their thoughts. And because they enjoy themselves, they are far more likely to remember what they’re learning. When children come to Eureka! they come to play. Their families and teachers bring them to Eureka! because they know that they will learn while they play – everyone is happy! At the end of any visit, children have had a fun day out without it feeling like “learning”. Parents and grandparents leave satisfied that they have done something “productive” for their offspring and not wasted away an afternoon in mindless activity. And teachers are confident that the curriculum links have helped them move forward to meet their targets.

Another important distinction from the traditional museum, of course, is that children’s museums do not have a collection and therefore do not attempt to exhibit or interpret objects of any description. Children’s museums were originally an offshoot from traditional museums, beginning with the Brooklyn Children’s Museum which opened in 1899. Over time, and most notably initiated by the work of Michael Spock at the Boston Children’s Museum in the 1960s, the principles of hands-on interactive exhibits and active, participative, discovery-based learning gained favour and the collection faded into the background and a new play-based approach to children’s learning evolved. This has defined children’s museums ever since and resulted in their growth as a worldwide phenomenon.

So, without the need to display and interpret, to use objects as the focal point, children's museums are free to explore childhood and to create learning opportunities for children from an unlimited range of perspectives and disciplines. We are able to put the child at the centre, giving them choice and control over their play and creativity and fostering independence, self-confidence, self-esteem.

This post is taken from a recent talk given by Eureka! CEO, Leigh-Anne Stradeski at the Rethinking Children/Childhood in the 21st Century on 4-5 February 2010 at Birkbeck University London. To hear more, listen to the talk and view presenation slides