One of our topics this term is Transport. So far this term we have designed our own car, kept track of different car colours and made a survey as well as investigating different types of transport available.
With all this covered so far I though it would be best to take the Boys to the London Transport Museum and investigate some of the transport used through the ages.
We also made an effort to count all the different types of transport that we used to get there!
We started off going to the Train Station using Daddy's car.
Once we got our tickets we waited for the train to arrive; it was freezing! I think I need to work on my timings better!
The plan was to get a taxi to the museum but sadly the taxi drivers were on strike due to the Uber App! Massive fail for Daddy's planning!
When we finally got to the museum we had great fun looking around!
On arrival the Boys received a card which doubled as a map of the Museum. When we would arrive at a numbered destination we were able to stamp it. (Old style stamping and hole punching of train and bus tickets)
We started off seeing both Private and Public horse drawn carriages.
The boys found quite a few features fascinating:
They to start couldn't quite get their minds over the fact that horse's weren't just for riding but also for pulling carriages around. When they saw the horse drawn "Bus" they were questioning if it has broken down and that is why it needed help. I had to give a very short explanation of a motor and how it works and I think they just about understood; although we will definitely be doing more on this!
One fact they found extremely interesting as well as funny was the amount of horse poo that was collected from the roads. According to the museum a whopping 1,000 tonnes of poo was cleared everyday. We also learnt that children would sweep the poo up and that they would go through a broom every few weeks unless it was wet and then it was every week!
I did suggest that I should get the boys working but I don't think they liked that idea!
They loved being able to sit in one but they didn't like how high up they had to go to sit in it!
We then moved on to transport along the River Thames. We found that there were Ships transporting goods as well as small boats and ferries that transported people. This latter fact was something that they questioned why we didn't do it today, until I explained that we found quicker ways to do it!
They were able to look closely at the picture to see the more detailed scene and also found out how dirty the Thames was. Passenger boats and ferries would see poo, rubbish, rats and other animals as well as dead people to avoid!
It was now the turn of the London Underground.
We started off seeing how men would dig the tunnels and how dangerous it would be!
We then saw a model of what a digging scene would look like. This actually surprised me! I obviously knew that they went under houses and shops but I had never really connected the two parts together until I saw this. I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been living on top of a scene like this!
We then saw the difference that was made when Lifts were put in by having the option to make different types move up and down! James preferred making the underground train move!
On seeing the different trains I will admit that the boys weren't overly bothered by them. They looked like a train and had seats like a train to get you to different places so to actually see the difference in modernisation went right over their head. The only part they enjoyed here was the above picture and only because "this is like a Harry Potter train Daddy"
There was a section for younger children that did catch their attention. In this child friendly area they had the chance to drive a train whilst the other operated the announcements. There was also a part where they could climb under and repair the train; personally I am a little suspect of this.....think I might need to warn the passengers!
Next came the different buses through the years.
Very much like the trains the Boys just went past each Bus and saw the basic features that made it a Bus. They really didn't see the difference in the designs; apart from that they no longer had horses pulling them!
They did, however, get a chance to sit in and "drive" one of the more modern buses. James even had the "All aboard for your next stop!"
The final section was what future transport might look like with some real futuristic designs.
These all seemed very different from what we are using now but William did make a point that I agree with.
"Daddy, all the different types of trains looked the same and all the different types of buses looked the same. But these don't look like anything that we've seen here. Are they real?"
I actually agreed with him. over 300 years worth of different transport that all had similar shape and structure and I can only imagine that there is a valid reason for this. I did find these designs a little wild; even the cars in Back to the Future still resembled something that we would recognise.
This whole day was educational and interesting and on a good note the ticket does allow us to go back and see everything again. My only problem was that I think the Boys might have been a tad on the young side as they did go from one thing to another and only really listened to parts which confused them.
It has definitely help us to move forward with some ideas on our topic.
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