Among the record crowd

The Dinosaur Gallery in the Leicester Museum on New Walk opened on the 3rd of September. During that weekend more people visited the museum than ever before during ones weekend. Instead of the normal 760 visitors 5,244 individuals entered the museum. Among these visitors were Archaeologist Husband and Number One Son. This visit was more suitable for the Son’s slightly older Number One Cousin who is in an age where dinosaurs start to be interesting.

Museum visits make parents feel good about themselves since they see themselves giving their children an opportunity to explore and learn – a good constructive experience. However, Number One Son sees a museum, not matter what is on display, as a huge open space where a toddler can run around and express himself in the way two-year-olds do. Preferably, he likes to chase or be chased by other toddlers. The more delicate Cousin was not too keen but there were many other children to see the dinosaurs with whom to have a contact and run. Additionally, the displays with their stands created a landscape where to hide. The TV screens caught his eye – not the least because of his very bad Cars habit – although he did not interact with the displays.

I was in London and got my constructive experiences in teacher training and the British Museum. Archaeologist Husband said that the new display was well designed but that he really did not have an opportunity to see it. The huge dinosaur skeleton is still there but otherwise Number One Son was having his kind of museum experience by enjoying the space and the hubby was running after him....