Day 4: Greenwich

The search for meaning:

One of the frustrations I have with museums as a learning environment is that there's a lot to look at, it's inspiring stuff, and a great sensory experience, but I often go away feeling as if it's poorly designed for the transfer of meaning.  Just like with this sculpture in Devonport House gardens.

Je suis parfois frustreé par les museés en tant qu'environnement pédagogique.  Il nous en mettent plein les yeux mais ça me semble parfois mal conçu pour le transfert de quoi que ce soit qui ai un sens.  Un peu comme cette sculpture des jardins de Devonport House.

We tried out the hands-on section of the National Maritime Museum, and it was a bit disappointing.  There was not much there that wouldn't be better covered by a picture book or a Flash application on the internet.  In many ways, those are better tools for distributing information to huge quantities of people.  Museums win out on scale, though.  We eventually spent over an hour deciphering a chart of the channel between Dover and Calais, with the help of paper boats.

Nous avons testé la partie interactive du National Maritime Museum, mais c'était un peu décevant.  Pas grand chose qui ne serait pas aussi bien en documentaire ou encore mieux avec Flash sur Internet.  Les livres et l'Internet sont peut-être les meilleurs outils que nous possédons pour transferer des informations à une population entière.  Mais les musées offrent une échelle de grandeur differénte.  Finalement, nous avons passé plus d'une heure à interpreter la carte maritime de la Manche, entre Douvres et Calais, à l'aide de petits bateaux en papier.

Homeschooling experience: we got thrown out when a 'real' school party came along for their booked session!

Experience IEF : on s'est fait jetées quand une 'vrai' école est arrivée.

Lunch break/Pause midi

Today we had an impromptu dance show.
Spectacle de danse inattendu.

It was positively hot today.  The British started taking all their clothes off!  We extended our lunch break into drawing the panorama of London.  No need to look for meaning here.  Now we recognize some of the less obvious buildings when we pass them in Canary Wharf.

Il a fait carrément chaud aujourd'hui.  Les Anglais ont meme commence à se déshabiller !  On a passé l'après-midi à dessiner le panorama de Londres.  Maintenant on reconnait les gratte-ciels quand on passe devant à Canary Wharf.

Story from the pub

Proving that I take my daughter to very suitable spots, Antonia wrote this story inspired by a very huge champagne bottle on a pedestal in a pub (where we drank milk and coffee).  I also got some work done!

Fable dans un pub

Antonia a écrit une fable inspirée par une énorme bouteille du pub ou on se trouvait.  Mais je n'ai pas eu le courage de traduire  ) :

THE VAIN WINE BOTTLE

There was once a big vain wine bottle, bigger than any other wine bottle in the world.  He was as vain and as stupid as his feet although he thought he was brilliant, super, beautiful and erudite and if you ask me he is the exact opposite...  Everybody hated him because he was mean to everyone.  One day the man who owned the wine shop put the vain wine bottle on the window display.  People came every day to take photos of his fat tummy and his smooth olive skin.  One day a person took the vain wine bottle away to his house.  The man tried taking the top off the bottle but the stubborn bottle got in a rage and when the man finally took his top off, most of the bottle's contents spat all over the room!  The rest was drunk for dinner.

The moral of this story is don't think too much of yourself like thinking that you're beautiful because you're not.

THE END