28 May 2015 - The British Science Museum - ground floor only!

I am trying to get the school/exploring balance right and determine what works best.  This morning after being woken at 5.45 AM by a loud voiced man yelling down his mobile phone in a language I didn't understand and so couldn't even eavesdrop on the street below for 45  minutes (!), I thought I'd take the kids to the park for some exercise.  Theory: Exercise prior to school helps kids to focus!

Luke soon found some friends which was excellent and I had a nice chat to their mother who was from Algeria and had been in London for 5 years.  Tim and Annika enjoyed the gym equipment and Luke and I joined them after a while.  What good exercise!

Workout in the sun shine!

 So having had a wonderful play, we headed back to start school, and it was disastrous trying to get Luke to settle into work.  The pinnacle of my frustration which a home school project of a water turbine for which we didn't have the equipment and it was a failure and lost any remnant of Luke's attention...and that was that.

Old Bess Beam  engine 1777

Tim was feeling a bit stressed with the amount of homework he had to do and decided to stay home while we went to the British Science Museum.  We walked along the now familiar Regent Canal from Little Venice to Paddington.  Luke spent a bit of time observing the male moorhen who was STILL gathering bits of rubbish from the canal for his partner to keep building their nest.  With each bit of chip packet or old leaf he brought to her, she eagerly tucked them into the nest.  She revealed 4 or 5 eggs this time and there is also the older but still fluffy chick so I am not sure whether the existing chick is from a previous batch of eggs or whether the eggs she is sitting on are duds.

 

Beam engine 1808

Energy display...beams of light

Space display

 Through Hyde Park, and past a squirrel and we were at the British Science Museum!  We only looked around the ground floor which was mostly about engines, space and gut flora and that alone took 2 hours!  We will go back as there is much more to see there as well and it is free!  We obliged the market researcher at the door and filled in her survey about the museum.

Satellites cruising around the earth....it is busy up in the sky!

Babbage's Difference Engine 1832

Stephenson's Rocket

I remember my Dad's donkey engine and him explaining all about Stephenson's Rocket

Steam tractor 1871

How farming has progressed and yet how innovative in its day!

Panhard and Levassor Motor Car 1895

Rover Gas Turbine Car 1950

Quite possibly the smallest BMW car I will ever see...but is it a car?  Is a chihuahua a dog?

Luke doing his dance moves!

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Apollo II - 1969 - astronauts travelled around the moon but didn't land

Back home on the Tube, late and basic dinner after a quick Sainsbury's shop.  Busy but good day with a decent walk thrown in!