The first thing I'm loving about Cambridge is the museums. Not only is there an abundance of them, within walking distance of our house but they are also good quality and free.
Most of the museums are attached to various faculties of the university and are collections which have been put together over a century or more of research and study. For example, the earth sciences museum and the zoology museum have a lot of specimens that Charles Darwin collected as part of his research and now belong to the university.
I love that on any given day that I am wandering around them with my kids, there will be groups of university students studying there and examining the same exhibits we are examining. And although they are museums of the university, kids are encouraged to come and made to feel welcome. There's an encouragement of learning (regardless of age) that I like.
We've made museum visiting a big feature of our week here. Usually, we'll do at least one visit a week. We've worked out a pattern where Dave works from home during Lydia's sleep time while I take the older three out. (The museums do encourage kids, but these ones are still a little tricky for an active 20 month old!)
Here are some photos of the kids enjoying several of the museums:
Sedgwick (earth sciences):
Botanic Gardens:
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:
And the biggest one, the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is a large, eclectic general museum established in the early 19th century. We aim to do a room each visit - there's so much to see, and so far we've enjoyed the Ancient Egyptian, Greece and Roman rooms. You can't take photos inside this one, but here is the outside:
1 comment:
Great to see some of the exhibits that the kids have been talking about.
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