In the past decade the museum sector has undergone a radical rethink of its approach to early years provision. Many museums are now adapting their facilities and spaces to provide for young children's needs, adapting exhibition layout and content and developing tailored activities and resources for young children that deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage in an exciting and creative way. As a result, young children and their families are an ever-increasing museum audience. Last year at the Museum of London we had 8,000 under-fives accessing our sessions and events, with more enjoying the galleries on separate visits with their families.
Why make a visit?
Museum entry is often free, so a visit needn't blow your budget. When asked for her comments on a recent session, one parent, holding her beaming two-year-old, said, 'I wish this every day.'
She'd come along with the Abbey Lane Children's Centre, Newham, to the Museum of London Docklands and they'd joined in exploring our displays, a puppet-making workshop and a storytelling session.
Sandra Achille, an outreach worker from Abbey Lane, felt that the visit allowed parents to share new experiences with their children, and that for the children it could be the start of lifelong learning and enjoyment.
'Children who learn about museums at a young age and visit them regularly appreciate them more and find enjoyment when they reach school age and beyond,' she said.
Practitioners' concerns about finding enough adult volunteers to accompany them on the visit, and about whether the children will respect the artefacts, shouldn't become barriers to a rewarding experience. Young children gain so much from handling exciting objects, and adults are often surprised and impressed by how careful children are around artefacts - we've certainly had no breakages.
If you're still uncertain about a visit, museums may come to you. These 'outreach' sessions can be a good way to introduce the idea of a visit to children and parents. Michelle Preston, a class teacher from Alice Model Nursery School, says of her outreach visit, 'It made the museum visit easier as we knew exactly what to expect when we got there and the leaders were familiar to us.'
Delivering the EYFS
A museum visit can support and stimulate children's learning before and after as well as during the visit (see box).
Sandra Achille says, 'The areas of learning were definitely evident in our session: enabling children to take control of the physical environment, creative activities and problem solving, using stories and puppets to stimulate different kinds of play to suit different cultural environments, encouraging staff and families to join in with play situations where appropriate (and) encouraging speech and language skills.'
Visits can also provide stimulation for staff, engaging them with new ideas to take back to their setting, and for parents, by encouraging them to visit again with their children.
Getting hands-on
Many museums now have handling collections even for the youngest of children. By handling objects, children can explore materials, textures, shape, time and place, and learn how to care for things.
Our Galleries of Modern London, due to open this summer, will have a hands-on 1950s playtime area and a transport exhibit especially for under-fives. Our weekly 'babies and carers' groups at the Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands use treasure baskets, music, touch and play to encourage learning and development, and we are now offering these sessions to local early years providers.
Parents
A museum visit enables parents to share their children's learning experiences. Grandparents, too, can help children to learn about their own cultural and family history.
Yet some parents do not realise that museums can cater for young children, worry that they wil have to be experts or have negative memories from their own childhood. An organised session is a good way to get them to cross the threshold. Five minutes into their visit to the Museum of London Docklands, one surprised-looking parent from Abbey Lane said to me, 'This isn't like a museum, it's really nice.'
So, this is our challenge. At the Museum of London we continue to strive to dispel myths about museums, to be relevant and responsive to our diverse local communities and open the door to enriching and playful learning experiences for young children and their families.
- Rachael Woodhead is Early Years Officer, Learning Department, Museum of London, www.museumoflondon.org.uk
CASE STUDY
Eight children from Alice Model Nursery School, their parents and class teacher Michelle Preston agreed to trial the Museum of London's new combined Foundation Stage session 'Stories old and new'.
At school, pupils met Molly, the museum cat puppet, and handled real Tudor objects, such as a cauldron and a bone skate, to compare old and new. Through stories, they explored people and objects in the past, then with Molly's help, created an interactive story together using the objects they had explored.
For the second part of the session, they visited the Museum of London and used digital cameras to capture and explore their favourite objects from the Medieval London gallery. They then created a story, 'Queen Michelle and Louis' shoe', inspired by their photos.
Evaluation
Michelle felt the session 'was aimed appropriately at the right age for our children, and it was fun and educational. I learnt about how to make our museum trips more purposeful. It got the children to use their imaginations and gave them the chance to expand their vocabulary and learn new words, such as artefact.
'Using the digital cameras gives the children something to focus on as they go around the gallery, and it extends what we are teaching them at school about digital cameras.
'The session linked extremely well to EYFS, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, in particular the ICT and Time and Place strands. We (also) got lots of useful observations from the sessions.'
The children evaluated their day by voting on the smiley face chart at the museum. Their favourite parts of the session were 'Molly the museum cat, being able to touch the objects, being able to take pictures and seeing their pictures on the whiteboard at the museum.'
Future
Michelle says, 'We are talking about returning soon and repeating the camera and story session using our school cameras, and we will also be encouraging parents to visit the museum with their children.'
A MUSEUM VISIT: TOP TIPS
Before you go
- Get in touch with the museum's learning or education officer. They can advise you on travel, facilities and galleries or tailored under-fives activities they may offer
- Go on a planning visit to the museum, so staff know what to expect on the day
- Get parents involved! Talk about the visit with them so that they know what to expect, and reassure them that no expert knowledge is needed
- Look on the museum's website. Research your trip with the children. Talk about what a museum is and what you might find there
On your way
- Use the journey as a learning experience. Do a simple treasure hunt looking for buildings, buses, cars or animals on the way
During your visit
- Keep it focused. Trying to do the whole museum can be overwhelming. Find out if there are displays or objects of particular interest for under-fives
- Enjoy yourselves. Encourage parents and staff to join in with activities, listen to children, notice what they are interested in and encourage them to talk about it together
- Become explorers. Simple tubes, torches or paper frames to peep through are lots of fun and help children to look at things
- Can you find it? Ask children to look for certain shapes, colours or objects in the displays
- Take a camera. Let children take pictures of their favourite things in the museum. (Check if the museum has a photography policy, and many museums also have images on their website).
Back in your setting
- Make a book about your visit using photos and thoughts from the day
- Make a display of interesting objects from home or your setting. Encourage the children to describe and discuss them. Provide labels and encourage children to sort and label them appropriately
- Do a blindfolded object-handling activity in which children use their sense of touch and smell to discover what the object is
Sandra's top tip: 'I would advise you to contact the museum and speak to them about what they have on offer and how they can work together with the children's centre and community.'
