Worldwide Culture Swap

We are very excited to be taking part in a world wide culture swap, where we assigned to a group of 5 families from all over the world and we can swap parcels with each other that contain interesting and fun things to do with the country and culture where we live.  I think it is a great and very real way to learn about other people, as well as encouraging the children to think about what we might like to share about how and where we live. I'm sure that we'll learn lots of things that we didn't know in the process.

We have been matched with families from Quebec, St Thomas (which took some finding on the map!), India (but now living in California) and Switzerland.

Our first step was to find them on our map and we've labelled it so that the children can see at a glance where everyone is from. 


The blur facility on my paint package is my new favourite thing

Today was cold and drizzly so we decided to forego our usual outdoor home ed get together and set off looking for treasures that we could put in our parcel.  First stop was our town's museum.  We thought that we might find some fun things in the gift shop there and were hoping for some postcards too.

My favourite part of the museum, which I'm afraid the children think is rather dull, is this picture painted in 1859.  Alongside it is a photo taken recently of the same busy area of the town so that we can compare how it once was to how it is now.  The dirt track and horses having been replaced by concrete and cars, the many masts of the working boats, to the left of the picture now being reduced to just one  - of a boat restored in the town and now open to the public to look around.  The buildings are mostly still there, but many have been extended and more crammed in to fill in the gaps. 
The children never let me look long enough at this picture, mainly because they know  that this gruesome little guy is around the corner.  He is supposed to be a mermaid, but it really is quite horrid and we make every effort to make sure we don't pass it as we make our way around the museum - as much because it makes me shudder too!   

We ate lunch on board the 1934 steam ferry that was built in the town and admired the views from the high windows. 



Whilst the surroundings are lovely, the food on offer is quite basic so we don't tend to eat here, but it was fun to do. 



View from the steamer is, I think, the square patch of water at the left of the museum picture, looking down in the same direction

Back in the museum the children played in their favourite bit, the fishing coble.  They played at being Marvel super heroes and were joined by a small boy who was being a pirate.  So funny watching the children playing together at two different games!



A final look around the gift shop and we selected some pencils to go in our parcels and took away some leaflets that we may use later on.  We were rather disappointed with the array of postcards and felt that they didn't represent the town very well, so our postcard hunt is still on, though I suspect that we'll end up taking photos instead.