Museum Quest

I picked up this a while back.

It lists all (I think) the museums in Devon.  There is a little pic and blurb about each, and there are 48 in total in this booklet.

I have decided that we are going to visit each and every one of these museums over the course of the coming year, which means roughly one a week.  The idea is that it feels like a bit of a quest, and for Oliver to treat these visits as mini field trips.  He seems to loathe reading and writing, and this is a constant source of angst for me, as I love both and am pretty damn sure it has made my 'educational journey' through life a million times easier and more enjoyable.  I am hoping that this quest will appeal to his sense of adventure and interest in history, whilst enabling us to get out and about more, like we used to.  I am also looking to free us up a little from the constraints of an 'at home timetable' which we succumbed to at the beginning of the year.  Although it has worked a treat, I am loathe to abandon the whole 'work ethic' for the summer during the school hols and want to keep ticking over with this. 

Fully charged with enthusiasm for 'The Quest' I have been out on Oliver's behalf and bought a clipboard and ring binder to house the reams of paper he will be filling with historical and interesting facts (!) and re-joined the National Trust.  (some of the museums are NT places). 

I am not yet sure what to be looking for in a finished piece for Oliver - chose an artefact and write 3 interesting facts about it?  Give him the camera to take a few snaps of things he likes and write down something (anything) about them?  Sketch a little pic and label it?  When Oliver does write, he has wonderful control over a pen, and writes beautifully. (spelling is a bit of a work in progress though, I have to say).  He can read fluently and with nice intonation - when he wants to.  Sigh.  His mouth drooped a little when I floated The Quest idea last week and he muttered 'oh no' with great heavy gusto.  It doesn't bode well, but he fully understands and appreciates that a large part of educating him at home depends on (among other things) his co-operation, so I am at least confident he will give it a good go.  I am also pretty confident he will grow in enthusiasm with this once it is underway and we plan our weekly trips. 

There are some museums a little out of reach - namely those in north Devon, and I reckon there are about 9 or so which will give me a little trouble in terms of extra time and effort getting there, but we can make proper trips out of those, or fit them in on family breaks.  I intend to leave the awkward ones til the end of the year, when putting in the extra effort will seem more worth it in order to complete our Quest.  Mark seems pretty keen on this idea too, which always gives things a bit more of a boost.  He has suggested that we go to Buckland Abbey today, in Yelverton, so hopefully, MQ #1 will be underway!  I think the NT places will be a little easier to work on, as they usually produce a quiz of some sort, and the reading and writing elements I want Oliver to do are a little more 'guided' without me needing to prompt.  We'll see.

Laters!