It was the Birmingham ArtsFest this last weekend, so we took the boys into Birmingham for the day - about an hour's drive. It was a culture shock for them, being rather more used to sheep and wide open fields than skyscrapers and large numbers of people, especially in Centenary Square where most of the ArtsFest stalls were and where a huge open-air stage had been erected for the weekend, but they coped with it well. Both boys loved the big bull statue at the head of the Bullring, and the amazing architecture on display all around them. They also loved the doughnut stand beneath the Birmingham Eye wheel!
We spent half an hour in this absolutely vast branch of Borders bookshop in the Bullring, then ate a picnic lunch near St. Martin's Church, which was fairly quiet - in contrast to the busier end of town that day.
We could have spent much longer in the bookshop, the boys were enjoying it so much, wanting to explore everything, but alas, one of my older children needed to get to a Royal Shakespeare Company stage fighting workshop. Since it was a family event, we went along as a group, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed that too. They watched the RSC cast demonstrate everything from pretending to punch someone to 'mock' fighting with staffs, and were particularly amused when their big sister volunteered to 'kick' one of the actors in the head.
Naturally, we talked to them afterwards about it being all pretend, and dangerous to try at home, but I fear M. may have picked up some sneaky pointers for his frequent tussles with D.
Having bought some books at Borders, we talked about money and coins when we got home. The boys were introduced to the 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins. They made rubbings in their maths books and labelled each coin rubbing.
Tomorrow they will be playing shop, using the same coins in exchange for pretend goods and putting our recent discussions about 'adding and subtracting' to practical use.
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