Mummys, Romans & Pirates all in one day!

My Little Roman

Well its the half term holidays so in an effort to keep the children entertained my friend and I took our boys too the Museum of Hartlepool. They have a great interactive exhibition on that covers ancient Egypt, as well as the history of Hartlepool from medieval times through to modern times. My son was fine with the idea of a mummified little girl that was on display in a glass case, but when it came to the idea of a mummified baby crocodile, well that was a little harder for him to get his head around. They worked together - which we found amazing - to build a Roman temple from wooden blocks, then decided they would play dress up with the costumes that were readily available to them. They also experimented with archaeology, made illuminated script and climbed on a sailing boat.

The boys aged five and nine were thoroughly stimulated and entertained, they especially enjoyed exploring the old paddle steamer the PSS Wingfield Castle, with both of them repeatedly climbing up and down the stairs to the wheel house, and staring in awe at the size of the ship massive boiler. They decided they were going to be pirates and the gift shop was quickly plundered for pirate attire! Bad pirate accents were then adopted and and the boys went off in search of treasure. We're not sure what they thought they might find in the car park, but they were happy to look.

Pirate Xander

We rounded off the day with a couple of hours in a play centre, letting them burn off whatever energy they had left whilst we recharged our own batteries with a latte, as it turned out they had an amazing amount of energy left, unlike us. But we all agreed that we had had a great day out without having to break the bank to accomplish it. If only more places offered free admission I'm sure they would get more people through the doors and make up some of the lost revenue through their gift shops.