The Beasts of London

School was closed for polling this Thursday so we spread our flexi day over two days by doing our work on Thursday, and our activity on Friday. As it was polling day we decided to learn a bit about the election and what it means to vote, then both boys came with me to the polling station.

Ferdy later wrote his own manifesto.

...Help the animals and birds. I would go to Narnia and kill the baddies
and stop using plastic. I would read lots of books. I would make all
schools have flexi-schooling.

On Friday, we took the train to London and went the Beasts of London in the Museum of London, an interactive and immersive exhibition following the history of animals in London to how they live in the city today, narrated by the animals themselves. We met an eagle, lots of rats both during the plague and when they were being chased by dogs, we experienced what it must have been like in the circus through a sad elephant's tale and we heard the story of performing military horses whilst sitting on carousel horses.

Gil's favourite bit was chasing the pigeons which were projected on the wall and flew off when you ran towards them, and Ferdy's favourite bit was the conversation between a fox on the wall and a dog in his home and who had the nicest life (we concluded that the fox did). I was a still little too depressed about the general election (and the real beasts of London) to to have a favourite bit.

Luckily, we also went to see Michael Rosen in the atmospherically lamplit Old Vic on Saturday, who cheered us up immensely with his silly, irreverent and chair-falling-offly hilarious stories and poetry.