madeline's scitech excursion

last week madeline's class went on an excursion to scitech in west perth. scitech is a science and technology education (and fun!) centre for children - and adults too i guess. it has been open since 1988, and as usual it was way too much for their minds to handle when i told them i have been there on a school excursion more than once when i was in primary school. mind blown for them haha. she tolf me she had the best time and the photos prove it... here she is with her friend ella hanging out. this is  the lift your own weight chair, which has been there as long as i can remember.

another shot - with her friend briella. she was a bit taken aback when the information about the excursion went out, as i said immediately i didn't want to go. i have been on every excursion she's had since pre-primary, but i honestly couldn't be bothered this time. she was surprised, but not upset thankfully.

i was very jealous of their trip to the planetarium (previously the omni theatre) afterwards. i loved that place! and last time we went to scitech as a family i couldn't go in as alex was asleep (and not old enough to go in as the chairs are super steep!) and i wanted niques to get to hang out with them a but more while she was here. it is so cool in there, the seats are very steeply tiered and the movie is projected onto the dome. they used to play movies like speed (about the evolution of movement from bicycles through to modern day rollercoasters) and antarctica (exploration of the very southern points of the earth) but now it's used as a planetarium, which made me even more jealous. i'll have to go and check it out one day.

i am so glad that my kids get to have experiences like these - living in perth certainly has its advantages!

kalamunda history village excursion

joseph's class has been studying "the olden days" in their humanity and social sciences class and as part of it, they get to go on an excursion to the kalamunda history village. today was the day - and guess who was asked to come along?! me, of course.

if you're interested you can read up some more about the museum here (it covers an entire block!) but i can honestly say there was some pretty cool stuff to see, everywhere you looked. i don't know if it is because i'm almost 40, or because i'm from the country maybe? but i recognised all the old items, the old games, knew what everything was used for... i still remember clearly a day we had when i was in primary school, a pioneer day, when we dressed in pioneer clothes, learned to wash clothes with a wash board, make bubbles from actual soap, ate kangaroo stew (random haha) and it was so fun! i love that my kids are getting to do the same things.

this full size train was definitely the highlight, it's smack bang in the middle of the block next to it's own mini station and all the kids loved it. totally reminded me of the hogwarts express.

joseph and our little group on board!

we had to do our own little self guided tour which was kind of lame, so it's lucky i knew about slates and ink wells and all of that kind of thing from my parents. one of dad's favourite stories is about how they used to dip the girls braids in the ink wells when they would sit in front of them.

in front of the old kalamunda state school

on board the old truck in the main garage

and in front of the vintage fire truck

blowing bubbles on a break

and the token original gas pump photo for my dad. he loves this kind of thing. any old mechanical stuff? he's keen.

our little gang again

joseph and his bestie cruz posing with the vintage clothes board

this was a sneak peek inside a general store. all old bottles, products, scales and cash register set up, makes a startling change from the stores we see today!

then rubbings, where you use a textured item below paper and rub across the top with pencil or crayon. they had pieces of pressed pin, old pennies, lots of cool stuff.

we ate lunch at the train station, explored each of the building thoroughly and then headed back to school on the bus. as ice cube once said: today was a good day.