Getting A Bit Of Culture

I had a fantastic day with the kids today. We took the now-regular school holiday train trip into the city to have lunch with Nanna. Lunch in itself was fabulous - a tasty focaccia for the grown-ups and and toasted sandwiches with hot chips for the wee ones - and I was so darn proud of their excellent behaviour. They ate beautifully, spoke in nice quiet voices, used their pleases and thank yous in all the right places and were a pleasure to be with. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

We jumped on the train and headed into the city. Much oohing and aahing over seeing cars on the road, people at the stations, water under the bridge and even more exclaiming over how many people were on the train. Finally in the city we headed to the Art Gallery. I figured I'd give them a whirlwind tour of the cultural centre of Perth and since that was closest to the train station it was as good a place as any to start. I have to say that there are some great school holiday activities happening in the city. The kids had fun making some 3D fruit (and Mummy scored some great ideas for rainy days later in the year!) and we checked out the Year 12 Perspectives 2008 exhibition. It showcases work from 2008's Year 12 (final year of high school) TEE (uni bound) Art and Art and Design students from across the state. There were 56 pieces in the exhibition and I was totally blown away by the talent. Some of the pieces were thought provoking, some were provocative, some were umm... interesting and some were simply stunning. My kids were interested in the exhibition and had a great time debating why they liked or didn't like particular pieces. If you're in the city this is running till July 19 and it is well worth checking out. Entry to the Art Gallery is free which is even better. If you're from elsewhere, click on the exhibition link and follow the links to the on-line gallery.

From there we wandered across to the State Library. Our library up here on the hill is tiny. Really really tiny. The library in Red Dirt Central was about ten times the size so I wanted to show Mr-Six what a big library looked like. Unfortunately most of the first floor is being renovated so the plan to let him see row upon row of books didn't go to plan but he did get to see the sheer size and the idea that the whole building was full of books (I didn't really go into all the other resources one might find in a library) was suitably overwhelming.

Then lunch. Yum.

We dropped Nanna back at the office and then headed to the WA Museum. Oh my gosh! Kids everywhere. Entry is free, though a donation of a couple of dollars is suggested and there were heaps of ridiculously inexpensive activities for the kids. My two chose to colour in dinosaur masks and then we had a look around before deciding to take part in the Discovery Trail that best suited their age group. Basically you pay a couple of dollars and get a booklet with clues to follow and questions to answer. You also get an all important pencil to write the answers! Both kids loved this and had a ball drawing in the pictures, finding the clues and, in Mr-Six's case writing in the answers.

The cutest, yet most ferocious, dinosaurs I've ever met.

So, a totally cultural day that we all enjoyed. If you're looking at heading to the city get hold of a free City Playground Pass. It lists all the activities happening in the city over the school holidays and also gets some great deals and discounts.