Good evening All!

Today was the Black Country Museum. The children learned much about what life was like a hundred years ago. They visited old shops where the salespeople explained how different the goods they sold were from today's shops. The children were fascinated by the chemist shop - they saw how pills used to be made in the old days, as well as old-fashioned baby bottles and a cash register which only rang up a maximum of today's 74 cents. They went into an old sweet shop and learned how sweets used to be made and even bought Victorian sweets to try.

They went down a mine in hard hats and carrying torches which only gave a light equivalent to 1 candle. That way they realized how tough life was for kids their age who already had been working down the mines for years.

They had a ride on a canal boat and practised 'legging' the boat through the tunnels. It was fun for them to learn that just two of them could move a 30 tonne boat through the tunnel!

For lunch there was old-fashioned fish and chips from the replica Victorian chippy.


We were there from 10.30 to 4.30, a full day with many sights to see.

After dinner this evening we went on a nature trail. The college has a huge garden with magnificent trees from all over the world. They had like a treasure hunt to see how many trees they could identify; of course they had picture clues to help them. They really enjoyed racing around the gardens and finished up by rolling down the grassy green slope in the upper garden.

Now it has started pouring so they are off for showers and then diary work before hot chocolate and bed.