I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to writing about the second day of our London trip two weeks ago. Our visit to the Roald Dahl museum mixed with the long drive and followed by a late night had a huge effect on the following day we had planned scooting around London. It didn't however, stop us from getting the Micro Scooters out and heading out to try and make the most of the day we had there. It took a tired Opeie a little longer to fully kick into gear but by the time we had reached the train station to head to our first destination he was back on scooting form.
A friend of ours who we stay with when visiting London works at the Tate and on the evening we arrived she was telling us all about The Tanks, the latest addition to the Tate Modern. I love taking Opeie to art galleries as I find it really interesting to hear what he sees in what he is looking at. Because of its size, The Tate Modern has always been one of our favourite galleries to visit so because our train stopped at Blackfriars we made it our first stop.
The thing that had really stuck out for me when our friend was telling us about the gallery was the viewing level. 10 floors up and with a beautiful view over London, it was the perfect spot for Opeie to sit down and sketch the London Skyline high above the Thames. At first, he was adamant that 'I can't draw that' but as we broke what we could see down into various shapes and concentrated on that, his drawing soon started to come together and he really got into the activity.
Inside the gallery was all kinds of weird and wonderful things which really got Opeie thinking and us both talking about what we could see. I love how a child's mind works, In one piece he spotted what he thought was a potato which then had him seeing all sorts of food in each piece that we saw.
This side of the gallery is definitely more interactive than the original part of the Tate and although Opeie loves that one there was more here for Opeie and he clearly felt a lot more connected to what he was seeing when he was able to walk through and over some of the pieces and even lie down inside one of them too. With homeschooling (especially at this age) anything that gets you thinking, starts conversation and encourages questions is doing your job for you. We chatted the whole way round and it was lovely to hear his excited little voice explaining what was going on around him.
We were walking around for 2 1/2 hours before the inevitable 'Dad I'm hungry'. Opeie knew exactly where he wanted to eat his lunch so we jumped back on the scooters and headed over to the south bank as he wanted to watch the skateboarders. It's handy to know that if you are Scooting around London and are planning on visiting the Tate, they have a free cloakroom where you can leave your scooters while you take in the art.
Sadly that previous late night and long journey had finally caught up with Opeie and that was it for our scooting around London (until next time). We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing before heading home to our own beds. I do love visiting London but as Opeie always says "I love going home more".
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