So, I'm trying something new.
Come the weekend I love to get out and about, visit new places, see new sights and I hate it if Sunday evening rolls round and we haven't been anywhere. Usually in tow is my 13 year old son and my blind sister. It's pretty irrelevant to the story that she's blind but I've thrown that little fact in there for free so we'll just go with it. On a side note, people are pretty impressed with how she lives her life and doesn't let being blind stop her from anything but that's a whole other post which maybe I'll talk about one day.
Any who, back to the weekends. I mostly pick the activity we do. I keep in mind others that will be with me and their particular interests but it mainly comes down to me choosing.
So, I had a brainwave. Why not allow my 13 year old to pick a weekend activity. Genius! Or at least I thought so. The benefits are numerous
- I don't have to think of something to do at the weekend so my brain can have a rest.
- It encourages my son to get off his Playstation and find an activity we can do together
- He has to think about costs of activities as there will be a budget each time
- It encourages him to think about things he's interested in other than computer games (see a theme here!)
- He has to think about and plan how we will get there (defo learning some skills there)
- We get to experience different things than the usual stuff I would choose to do
- He gains research skills
I'm sure there's a ton of other benefits from this and so far I think it's a fantastic idea.
We're doing it just once a month at the mo but if it's something that works well we could up it to more. Anyway, last weekend was the first weekend for this little experiment of mine. The budget for this weekend outing was FREE. It had to be a free trip, as in zero pennies spent. We could spend money to get there but not on the actual activity.
I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I asked my son, as he lay in bed on Saturday morning 'So, what's the plan for today?' I gotta be honest, I was expecting a 'Oh I forgot I was picking something' (In case you're not aware my son remembers literally nothing that is asked of him, or he 'conveniently' forgets!) But instead I was knocked to the floor by his actual response of 'Yeah, I was looking last night at some museums that I quite fancy'.
Now stop. Just wait one sec. You may not fully appreciate this but O.M.G he's actually taken some initiative. I was dumbfounded and super pumped and proud that he'd done this. I sat on the bed with him and he showed me some museums he'd found and eventually decided on The Imperial War Museum. It ticked all the boxes. Well, actually we only really had one box, possibly two.
It was no real surprise that he chose a war museum as he has a love of history and learning about the wars.
The museum is about a 40 minute drive from our house on Salford Quays by Media City UK. For a free museum I was really impressed with it. Parking is paid just outside and we got 4 hours for £5. Does that count in our free activity day? I'm gonna say parking charges aren't included.
The museum itself is housed in one large room which takes you from 1900 through to present day looking at both World Wars and the time in-between and after. Honestly, wars are not my thing but having a boy who's interested in them I've definitely spent my far share of time at various different war museums and sites around the world #mumlife right?
On the hour the museum darkens and the walls become a huge screen to project short videos about various aspects of war life which was pretty cool.
On the hour the museum darkens and the walls become a huge screen to project short videos about various aspects of war life which was pretty cool.
We spent around two hours in the museum and afterwards went for a little walk around Media City UK. We were on the hunt for the Blue Peter garden which was a huge part of my childhood - the show, not the garden. Who remembers when Anthea Turner made a paper mache Tracy Island for Thunderbirds back in the early 90s? Ahh my childhood.
We found the garden. And the studio where Coronation Street is filmed or at least where people go on tours anyway. We also found the Headquarters of BBCs Children in Need.
Overall, it was a pretty great day out. I'm usually met with a moan when I suggest weekend activities and this was most definitely a great way to get Stephen interested in where we were going and actually wanting to get out of the house at the weekend.
We will be repeating the 'letting him choose' next month but I reckon I should give him a small budget next time. What dya reckon? Maybe £5 per person. I'm pretty sure you can't really do anything for a fiver each so maybe more? Or maybe it can be a challenge for him to find something.
0 Comments