Tuesday 4 October 2011

The White Cliffs of Dover

I mentioned that there was one more activity for The Glorious Flight and that was a visit to Dover. Louis Bleriot landed just above the White Cliffs just over one hundred and two years ago.

Actually, the trip wasn't primarily arranged for this reason but as a Home Education group outing which fitted with Middle Son's history. The pleasure of Five in a Row is that I could arrange to have just finished a book which was so applicable for the little ones.

Trips can be a bit of a challenge with children  far apart in age (Middle Son is 11 whereas Miss Belle and Mr Exuberance are four and two respectively) but this proved a great way of including them and making the trip meaningful. There are also some very accessible books about castles which we used in the week before the trip. Probably the favourite was I wonder why castles had moats.and other questions about long ago.

Hopefully, we can make future trips work in this way too. I have some ideas for the next trip!


We had a fabulous almost summer day which definitely helped.

Dover Castle is a fantastic historical venue. All the children enjoyed the  Great Tower which has medivael funishings. There was so much to talk about. Miss Belle is fascinated by history and was in her element.

I was more surprised at the awe with which the little ones touched the Roman lighthouse. It does seem amazing that there should still be a light house standing over all those centuries and that the lower levels have been there for almost two thousand years. It says something for the standard of the building.

All in all a useful trip and an enjoyable day out, to boot.

By the way, home educators are entitled to free entry to English Heritage sites. We went as a group but I understand that it is possible for individual families to book.

This is linked to Field trip Friday.

1 comment:

  1. 2000 years! That does inspire some thinking. Looks like a great field trip.

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