The Guernsey Museum at Candie is a great place for a visit with kids thanks to the Discovery Room, a dedicated space for children with lots to explore, and it has now opened its doors for 2022. Every January the Time Warp area, within the Discovery Room, has a new theme for the year, and we were lucky enough to be given a sneak peek before it opened, and it’s safe to say, kids are going to love it.
2022 the year of wonder
The theme for this years’ Time Warp is The Wonder Room, and it depicts a Victorian room with fireplace, chaise lounge, writing desk and lots of shelves and display cabinets, literally filled with wonders for children to explore. With treasures from shells, rocks and fossils to replica Victorian toys, my girls didn’t know what to look at first!
Lottie settled down at the desk and was excited to find quill pens and paper so instantly started writing, whereas Tilly was fascinated by a spinning wheel which showed images moving as it spun. I have since found out that this is called a zoetrope, a pre-film animation device that has a revolving drum with a strip of paper inside that has figures drawn on it, when you look at it through the slots on the side, it gives the illusion of motion. There are a few strips of paper you can put in the zoetrope and this entertained Tilly for quite a while as she had never seen anything like it before.
What to look at next?
Hats off to the museum team because the Time Warp is packed full of things for children to explore, they really do go above and beyond to bring the theme to life. Kids can write letters, sketch, arrange their own collections, examine shells, rocks and fossils, catalogue different types of pottery or just relax and read a book!
The beauty is also the fact that children can get hands on, it’s not about looking at exhibits behind glass, it’s about kids immersing themselves in the Victorian room. There is a shelf full of curiosities and Lottie was amazed to uncover the smallest shells we have ever seen, hidden in a little box, they were literally like grains of sand. In fact, without my glasses, I thought it was sand!! These hidden finds give kids lots of satisfaction rather than everything being totally obvious when you walk in.
Just when they thought they hand found everything, Jo Dowding (who is one of the team putting together the Wonder Room), told my girls to look under the chaise lounge, to which they pulled out a little box filled with Victorian toys. Jo showed them how to use the thaumatrope, a disk with a picture on each side and string on each edge, you pull the string to make the disc rotate and it gives the illusion of the image moving. This, the spinning monkey and the shadow books were definitely favourites with us.
As if that wasn’t enough, a member of the museum learning team has created a replica Victorian newspaper and children are challenged to find the objects mentioned in the paper. We didn’t get to see this when we visited but it sounds great fun.
Anyone for dressing up?
To support the theme of the Time Warp, the Discovery Room always offers a dressing up corner, this time with a large selection of Victorian replica costumes for children to try on. I was amazed to find out that all of the costumes have been handmade by museum staff and volunteers. Tilly loved trying on a hooped underskirt with a pretty dress on top and a straw hat, she then told Lottie that she needed a servant and poor Lottie got somewhat forced into a grey striped dress with a long white apron over the top. There is a great selection of outfits and props for boys and girls and the museum staff are happy that they are worn around the museum before being returned to the Discovery Room.
Inspiration behind the Wonder Room
Being in the Wonder Room took me back to a distant memory of my great grandma’s house and that is what they wanted to capture, the spirit of early museums when people collected things in their own home making them personal museums. The actual inspiration for the Wonder Room was Mary Ann Lukis, a Guernsey artist who was born 200 years ago. She lived at her family home in the Grange, in the building now known as ‘Lukis House’ and part of the house became a ‘valuable and interesting private museum’ during the 1800s.
There is a question at the top of the information board about The Wonder Room, and that is ‘’ Imagine your house is a museum. What would you choose to collect and display?’’ A great conversation starter with kids. Tilly would display her teddies!
Cabinets of Curiosity
The Discovery Room also houses the Cabinets of Curiosity which are updated when the theme changes. The new display includes an animal skeleton, some precious animal eggs, a lock of Victor Hugo’s hair and my girls were grossed out to see a mummified hand!
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition
Whilst at the museum make sure to check out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition. I find the pictures fascinating and thanks to the spot-it sheet, which you pick up in the reception, my girls fully enjoyed it too. The sheet is called ‘The Eyes Have It’ and has the pics of 6 eyes that children need to find in the exhibition and tick off. This encouraged my 2 to really look at the pictures and they kept spotting things that interested them, which led to us talking about a lot of the images, especially the hard-hitting images, like a lion with blood dripping off it’s mouth and a monkey with chains around its neck. There is also a selfie area where they encourage you to take a selfie with the polar bear to upload to social media and to state what your favourite photo was.
And that's it!
We had great fun having a look at the new Time Warp area and despite my girls’ request to let them stay in the museum overnight (those that have seen the film Night at the Museum will know what gave them that idea!) they were sad to leave but we’ll definitely be returning again soon.
Guernsey Museum at Candie is open daily from 10am to 4pm with Café Victoria open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesdays) 9:30am to 3:45pm. Admission is £6.50 for adults and £2 for children under 18 and students, and under 7-year olds are free. Or opt for a Discovery Card for £20 and receive free entry for a year.
