Remembering

Passing through Canberra gives us the opportunity to visit the different attractions that the city has to offer. It is 100 years since the beginning of the First World War, so we thought that we would drop into the Australian War Memorial

Down stairs there is a great interactive kids area  including a helicopter, trenches and a replica submarine which gives the children an idea of the different experiences our diggers would had gone through. It is quiet loud and dark inside and JB found it quiet overwhelming but IB enjoyed all aspects of the exhibition including dressing up in the sailor hats.

The school tours hadn't began for the morning and this gave us the opportunity to explore the area without any crowds. Both JB and AT worked together on an engineering task to build a bridge which, when completed, allowed projected army trucks to cross over to the other side. It was pretty cool!

Next we ventured outside to the memorial wall. The voices of children listing the deceased and their ages over the sound system made this area quiet emotional for me. Whenever I heard of a soldier that had died at the same age as one of the older girls a tear came to my eye, some of them were so young. 

We stayed at the tomb of the unknown soldier for the longest. The room is big and before we entered we explained to the little ones that they needed to show respect by talking in quiet voices and walking slowly. While we were there a staff member of the memorial called Margaret gave us a poppy each to lay on the grave, and asked JB what the significance of the flower was. I was so proud to hear him say: "It is to remember the people who have died for us in the wars." Margaret also pointed out the small tiles that lined the walls, completely covering them to the roof and included some beautiful mosaics of servicemen. IB enjoyed the textural feel of the walls and put her face on them to feel their cool temperature. We contemplated the significance of the four pillars that are at the rear of the room and with the help of Google (thanks to AT!) and some info from Margaret we discovered that they represent the elements of life.

It was really nice to have someone who was obviously passionate about her job help the kids understand more about the memorial and it's significance and it helped make our quick stop over interesting as well as informative.

see you later

Mumma Bear