Yesterday the kids and I took a school holiday excursion to the National Gallery of Victoria. It’s free admission to the permanent displays and most of the temporary exhibits, so I figured if they got bored after half an hour it wouldn’t matter.

Wasn’t a problem though, they were fascinated and really enjoyed it. We went pretty quick, not really stopping to look at things in much depth, but that was ok – rather than bore them with trying to appreciate things on an adult level, it worked really well for them to get the idea of what the gallery was, have a look at a few things in each area and move on before Connor got bored. After two and a half hours we left only because Connor’s orthotics were hurting him, and the kids are keen to go back again.

It’s also across the road from Queen Victoria Gardens, so we think we could make a day of it, doing some of the gallery in the morning, having a picnic lunch in the middle, and a bit of a run around if necessary, then go back and do more in the afternoon.

I was really proud that they were so interested. We read to our kids from an early age, and encouraged them to work answers out their maths like questions. Not to push them to achieve, just to expose them to things like that before they hit school – so many people just put their kids in front of TV and then expect them to learn at school, but by the time they turn 5 kids brains are already starting to set, and the less exercise they have had early on, the worse that is. If you expose them to a wider world when they are young, they get to have flexible brains for longer.

They are both good at school stuff like English and maths, but it’s far more important to grow whole people – a lot of kids good at basic academic stuff like that either get pushed into more academic achievement, or left to their own devices and stick to what they learn at school. It’s hard then later in life to get interested in the wealth of other experiences the world has for you.