Feeling a little better today and up to getting out and about so we made a plan to do some more sights today. We started out at the War Memorial which I have been to several times before but they have a new children’s education area that thought would be good for the Small Child. Taking the Small Child through the front gates it dawned on me that he knew nothing about what we were there for. He knows a little bit of the ANZAC history at Gallipolli but knows nothing of WWI and WWII, or Hitler and the Nazi party or anything. These are topics that I guess those of us who weren’t alive at the time learned when we were young but I don’t remember actually being taught about WWII history. It is stuff I feel like I have always known about so I must have been introduced to the subject quite early in my education.
It made me very carefully consider everything that I said to the Small Child because while I wanted to make him realize how important this part of history is… i didn’t really want to open his eyes too much to the horrors of war. Childhood is so fleeting and I don’t think small kids need to be dragged into too intimate an acquaintance with how inhumane man can be to his fellow man. But then again Angel is already conversant (in his own simple way) on things like the situation in Zimbabwee, global warming and other current affairs so maybe I’m over thinking this one,
Anyway we had a great day, I was able to import to him the solemnity and significance of the War Memorial and very carefully explained to him concepts such as the eternal flames and the unknown soldier. He took it all in and even managed to surprise me a couple of times with his knowledge – he proudly told me all about Simpson and his donkey which was lovely.
After the War Memorial we went to the Royal Australian Mint where he got to make his own coins and see how money is made. And of all things… in the gift shop he wanted a Two-Up paddle and some pennies because he remembered seeing the old timers playing it at the RSL on ANZAC Day