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Hi all again, Thanks so much to everyone who responded. There's a lot of enthusiasm and a great deal of knowledge and experience out there! There are a lot of people I will be contacting soon. The main thrust seems to be that a lot of people are doing things for 2 or 3-5 year olds but not many doing things for younger children. There was some disagreement about using old, replica or new objects but I would say the whole point of taking your child to a museum is to see or handle old items, with replica a second best. Generally on the health and safety side - stay away from lead paint, possibly soft rubber and copper. Look at BS standards (link below). If parents handle with babies, then other health and safety concerns are mitigated somewhat. Big point - baby and carer/parent rather than mother and baby. Quite a few people wanted to know what the responses were on this question so I have collated them below: Places to visit and people to contact a.. Chelmsford Museum (Jane Allnut - freelance [log in to unmask]) b.. Epping Forest District Museum (Catherine Hammond) c.. Harlow Museum (Claire Hooper) d.. Falmouth Art Gallery e.. Manchester Art Gallery (Alex Thorp, Family Learning Manager, [log in to unmask]) f.. Liverpool Museum (Julia Bryan) g.. Stoke Museum h.. Horniman Museum (Zoe Carmichael) i.. Cuming Museum (Hannah Guthrie) j.. Museum of London and Docklands Museum k.. Orleans House l.. Science Museum garden http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/the_garden.aspx m.. Glasgow Museums http://www.glasgowbaby.com:80/page6.htm; http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/kelvingrove/whats-on/families/toddler-time/Pages/default.aspx; http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/burrell-collection/whats-on/family-events/Pages/home.aspx n.. Jo Graham http://www.learning-unlimited.co.uk o.. Rosie Fuller http://rosiefuller.wordpress.com/category/under-fives-2/ Objects for handling a.. Carved comb, sheeps wool, wood shavings, carved wood/ stone. Anything that can be shaken to make a noise. b.. Anything with any sort of toxic paint is a no for a start. If you're using wooden objects they'd need to be very finely sanded so there was no chance of getting splinters out of them! Anything that breaks when dropped or banged off the floor is probably a bad idea too, in case that creates sharp edges (so no ceramics, glassware, etc). Fabrics with small fibres are probably not a good idea either. Replica items might be the way to go, because you can be sure they meet safety standards. It's harder to do so with genuine objects. Though I know that might defeat some of the point... c.. Multi-sensory objects d.. You need to think size for choking hazards, sharp edges, possible splinters from wood as well as paint. Also the lead content in quite a few old metal objects are iffy. On the positive side my own children loved the reproduction Victorian toys they were given by family members - wooden cylinder rattle with a bell inside, jack in the box, wooden duck on wheels, watching a woodpecker tap its way down a stick(sight and hearing after the initial thump to make it go!), a metal tin which moo-od, metal spinning top, wooden blocks( which many families don't have these days). Oh and they loved crawling on a relatives rag rugs. Maybe repro is the way to go. e.. I often send out a real nest or a stuffed owl as a supplement to "owl baby" props, with the expectation that the teacher will describe and inspire awe! f.. My jobshare has taken an old wind up gramophone home and her toddlers have loved that - the noise and the sight of the whizzing record. Old dialling telephones are lovely with the whirring noise - we make up phone time lines with push button phones, wartime field telephones, huge old mobiles etc. We also have nice Victorian laundry stuff - carpet beaters, possers, irons, washboards, dolly pegs, tin baths - which can be played with quite vigorously and open up thinking about different materials plus use/gesture. Perhaps that is too advanced? We also have a costume collection and I like to send out shoes - single shoes in different sizes from different eras and different parts of the world. One of the big education suppliers sells (hand/foot measurers) so there is some fun to be had in comparing sizes and thinking about growth. Again perhaps I am in a nursery class.... g.. I've just completed developing a Liver Birds nest (baby pod) for pre walkers which has multi sensory elements - Liverpool Museum. h.. One important bit of advice I had from a designer was that a couple of museums in the past have come a cropper through developing such things with rubber. Anything that one can take a bite out of becomes a choking hazard - seems obvious but often forgotten about in the quest for soft squidigness. i.. Someone at MOL told me some people can react to objects made from copper. j.. The Cuming Museum has baskets of touchy-feely things, but they usually get an object out from the collection, which the facilitator invites participants to carefully touch while they also hold it. k.. Stoke museum have handling material for babies but at this age they have focused on baby toys that link to the displays - so for example early learning animals to link to natural science displays - and a lovely soft tea set to link to the pottery displays. They are then health and safety checked and can be washed! l.. There are also BS standards for minimum sizes of items that under 36 month-ers can use - you can get those off the Internet. http://www.bsieducation.org/Education/downloads/leaflets/ISC_Toys.pdf Pedagogy a.. Let children handle real objects b.. I think the babies need to be beyond putting everything in their mouths although you will always have some reversion to this with teething. c.. Presumably they will always be examining an object with their mum/ carer so that the significance and safety aspect will be shared. d.. At Chelmsford Museum there's a mixture of exploring the displays in the museum and handling, looking carefully, stroking with one finger, (and riding on sometimes!). They link a nursery rhyme with an object in the collection and then have a story and craft activity all linked with the rhyme. They always have puppets, dressing up clothes and modern equivalents/relicas which they can play and use. The curators are brilliant at letting us have objects and the children are really respectful of the real objects after a few sessions. e.. At Falmouth they run baby painting sessions, literally on the gallery floor amongst all the artworks, and they're amazing. f.. Manchester Art Gallery run mother/toddler sessions too with artists. g.. I cannot tell you how many times I've been looking for somewhere which can offer somewhere cheap to go where I can sit down and play with my boy in a 'nice' environment which isn't a plastic play centre or trying to sell me something! h.. Challenge your local museum about whether it is completely inappropriate for objects from the collection to go into babies' mouths - obviously there is a conservation concern but handling collections tend to be quite robust. i.. For handling boxes which aren't made up of items from the collection, but are bought or otherwise acquired then look into the literature on 'treasure boxes' - a lovely idea from my local Surestart centre. Boxes of items which tend to be themed by material or appearance (wooden items, reflective things, fabrics, etc.). Apparently there is lots of evidence based research about using natural/everyday materials and items which helps to stimulate babies and children instead of relying on mass produced plastic items manufactured as 'toys'. j.. Please move away from calling it 'mother' and baby, in my village a couple of dads are in regular attendance k.. I think anyone of any age can enjoy handling pretty much any museum objects, it just needs to be facilitated carefully, so that of necessary the object - and the person touching - is protected. Best thing is of course when parents/carers and their children touch together (i've had toddlers touching a taxidermy hedgehog at the Horniman this way, and neither the toddlers, their grownups, nor the hedgehog came off any the worse for it). l.. I've done object handling with the under 5s at Redbridge, and Victorian laundry was best - with lots of finger friendly textures, interesting smells, opportunities to make noise and dress up and everyone, it seems, loves old fashioned wooden clothes pegs. Kim Biddulph Heritage Education and Interpretation Consultant + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + GEM list: Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=GEM + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +