The “Queen and the Wonderful Museum” series of picture books

Recently, two English dogs are very famous.

Last month, the new British Prime Minister Johnson and his unmarried cohabiting girlfriend formally moved into No. 10 Downing Street, which is a precedent in British history.

Yeah, talking about dogs!

The new prime minister’s girlfriend adopted a dog named "Dylan", so "Dylan" was lucky enough to "ascend to heaven" and moved into the prime minister's house.

This lowly born puppy has to work hard to get along well with the old resident of the Prime Minister's Office, the cat "Larry".

In contrast, the cute favorite of Buckingham Palace, Corgi of the Queen of England is born rich and favored. Also last month, didn't this make it to the big screen!

Also appeared on the cover of "Vanity Fair"!

But you know what?

The Queen's Corgi is still the protagonist of children's picture books!

Xinxiyue Children's Book has just published this interesting set of popular science books. Come and see what role Corgi plays in it!

Text/wave

Remember the curious, naive and whimsical ideas of children when they were young? Those funny thoughts and free language often make us laugh, and at the same time we are in awe-every child is born an unfettered explorer!

However, I have also seen many children. As they grow older, they have changed and become shackled, like little adults. As parents, how should we take care of their children so that they always retain a free exploration heart?

The “Queen and the Wonderful Museum” series of picture books may give us some inspiration.

This series of picture books locates the coordinates in the Natural History Museum of London. The Queen of England and her pet dog "Mr. Brown" are the protagonists of the story. The two of them carried out a wonderful work in this world-class museum with 80 million natural specimens . Explore the journey.

This series includes three books of "Dinosaur Day", "Night of the Museum" and "Rat Kingdom", created by British picture book creator James Francis Wilkins.

Protect the child's exploration heart

The queen in the "Queen and the Wonderful Museum" series is devoted to her duties and enjoys everything that reality has given her. However, in her heart, there is always a little girl hidden in her heart , "want to live a different life."

Among the three picture books, there is only one page with unique colors. It is not bright and colorful, but brown, which is like a faded old photo, depicting a beautiful childhood in the distance. That was when the queen was young, she could still crawl barefoot in the grass, keep her eyes open, and observe nature.

This is exactly the same as many children when they were young-they may be obsessed with a bug or a grass for a long time.

In reality, this childhood joy is often fleeting. However, have we ever thought about what a precious thing if children can keep this happiness in the gaps in life in the face of various pressures such as learning and competition!

Just like the queen in this set of picture books, she is like an innocent child. In the palace, she sometimes feels like being locked in a cage; when she meets guests, she sees a spotted flycatcher. She wants to cheer, but she has to pay attention to etiquette.

However, even so, the queen will take time to observe natural phenomena with a magnifying glass, thinking about " how butterflies migrate, how whales sing, why dinosaurs are extinct, why bees are fewer and fewer... "

Even if the queen is like this, our children must retain that exploration. If we think of cultivating TA's nature-loving character and the ability to explore nature when our children are young , the children's life seems to have an extra friend and a treasure that belongs to TA.

To let children have the joy of exploring nature, the necessary knowledge reserves are also necessary. On the short rest day, even if she encounters heavy snow, even at night, she will go to the Natural History Museum to see dinosaur specimens and animal specimens. Not only watching, she will also carefully read the introduction, carefully explore and think.

When I read this set of picture books with my child, when the queen thought about the phrase "how do whales sing", the child suggested: some whales can sing, but not all. She also told me how the song was sung.

I think, it seems that I often take her to natural museums and science museums to read popular science books. These idle efforts are not in vain. Hobbies and learning should complement and promote each other.

Take this set of picture books to the Natural History Museum

Out of the love of nature and the yearning for exploration, when I took my children to London earlier, although there was only a short period of more than a week, I specially arranged a day to be completely immersed in the Natural History Museum. Because of this, I recently read the picture book "The Queen and the Wonderful Museum" and I feel very cordial.

Natural History Museum in London, pictures from the Internet

This set of picture books introduces a lot of dinosaur and animal knowledge, including Tyrannosaurus, mammoth, toucan, etc. You can find all exhibits in the Natural History Museum of London.

The picture book draws the samples of these exhibitions to life. For example, the arthritis- affected Iguanodon's right foot exhibit. I remember seeing it in the exhibition hall. I believe the creator of the picture book Wilkins must have spent it in the London Nature Museum. Great effort.

The museum also has such a design. It has a display wall that allows visitors to copy animal samples in the museum and display the works there for sharing. My child seriously drew a snake, and then put his painting on the shelf of the display wall.

The samples collected by the Natural History Museum of London span a long 4.5 billion years . The exhibition hall is divided into four parts: dinosaurs to mammals, planetary evolution, earth, Darwin Center and Wild Garden.

"Reading thousands of books, traveling thousands of miles", reading this set of interesting and knowledgeable picture books, and then going to the Natural History Museum in London, I believe that the children will be more rewarding.

In the story of the picture book, the queen asked the curator for a special treatment: enter the library without being disturbed to study after the library is closed. We ordinary audiences cannot get such preferential treatment, but I have a little trick to share with you: After enjoying in the crowded museum exhibition hall, take the children into the exploration center in the museum.

This area is open at a fixed time in the afternoon of each opening day. It is not easy to be noticed by tourists, but it has a big advantage- giving children the opportunity to explore for free !

There are a lot of resources here, including fox specimens, crocodile skins, etc. that can be touched, microscopes, reference books, measuring instruments and other tools, as well as amiable but not overriding staff.

I have noticed that these staff always pay close attention to the needs of the children, but when they should not speak out, he never speaks, let alone arranges, and he always shows up until the children really need help. His appearance is often just a reminder, or provide some suggestions about tools. Here, our parents can observe quietly and learn how to create an exploration environment for children.

Key questions to encourage children to explore

What are the ways to encourage exploration? Let the child give up the standard answer.

This is an atmosphere permeating the exhibition hall of the Natural History Museum. The exhibition layout in the museum has knowledge introduction, but also asks many questions, and gives different answer choices for each question. The picture book "The Queen and the Wonder Museum" shows this very clearly.

For example, regarding the extinction of dinosaurs, many textbooks and popular science books have a standard answer, which is widely spread.

But this set of picture books tells the children in a very childlike way that the standard answer is only one possibility , and there are various other possibilities: "It is also possible that they jumped off the cliff and committed suicide... or they were smoked by their own feces. Dead...or boring...or aliens ate them for breakfast."

When the child read these pages, he laughed forward and backward . I just thought that by giving the children freedom and allowing them to make mistakes, the children dare to explore, and the future may become the discoverer of the final truth.

The tone of the picture book is so humorous, lively, and free . The picture book specially introduced the queen's pet dog-the ignorant "Mr. Brown". With such a character, the story becomes more interesting: the two went on an adventure in the underground rat kingdom, the animals in the natural history museum took turns to show the queen's skills, and the queen had strange dreams in the museum.

Take this dream as an example. The inspiration of the dream comes from the queen's true hobby-horse riding . However, in the story, the queen rides a dinosaur. While she is still in the lead, she is inexplicably caught up and surpassed by the "small ball" Mr. Brown! In the end, Mr. Brown won the dinosaur riding contest.

Perhaps, in this set of picture books, the creator Wilkins also used a whimsical creative method to interpret the essence of the exploration he wanted to tell us.

Whether it is artistic creation, scientific inquiry, or commercial innovation... or even the entire life of the children in the future, the spirit of exploration and ability are indispensable. However, the current relatively uniform educational environment does not leave enough space for ordinary children to explore. Therefore, this matter fell to the parents.

Hope that we will become people who help children explore the world, not the other way around.