For children aged 7-9

The programme was part of a sequence of four programmes (the other three were: «Traditional Weaving», «Wheat-Bread» and «Traditional Team Games»), held during the period 1986-1989.

The basic intention was that the children participating in the  «Wheat or Weaving» programmes - held at the same time - should also take part in the  «Traditional Team Games» and  «Our own Museum» programmes which followed them. In other words, all the children should take part in three of the four programmes. None of the programmes, of course, excluded children taking part for the first time. The purpose was to record the children's reactions from one to another programme (three programmes).

Duration: 2 hours in the Museum, 2 hours in school
 

Location: Folklife and Ethnological Museum, school

Objectives: raising the children's awareness for the importance of a collection of old objects in one place, and familiarising them with the fields of research, assembling a collection, conservation, documentation, safekeeping and exhibition to the public; also, introducing children to various materials and techniques of construction.

A few words about the programme: The children, who participated at the programmes «Wheat-Bread» and «Traditional Weaving», were invited to bring what they regarded as old toys to the Museum, in order to assemble their own museum collection. Eventually a total of 1300 games and toys were assembled and exposed at the garden of the Folklife and Ethnological Museum, in special constructions ('little houses'), in accordance with the thematic units decided by the children themselves.
The first day of the programme, at the garden of the Folklife and Ethnological Museum, in workshops like the conservation workshop and through activities like the ‘lost treasure game' and the ‘guess the toy's identity game', the games and toys were conserved, recorded and - finally - exhibited in units. The next day, the programme continued at school, where children used a wealth of material provided by the Museum and made their own dolls and toy cars. These home-made toys were finally displayed at a special event to which parents were also invited.

Implementation: Foteini Oikonomidou, Victoria Nikita-Chouliara, Chrysoula Gouda, Eleni Athanasiadou
Space organization, construction
plans ('little houses'): Zisis Skampalis