Museum/experience ideas for a 6 year old keen on natural history?

[SarahAndQuack]

As it says on the tin. DD is fascinated by natural history; she loves skeletons and finding out about different kinds of creatures and where they live; she would adore a bit of light dissection (I'm too squeamish - my mum dissected an owl pellet with her and identified all the tiny mousy bones, and DD considers this a high point in life).

I wanted to take her to the Natural History Museum or the Pitt Rivers in Oxford, but train prices are prohibitive as we're in North Yorkshire. Consensus from friends is that the Yorkshire Museum is pretty unimpressive.

Any thoughts - not just about good museums, but also experiences your children enjoyed - would be hugely appreciated!

You can take kids into Surgeon’s Hall, they just say a recommended age of 10 but there’s no restriction. There were some quite young kids in there when we went a few months ago and the robot exhibit in particular was very child friendly

Another vote for Weston Park museum in Sheffield. Lots of exhibits plus some interactive stuff. It was remodelled a few years back and they genuinely thought about how to make everything accessible for kids. They also have regular holiday activities scheduled there.
Close by at Sheffield university is the Alfred Denny museum of natural history. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. You can only book tours on the first Saturday of every month. The student guides are very knowledgeable.
On a separate note worth looking at any local forest school activities - bug and leaf spotting often form part of this .
For a farm visit with lots of animals plus spectacular adventure playgrounds, try Cannon Hall farm just of the M1 not far from Barnsley.

The Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds - next to Jimmy's.

She might like the piece about a young boy who found a whole 10cm fossil megalodon (giant prehistoric shark) tooth on the beach at Walton on the Naze recently - it’s on the BBC News site today.

there seem to be plenty of upcoming wildlife events on here: https://www.ywt.org.uk/events

This thread is super useful as we live in Yorkshire and I was wondering about other museums recently!

We’ve been to Leeds City Museum a few times and my kids always really enjoy it. They really like the top floor with the ancient Egyptian stuff (there is a mummy) and the Greek stuff. Quite like the middle floor with the Leeds stuff, particularly the Iron Age / vikings etc bits. DD isn’t keen on the ground floor with all the stuffed animals though! It’s not quite the Natural History Museum or anything, but we always enjoy a few hours there.