To think museums are shit?

[lecce]

Well, not really, but they seem such hard work and not really the best way to see stuff and learn about it.

I'm probably not being coherent as have just got in from an exhausting few days in London with dc (6&3). Before anyone says anything, ds1 has a huge thirst for knowledge and his face lights up at the mention of a trip to a museum, so I'm not saying that it's hell dragging a reluctant child round a museum, as that is just obvious. (I know because we have no choice but to do that to an extent with ds2 and there is no way I would ever make him go to such a place if I didn't have ds1 to consider).

But really, being herded past display after display? There just being so bloody much of it? Every sodding room leading on to yet another and another? The horrible nagging feeling that round the next corner there will be the most amazing thing that will change ds's life and we can't risk missing it? The worry that everyone else's child is getting much more from it than mine because they are just better at it as parents than us? (I know I'm being stupid on that one, but that's just part of the effect these places have on me).

So, AIBU?

I love museums. British museum confused the hell out of me, it's so big and slightly random but the best cake I've tasted for a while

In Sussex the Weald and Downland open air museum is brilliant. Al outdoors, localism buildings from various era's rescued and rebuilt on site. It really was a great day.

Petworth house is amazing for the Turner paintings too. We did 2 NT Easter egg trails this week at Petworth and Sheffield Park and both were great, not especially busy. Petworth was really quiet but that's because we were twats and didn't check the house was open it wasn't

have a look at smaller ones .Cambridge has a fab one all about captain scott .Took ds when they was doing all about it at school he had a fab time and learnt loads quiet to as it is not one of the big museums

im with team Edward

we went to Caerleon and will be going back was fantastic and got spend time with good friend to .

I love going with ds2 as he loves a good museum and were planning trip to Russia next year just us and we shall do museums and stuff buildings to heart contents

I love museums...but not towing a three year old around one!

I think I must spend half my life in the Manchester Museum, dc1 loves it and there's always something going on.

MOSI is quite good, the interactive section is full of sharp elbowed loud parents, who have no concept of their special snowflake having to take turns. I grin and bear it.

Agree that larger museums can be exhausting.......agere with everyone saying pick small bits rather than trying to do whole thing, though that is hard when you have gone to London specially for museums. Often local museums are brilliant as they are focussing on particular "theme", easier to follow whatever story it is trying to tell. Eg plague museum in Eyam in Peak District is a particular favourite, dealing with how plague came to that village, people who succumbed, how village dealt with it. Also time & Tide museum in Gt Yarmouth, detailing rise and fall of fishing industry there, loads of stuff for children to touch/turn/do etc. So smaller museums definitely worth a try.

We have just got back from london
We did
Natural history museum - pre booked tickets for dinosaurs so didn't have to queue as much them did the mammal rooms
Science museum - watched a bubble show and an explosion show and looked around bottom floor but didn't really have time to do much more
V&a museum of childhood - was BRILLIANT, not too big, kids loved looking at all the toys new and old, we and MIL loved spotting toys we had as kids, dotted between displays were toys to play with and a lovely cafe.
London docklands museum- kids play area was good and they loved the sailor town. My 6 year old liked reading stuff but went over the heads fy 4 and 2 year old

The Museums in London are brilliant - it's just the sheer number of people crammed into them that's the key problem. I wish they would charge non-residents of the UK and limit numbers. It is hell on earth really unless you can get there very early or possibly are prepared to brave commuter traffic/travel by hanging around until closing time.

It's such a pity but by being a "free for all" they have just become less amenable to families.

I remember doing a school trip when we visited the British Musuem, Science Museum and the Natural History Museum all in one day - boy that must have been very, very tiring! Can't believe the teachers had the stamina and that was in the days when it was one or two teachers with a class of thirty primary school children!

That charging non uk residents is a fab idea.They're $$$$$$ in New York and when you go on holiday you budget for museums.There are a ton of other things in London to keep drawing tourists so it would hardly put people off visiting.

We go to Mansfield museum regularly
Inexpensive
Displays that are changed regularly
Friendly staff
Activities in the school hols
It's great

Sorry you didn't enjoy your day
Our museum is very small btw....

I rarely took the children to museums when they were younger as they were not really that interested and I hate crowds of children
Ds 14 likes the Imperial War Museum, which I love.
Dd 16 has always had the attention span of a gnat and only went for cake.

It also depends when you go.
I don't like the NHM (or any other) when full. It's too stressful and we can hardly take advantage of the displays.

I usually choose quieter times (midweek even on holiday and in the morning).

If you can take advantage of special tours it's also good.

Of course it also helps to know the museums.

Select the bits you really want to see and navigate the map.

My favourite for children at the NHM are the dinosaurs, human body, creepy crawleys and the earthquake on the Earth section, with some nice bits in between.

I am posting this from the tram (the journey is part of the fun) on the way to the caves in Nottingham, having read about them on here.
Nice to stop off somewhere when on route home from visiting mum in Scotland.

Saying museums are shit because you have to do some of the work is like saying books are shit because they don't show you moving images.
That is their strength: that they leave you free to add your own thing. The telly is nice because you don't have to supply anything through your imagination, books are great because you do.

But if you try to read an entire library in one day, you will end up exhausted. It's not the fault of the book format, it's about how you tackle it.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are from museums: partly from having them explained by my mother (who is a great story teller), partly from having had to make them interesting to my little brother.

Our best recent museum visit was to the V&A where we did the theatre rooms only. But I also have fond memories of taking 2yo dd into the Southampton Art Gallery and waving to the babies (medieval madonnas will supply these). The main thing about doing museums with children imo is to be flexible and let them enjoy things at their own level.

YABU

Enginuity in Iron bridge is amazing. Its not huge but every exhibit is interactive and there is a craft room where you can sit while the dc make stuff. My dgc love the Maritime Museum in Liverpool too.

Not all museums are equal. There are some awful one out there and ones which suit particular age ranges.

My three are between 7 and 3 makes so best ones are places where there is some running round stuff for youngest.

Spent a great entire day at @Bristol and it was great just me and the DC - and Coventry Transport Museums is always good for a few hours. Manchester Science Museums was good as well.

There are one we want to get to Black country Museum, Iron Gorge ? The big London Museums but I expect they will be long tiring days out - the older ones do take stuff in but it's not always immediatley apparent. It can take a few recovery days before I can say - yes I'm glad we did that.

Any tips for the best rooms at the Briish Museum? I'm taking my mum next month and I know she loves Egyptian stuff and they have mummies. Neither of us have been before so what's best?

Absolutely agree that some museums are dreadful, London Science Museum being one of them.

But some are brilliant. @Bristol is hands on, with fresh displays and my children have learnt so much there. We also loved the Maritime museum in Falmouth and if you a in Cornwall Charlestown (I think it's called) for ships used in films and shipwrecks is good on a rainy day.

In London I highly recommend Tower Bridge. You get the views you would get from the London Eye at a fraction of the cost. Trip on a boat and lunch at St Catherine's dock- easy inexpensive day and all ages happy!

The Egyptian stuff in the BM is easy to find. Come in the main entrance, wheel left round the central bit in the Main Court, head in to the opposite North) side and up the stairs to the mummies! But but but, I say wheel left because due left of the Main Court on the Ground Floor is the Rosetta Stone and some fab Egyptian statuary ( huge scarab beetle, lions, sheep, sphinxy-type things) that it would be a shame to miss. Whichever way you go round the Main Court, before you get to the stairs at the North side you come face to face with my favourite thing possibly in the world: a beautiful Easter Island statue. I always go and gaze at him, whatever else I am there to see. He just seems full of soul and the humanity of the people who made him. (Plus I am a Cumberbitch and a Keith Richards obsessive, and he's the closest I'm likely to get.)

Thanks CrossParsley, sounds really good.

I love museums, but I loathe anywhere where there is a zillion children running riot so I generally avoid going with the kids, which is a shame but my blood pressure would be at dangerous levels by the time I finished.

YABU.. i went round the nhm without kids this hol..it was great! Too crowded though. I think you should rephrase the op to school holidays are shit!