London Attractions Good For My Four-Year-Old?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Last weekend we went to the London Museum, and had a great time, but that was largely thanks to the really enthusiastic woman pretending to be Boudica, convincing all the kids they had to fight the Romans.

Today we went to the British Museum, and it wasn't anywhere near as much fun. Lots of stuff was a bit samey, and there was nobody doing an appropriate talk, or at least not that I could tell.

Which museums etc are easy with this age? I'm looking for either a child-friendly area, with lots to do, or some child-friendly talks. I'm sure the Science Museum is good, but our neighbour takes him there.

the natural history museum is pretty good

london dungeons? unless he;s of a sensitive disposition!

Try the Horniman, South London? Good talks and a great hands on music area.

Would try to think of more but am being grumped at by dp to go to bed

Pssst (I am not here, I am in bed) : Discover in Stratford, not a museum but looks great for children.

Have you been to the Museum in Docklands yet? (I have a feeling that you have.) They often have activities, I had a quick look at the website and there isn't much happening in January, but there's loads on in Feb.

The maritime museum at greenwhich has a good programme of kids activities, and the children's hands on bit on the top floor is good. Greenwich does a 'fisrt planetarium' thing which sounds good, too.
NQC - have you checked out kids shows , not the big west end productions, but cheaper more local ones? At Polka theatre in Wimbledon (v accessible on overground, or on Northern line to S Wimbledon), currently showing Paddington Bear, Half Moon, etc?

The Museum of childhood in Bethnal green?

My neighbour works at the Natural History Museum. He gets to go when it's closed. I'm sure it's great.

Hadn't thought of London Dungeons. He's totally not of a sensitive disposition, the biggest hit at the British Museum was the section on death. Is the London Dungeon full of stuff you can't touch? Or is it more showlike? I've not been.

Must try the Horniman. Where is it?

Discover is good, it's just down the road. But pretty small. I don't count Discover as "going into London". I probably will take both boys over half-term.

Bran, yeah, the Museum in Docklands is v. good for all this. Kid's area and activities/talks. But I never make it for the activities - my new "take DS1 out while DS2 sleeps" plan should let me do that ...

Blu, we haven't been to the Maritime museum for a bit ... I could combine that with a boat ride and make DS1 very happy. Didn't know about the planetarium, will look into it.

The Museum of Childhood is shut. Until next autumn. Also, the Transport museum, which I kept meaning to go to, is now shut until spring 2007.

The Horniman's in Forest Hill, NQC. DS is obsessed with music and adored the huge displays of instruments and the computer tables where you can listen to the sounds. Then there's a separate room where they can play instruments like the dulcimer, Tibetan singing bowls, etc. They give impressive talks with a very enthusiastic woman doing the music ones; we haven't tried the masks talk and I forget what the others were. There's African displays too but we didn't get further than the music section. There was also story telling and stuff. You need to book for some of these.

There's also wonderful gardens with animals in. If it wasn't such a drive for us we would be up there every weekend!

Plus if you go to Greenwich I have heard there is a milkshake bar where they make shakes with anything you want in, with more flavours than you can believe.

Science musuem is brilliant - all of its great, but he will love the basement, set up for kids of all ages.

have you tried the london aquariam? We're just on the edge of London and keep meaning to do MORE of the stuff that is just begging us to use, but never seem to get round to it. the next ones I want to do are natural history and aquariam. My dd is 2y8m so a bit younger....

I love discover, but the cliched mum of just one that i am, i HATE it when it is filled with "big" (y'know 5 year old lol) school children in groups!!!

Yeah, I did the Aquarium with both boys a while back. It is nice, but pricey for what it is.

I think I prefer the Sea Life centres on the coasts, frankly.

FtQE, but do they make quinoa milkshakes? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Horniman is always getting good descriptions of activities and so on, in the Guardian Guide. But I'm really ignorant of sarf London. Is there anything good nearby? What is Forest Hill like?

My 4 year old ds loves the Tranpsort Museum in covent Garden.

london aquarium is v v overpriced for what it is
and staff aren't v friendly

Don't try to go there soon, robinpud, it's closed until spring 2007.

Anyone been to the Livesey Museum for Children?

Have no idea if there is anything else near by the Horniman, sorry. Forest Hill seemed very multi-cultural to me but I am a bit sheltered living in whitest Essex

at quinoa milkshakes. Soya shakes, surely...

I'd kill for a good roti. What sort of multicultural was it?

I noticed lots of African people in traditional African dress. We only drove through it - sorry to be a bit vague.

Hmm, I know next to nothing about African food, but I'm sure we'd cope. There was some good Nigerian food at a birthday party before Xmas.

I should have, batters, but I guess I didn't because things worked so well at the London Museum the weekend before. We turned up, there was an appropriate talk, done.

Weirdly enough, though, DH took DS1 out today, and let DS1 pick where to go. He chose the British Museum again! I think they did more of a flying visit.

Oh, the other thing I did wrong at the British Museum is to not check our coats. We need to either stay for an hour or so, just do a quick flying visit, or check our coats and stay for ages.

V and A is great - they have little activity packs with things for them to do (find statues of someone with 6 arms, make a pattern with stickers like Indian stonework, listen to a story on a tape etc) and the place is half empty. I rate it much higher than Science and Natural History, dds are 5 and 3 and both love it

Are you a big fan of TheManWhoMistookAnAnecdoteForAScienceBook?

(sorry, not a fan of Sacks)

I don't think I've been to the V+A in ages. I will have to try to go with DS1 soon.

Are the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery both no good?

I think we'll hit the Tate Modern sometime soon, too. The turbine hall is very practical.

is that you hatstand?! must try the v&a with ds, he hasn't been there yet.

the aeroplane museum in hendon was very popular with ds when dp took him a few weeks ago. i think there's lots of hands on stuff.