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.

natural history for animals and dinosaurs
Horniman has great music bit, fascinating stuffed animals and insects and a lovely park. It's quite near me!
NOT the London Dungeon. IMO far to horrible and scary.
Greenwich generally is good - ds LOVES the 'big ship'
Museum of childhood shut for renovations atm otherwise totally brilliant.
Livesey museum on Old Kent Road is excellent and interesting tiny museum for children.
I like the Museum of London too.
Science museum basement excellent

yes it's me. blame harpsichordcarrier for the new name

The Peter Pan playground in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park is absolutely wonderful for four year olds.
Ds REALLY likes Ikea.

The Museum of Childhood is walking distance from my house. I really really miss it. We go through phases where we go every week. It has an indoor sand pit!

I'd forgotten about that playground in Hyde Park, must take DS1 there again. He's mad for pirates, when he's not mad for dinosaurs, war, star wars, etc etc.

How gory is the London Dungeon? At the British Museum, DS1 really liked anything with battles (all the bas relief friezes, etc), and the whole exibit on death was v. popular.

I honestly think it is very, very gory. My stepdaughter couldn't cope with it when she was 9 and she loved looking at mummies and peat bog people etc etc. I think it's quite sadistic.

Hmm, I wouldn't want to alarm him. I think death etc are all pretty unreal to him now (we had an argument today about whether dead people come back to life), but he's certainly not used to seeing blood etc.

There are enough other things to see around London, aren't there.

oooh yes, aloha, ds & i agree that ikea equals a good day out .

I don't drive, so ikea is a non-starter.

Do you use the creche there?

ds went in the creche once, with his cousins. they had a good time, but hasn't wanted to go in by himself. mostly we just play around in the kids' section then eat meatballs and buy stuff we don't really need in the downstairs bit.

NQC - dd2 asked me the other day "how do you un-die?". Also after hearing something on the radio about people dying in Iraq she said "You didn't die when you went to Iraq did you mummy?"

Total NQC! You don't like Oliver Sacks! I think this is the first time you have ever posted something I didn't agree with 100% (or at least 99 ). I am shaken to the core...

I hate Oliver Sacks. Actually. His books are inherantly unsatisfying. Not informative enough. Pinker is better.

We do the play area, try out the beds, eat cake and go home!

Oh, a family friend uses Hamleys that way. He's convinced DS1 you can't buy anything there (or maybe DS1 just knows this friend doesn't buy him stuff?). Either way, they try out the toys, they have fun, they go home.

Blimey. I do like O. Sacks. I like his beard- stroking ruminatings. I don't think I like facts very much, really.

Aloha, we do exactly the same in Ikea. And the Co-Op. And Toys R Us. And ELC. In fact, I don't think ds knows you can actually purchase things except in Sainsburys and TopShop

We went to the London Transport museum at Covent Garden with dd (was 2.8 at the time) and had a great day. There are loads of vintage buses, trains and trams to look at, an excellent quiet drawing area with pictures to colour and a childrens play area where they can pretend to drive buses etc. She also liked taking our ticket around to collect the special stamps from each exhibit.

We also like Ikea especially the sofas and the kids chairs. The new one at Edmonton has 2 fab kids play areas in the restaurant. One has a camera in the ceiling so the kids can lie on the floor and watching images and then see a shot of themselves projected back at them.

NQC i don't drive either but Ikea in Edmonton is very easy to get to on public transport - we get a train to Tottenham Hale, from there there is a bus which drops you directly outside. And if you buy anything bulky, you can either get it delivered or get a minicab home.

You live in East London and you haven't discovered discover?

I would also recommend the city farms. Mudchute is easy enough to get to from Hackney and is always open. It's especially good in the spring with the baby animals.

The Horniman is fabulous. The Tate modern has a children's education section. Last time we went the sluglet carried around a folding soft book type of thing with items from the pictures with velcro on the back. The idea was to find the image in the painting and velcro it onto the appropriate part of the book. She took it very seriously.

Oh, no, we've been to discover. It's just down the road. But it's more something I'd do with both kids, not a special outing for DS1.

We have three city farms locally (Mudchute, Hackney and Stepping Stones), and should use them more.

NQC, have only skimmed this thread but can also recommend the Horniman BUT there is nothing else to do or see in Forest Hill. It is hilly though

Have you got Time Out For Kids? - the little handbook. V good.

I always have a look at the Kids Out section in TO itself - obviously always something special going on somewhere & you can tailor it to your ds. Eg:

• there was an exhibition at the British Library of children's book illustration ("The Magic Pencil") that we took ds & dd to years & years ago and they have never forgotten it - it showed, among other things, cartoons done from the John Burningham books which were magical;

• the Wallace Collection does very frequent "turn up and draw while a Real Artist says how fantastic you are" weekend events. Great for an intense little colourer, not so brilliant for a jumper and runner;

• Theatre Museum in Covent Garden was a surprising draw when we had a lot of differently aged cousins to amuse; and

• I think a 4yo boy would probably like the Kew Steam Museum.

NQC: the main advantage of Hornimann is that it is stuffed full of MN-ers. I think MotherInferior and I once pledged that we would end up stuffed as exhibits, we spent so much time there. Aside from that, in all honesty, I'm not sure it's worth crossing London for.

What about Jackson's Lane theatre?