Natural History Museum, London

[Trifle]

Has anyone been there and would you recommend it for 2 boys aged 2 and 4 who are into dinosaurs etc. Anything to avoid or worth knowing about?

[roisin]

Yes, yes, and yes. It is fantastic.

Tips - if you can go during school term time, as it is much quieter. If not it's worth getting there at 10 am when it opens.

In the 'earth galleries' there is also loads of stuff about volcanoes, which is great fun too.

Ask at the information desk for "children's trails" or "education worksheets" - we did a great one on dinosaur teeth - carnivores v herbivores when ds1 was about 4 - but that was some time ago.

Last time we went dh took ds1, so I haven't got any uptodate experience of it. (I took ds2 to the Science Museum which is brilliant too).

[Freckle]

Brilliant place. Well worth a visit - and it's free! If your boys are into investigating things, do go down to the basement where they have a wonderful room equipped with computers and microscopes, etc. They have a pond outside from where they take water every day and you can have a good look at what's in there - amazing the variety of stuff. Or the boys can handle different types of animal skin, look at them under microscopes (pictures come up on the computer screens), etc. Check accessibility though. I think certain times are reserved for school parties (this is in the investigating bit, not the museum generally). They have a good dinosaur exhibition, but one part of it is paid entry.

[tigermoth]

Actually, sorry to be a spoilsport but no, I wouldn't recommend it as the main focus of an outing for chidren as young as 2 and 4 years - going on my own experience that is. I think the dinosaur gallery is fab, but IME going on my sons, little children can be a bit frightened by the big skeletons and the 'live' display and lots of the info is aimed at older children, so they can feel very bored as well. The gallery is also quite claustophobic - very hot inside and you have to follow the trail round all the exhibits before you can escape. I haven't been to the miscoscope part in the basement, but my sons at age 2 definitely and possibly age 4, would have had problems squinting into a micsoscope and would not have been entranced with what they saw. Ok for 10 minutes interest at the most. However the escalator ride into the centre of the earth in the earth galleries always goes down well.

I personally think the science musuem, just a couple of minutes walk away, offers far more things interest for 2 and 4 year olds - there's lots of hands on stuff for that age. My sons loved it when they were little - and now aged 9 and 4.5 there is masses for them to do. We usually spend three or four hours in the science musuem followed by an hour in the natural history musuem, if we are in the area.

HTH

[twiglett]

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[Grommit]

Trifle - I would pop into the natural history museum just to see the dinosaurs and then walk to the Science Museum - the 'launchpad' area in the basement is great for young kids - lots of hands on. There is also a large indoor picnic area so you can bring your own food...

[pupuce]

Went on 14/2 - My 2 loved it DS 4 still talks about it and DD (2) slept through the first half but got into it.
We also did double decker bus (BIG hit) and there is a good playground in Hyde Park near there too (kind of at Harrod's level).
We also spent 2 hours in Harrods' toy department, there was a clown ad DD was fascinated.

[Posey]

Have to agree with Tigermoth and Grommit.
Pop into the NHM to see the dinosaurs but spend the rest of your visit at the Science. If you get there and don't agree, it doesn't really matter as they're so close to each other and both free so you won't waste time or money.
We've been taking dd there since she was 2 (now nearly 7) probably on average once a month and she NEVER gets bored

[SoupDragon]

Do not under any circumstances take them into the "human biology" section unless you want the 4yo to shout "LOOK AT ALL THOSE WILLIES!" at the top of his voice.

We also got awkward questions like "Is that how DS2 and I came out of your tummy, mummy?"

[Trifle]

Thanks for all your comments, absolutely brilliant. First hand experiences cannot be beaten.

[alison222]

Just went yesterday with DS aged 3yrs3mths and DD aged 12 mths. OK so DD wasn't to fussed but she did want to reach out and touch evrtything she saw. DS loved it. We were there about 2 1/2 hrs including lunch stop (take your own sandwiches the cafe is expensive). DS was definately museumed out by the end. He loved the dinasours and the large mammel sections which is all we went to and pressed every button and lever going even if he didn't understand what it was doing very well despite oversimplified explanations from me and DH. Definately worth a trip but don't expect ot be there all day. Oh and it was really busy

[Hulababy]

We went on Saturday with DD, aged 23 months. She loved the dinosaurs, the Creepy Crawlies and the mammals sections. She was also intrigued by some of the things in the human biology section too, although her response to a baby in mummy's tummy was a look of disgust!!!

To be honest, we only spent a morning there (about 3 hours) so didn't get chance to do much more. We got there at 10am opening and went straight to the dinosaurs and it wasn't busy at all.

We also had a drink and cake int he cafe and it was pretty reasonable.

Cloakroom was good too as all things for under 5s are free, including pushchairs. For the rest it is £1.

Really glad we went and will definitely go back. I think it's the best of the museums round there.

[hatter]

We're regulars at the Natural History museum and both girls (nearly 4 and nearly 2) love it. I think the human biology section is great - DD1 loved the stuff on babies - it has models of how a baby grows inside its mum's tummy - some of the written stuff has full-on explanations - which I thought would be really good for when the kids are older but which for now was easy to ignore. A suprise hit - every year since they were tiny - has been the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. I love the exhibition myself and the girls are fascinated - the images tend to be very bright, sometimes quite bizarre and good topics of conversation. The investigation room in the basement is excellent - they put an unofficial age range on it but don't be put off if your's are younger - mine were and they still loved it.
Has anyone tried taking kids to the V&A?

[kid]

As its the school holidays, I'm thinking of taking DD (5) and DS (2) to the Natural History Museum. I wonder if they will like it. DD is a scaredy cat and DS is a bit of a handful (he likes to run and shout and run and shout!)
What do you think, were they any other children there like mine?!

[Hulababy]

DD was nearly 2 and loved it. And yes, she did wander off and she made a noise too. There were loads of children of all ages. No one bothered about children getting excited and high spiritied