Magna

[hmb]

We have just come back from a day at Magna and we all had a great time. Dd (7) had a go on the forensic science workshop and ds (4) had a wonderful time in the Earth pavilion blowing things up and controling real diggers. Lots to do and all hands on. The staff are very helpful.

Only down side is that the tables in cafe area were rather grubby and sticky!

It isn't cheap, as a family ticket will set you back £28, but we had a wonderful time and spent a very easy 4 hours there. Access might be difficult in some areas if you had mobility problems, and it is dark with lots of flashes and bang so no so good for nervous children. There are also flashing stobe lights that might be a problem for some epileptics.

This is timely hmb ... after our aborted trip to Magna at Easter we are having a second attempt on Friday. I've just been looking at the website and I can't wait!

If you want any details let me know.

Thanks hmb - any tips you think might be useful gratefully received. [We are taking my ds1 (nearly 7), two 5 yr-olds, and a 3 yr-old.]

How do you book the workshop? Where are the biggest/smallest queues?

Well, we were there at 10.30 and there were a max of 15 cars there! So get there early would be my tip. And go directly to Earth if your children want to have a go on the diggers. The place was almost empty and the three diggers were free when we got there so we all had a go! It was almost like their private playground.

If you want to go to the new exhibition The Dark book as soon as you go in, we didn't and missed out, but it might not be siutable for the littlies.

Water is worth going to early, and that is the place that has the Forensics w/s. You don't have to book, it is free and runs IIRC every hour, on the half hour. It is a bit of paper Chromatography and looking at splatter patterns so lasts about 10-15 mins.

They are also doing a laser scan experiemnt on human face recognition (adults only) which we did after lunch.

Get into lunch early. Or take a picnic. Part of the adventure playground is being worked on, but half of it is still up and running.

Have fun!

Superb - we had a brilliant time. Everyone completely shattered at the end of the day. We were there for nearly 6 hrs - though at least an hour was spent picnicing or on adventure playground outside.

My tip for future visitors - you can get VERY wet in the water bit, so take some spare clothes for littlies, or strip them down as far as poss before you let them in, then they'll have something dry to change into!