Birmingham Think Tank - has anyone been?

[isaidno]

Trying to think of somewhere to go tomorrow! We have 2 boys age 2 and 3.5.

Would you recommend Thinktank?

Well fat lot of good you lot are!

We went this am and the kids had a fun time in the kids city role play area, and looking at the machines, train, etc.

Great for older kids I should think.

interesting, couldn't decide last week whether to go there or @Bristol. (we live between the two!) Searched on here and general view was it's rubbish, so we went to @Bristol instead. Think we might go to Think Tank another school holiday then, thanks.

How old are your dc furball?

he's 5 1/2

He should enjoy it then - there are lots of machines from industrial revolution which you turn on.

Kid's city is a dressing up area where you can play in the doctor's / cafe / garage.

There is also a water play area with pumps etc.

There are some fossils etc.

Some of the other stuff is quite complicated - how lights work etc.

There is also a section on Space and how the body works but we didn't see that bit - because the kids had had enough by then!

It's really close to Birmingham city centre too.

It's OK - not great, but OK.

There's a small area for younger children, more stuff for the older ones - but the last couple of times we've been, a lot of the interactive exhibits weren't working properly.

Some of the stuff from the old Science Museum is still there, and there's a section with more modern stuff in it - you can programme a robot arm to play the drums, that kind of thing.

The planetarium is good but you have to book a seat when you pay for your ticket, and it costs extra to get in.

It's very expensive though, for what it is, and the cafe is crap too - poor choice, very expensive.

If you're looking for something for the kids in this area, Snibston is much, much better than ThinkTank.

thanks WWB - but i think it's too far unfortunately and we would also go by train and strangely it says 'Snibston Discovery Park is within easy driving distance of two mainline stations at Loughborough and Leicester' - whats the point of that then? as if you go on the train you haven't got a car to do the easy driving distanc?

we went with dd 5 and ds 3 the other week and they could have spent all day in the play city area... loads of 'zones' to be in ... sat in the cafe for ages! the service was terrible! my dc need better training in the service industry!

anyway.. we thought it was great fun... although it is very pricey and we got in free due to dh's work... worth a visit tho!

On a similar theme - and not a million miles away from Birmingham, ds enjoyed Enginuity at Ironbridge. And you can get a ticket which gets you into the rest of the Ironbridge museums as well (and return visits for up to year if you want to go back) - Blists Hill is good, and ds liked the tar tunnel too.

Tesco clubcard days out vouchers can be used for both of these, by the way.

That looks good place Lunarsea

Chanaging the subject - not much longer for you now?

Furball - 24 days! This is my last week of working full time though, then cutting back on hours and no more travelling from next week.

brilliant, very exciting.