Science Museum - any good for 4 y/os????

[bunny2]

We are thinking of going tomorrow, is there lots to keep a liely 4 year old enterntained or is NAtural History museum better?

TIA

Science museum is fab - took our ds there a year ago when he was 3½ and he loved it. Was slightly too young for Launchpad but The Garden section in the basement was brilliant - he could have stayed there for hours here
have a fab time!

Yes, it's worth going to, but it might well be heaving during the school holidays. We went at half-term and walked out again after about 15 minutes (I hate crowds).

Since you don't have to pay anymore, it's feasible to double up a trip to the science museum (the kiddie stuff is all in the basement) and a trip to the Natural History Museum.

If Bracknell is easy to get to, they have a very good alternative to the Launch Pad at "The Look Out" (next to Coral Reef), with the advantage of the best outdoor playground for miles.

Love it, my 3 year old and 18 month old love it.

The basement has the garden ( water play etc...), the launch pad ( for older kids but they love it as well ). Ground floor has the pattern pod ( perfect for that age )

But also some of the grown up exhibits are great.

The energy section on 2nd floor includes what can only be described as computer games. Also on the second floor there is an engine section withe loads of buttons to press and working models of engines.

Much better than natural history musuem.

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Science Museum is brlliant - there are loads and loads of interactive games and puzzles for little ones. If you go to the Wellcome Wing especially, it's all very kid-oriented - Pattern Pod, etc. Plus as cupcakes says the Garden in the Basement is brilliant.

You might also want to make sure you pick up some of the guidebooks, since they were produced and written by, ummmm....me!

Science museum definitely, especially Launch Pad and The Basement for huge amounts of interactive stuff.

If your 4 year old likes rockets, cars, trains and planes there are some fantastic ones on display as well.

nomoomathein - what a nice subject to write about. I didn't realise you were in that line of work.

thanks everyone - looks like we are off to the Science Museum tomorrow, I'm really excited now!

I will def pick up some guide books - looking forward to seeing your work Moomin!

Yipee, we're off to London

I'm not actually there anymore, tigermoth, but just had a look on the website and was quite surprised to see that they're still flogging the Wellcome Wing and general Museum Guides that I put together 4 years ago! I'll give the Publications Unit the benefit of the doubt and assume they've updated them a bit since then...! But you may still find my name on the inside front cover lol

Hope you have a great time, bunny and family.

we are going next week, originally to see the natural history museum with our 4 and 18 month old boys. have just been looking up the link to science museum and will now be spending the majority of the day there! can anyone recommend a good family friendly veggie or italian cafe nearby?

The science museum is great for kids of all ages and adults, you can go as many times as you want and always discover something new - there aren't that many places interesting for both adults and kids (good for bored dads as well)! We've been going since ds was about one and a half and its great. Works well combined with the big playground in Hyde Park if the weather is not too awful - if you fancy some outdoor activity as well.
Another one that's got a lot of interactive stuff to play with is the Maritime History Museum in Greenwich, it's all nice and new.
Have a good time!

NoMoomAtTheInn - Which guidebooks did you write? We've used loads of the little children's ones - individual guide to a gallery - flight, medicine, space, etc. We think they are fab!

Oh, roisin, do you mean the little cartoon ones?If so, yes, they're my babies! I wrote them and then rather cheekily commissioned my then-boyfriend to do all the illustrations It was definitely a fun job.

Oh - how lovely to be able to thank you 'personally' as it were

I first enjoyed these with my ds1 when we used to take daytrips to London as a pre-schooler. Unfortunately we now live a LONG way away, but we did get to the big smoke 18 months ago, and took them both to the SciM, and ds2 enjoyed doing a couple of the gallery booklets too.

Well done! I wish more museums had such child-friendly materials. Some are great, some are lousy.

NpMoomatheinn, that really does sound like an interesting fun job I will look out for the booklets next time we go to the SM. I know you've moved jobs, so hope your present job is just as fun

Hi,
We want to take our trio for their birthday at the end of the month but need to find a reasonable hotel room to sleep 5, any ideas?

I've just had the same thought, triplets, and if I remember rightly the Travelodge at Park Royal has big family rooms. Only know as relatives stayed there when they visited us when we lived down there.
Am getting all excited about going now!

Hi,
Travelodge will not allow 5, have to have 2 rooms, so becomes too expensive.