Our Trip to London Science Museum and Natural History Museum

Last weekend was family weekend for us and my partner took some well deserved days off work so we could make it a long weekend and go and have some days out. I find it can be tricky to have days out when we both work so much and then its also quite costly. Then there is also finding age appropriate things that Lily would love but also us as adults to.

So we got our thinking caps on and where better to visit than the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Both close to each other in London and situated in the south which is easier for us to get to. Then better yet they are both also free.

Chris had Friday off and Monday. So we decided that Friday we would go to the science museum. We have been before but we have never taken Lily. Lily is still quite young for the science museum but she is learning every day and loves to see new things and so I knew there would be lots for her to look at.

The first things Lily was really happy to see was all the transport. There was old trains, cars and aeroplanes there and she lately has been really interested in them. Today was no different and she just loved looking at them and shouting out what they were.

We headed to the section of the science museum that is all about space. Lily wasn't to keen on this area. I think mainly because it was dark, but as long as she was carried by me then she was happy. She loved having a good wave to the spacemen and there was also a part where you could put spacemen gloves on and she was very eager to do that.

We did check out the All About Me section but apart from pressing buttons on the computer screens Lily wasn't very interested in this section. We then found two sections that were more child friendly and she really loved exploring these. One was all about sensory, so it had colourful lights, musical instruments and also had foam building blocks that Lily really enjoyed. She spent ages here making towers with Daddy. 

The other area I didn't actually notice what it was about but it had all sorts that were really fun for Lily. It had computer screens where Lily could draw with her finger. Which is something she has always enjoyed. Then there was this magnet section where you could stick the foam shapes onto the wall. Then there was a pond of fish on the floor where when you jumped on it, it created a ripple effect in the water. Very clever and Lily loved it.

We ended our day in the shop and bought Lily a book about space and a torch that she just wouldn't let go off. We really enjoyed it and I think that any child Lily's age onwards would love it to.

Our next day out as a family was on the Monday. We decided to go to the Natural History museum.

Lily has been really into her dinosaurs lately and so we knew she would love this part. Some of the dinosaurs were off display though which was a shame. I was looking forward to see what she thought of the BIG T-rex they have there but it was under maintenance.

Lily did really like the mechanical dinosaurs though and she spent ages waving and laughing at these two dinosaurs. It was very hard to convince her to come away from them.

We then went to the animal section. Lily was impressed with the first few animals she saw and then after that I think she was pretty unimpressed with them. I think at Lily's age when you have seen one animal you have seen them all and as they didn't move they didn't really capture her attention. She did really enjoy the headphones that were in the animal room though where she could hear the animal noises.

We didn't take Lily around all of the museum as there were parts we knew that she would not be interested in. But she did love looking at the Birds in the Bird section. We decided to keep her away from the one display of owl heads seen as owls are Lily's favourite animal and it was a little grim. The last part we went to see was the earth section. She wasn't to keen going up the escalators through the giant earth that they have there, but to be honest neither was I. I felt tiny with the scale of that thing and so Lily must have felt really tiny. We wandered around the earth section a little bit and then called it a day. But not before heading to the shop to buy Lily a toy dinosaur. 

The Natural History museum is also brilliant for children though I think Lily enjoyed the science one a little more.

Have you been to either the Science or Natural History museum before?