Funharmonics concert - Transport of Delight

We arrived reasonably early to the try an instrument and circus skills in the South Bank Centre's Clore ballroom but already it was busy and noisy, to start with The Buggies kept their distance; however after a little customising and cajoling both bigger buggies tried a violin and buggy-B (3 yrs) also had a go at a 'Cello. The event staff worked with them with such confidence and assurance that they both got a huge amount out of the experience; full marks for this.

The concert, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was a good balance of music against activity. Including a set of animations put together using drawing from a London primary school; this, I thought was particularly effective. The show was based around a transport theme, although this theme was sometimes rather over-tried in order to ensure a steady streem of popular tunes. That said, the best way to pressent music to young children, in my mind at least, is to provide a good supply of popular tunes in a relaxed, tolorant atmosphear with a confident and enthusiastic pressenter; full marks for this also.

There now seem to be a good number of groups providing music for young people. As we left my Grand-bug commented that when she was a girl she had to wait until she was seven before being allowed to a concert; what an oppotunity we have today!

What: Concert and try an instrument
Where: Royal Festival Hall (South Bank Centre)
Getting there: Walk from Waterloo or Embankment; map
Cost: £4 - £7 (Children) £8 - £14 (Adults)
Again: Yes; the group do three concerts a year
Try: BBC Children's Prom or concerts by Atarah Ben-Tovim
Top tip: Turn up early to try an instrument and work out where your having lunch in advance. Giraffe will be busy!

Boat making at the Maritime Museum

As always a day couldn't be better if is started with a trip on the Docklands Light Railway. This trip ended in Greenwich hoping to catch a sight of what is left of the Cutty Sark and take in a trip to the Maritime Museum. The museum is in the very impressive surroundings of the Royal Naval College, designed by Christopher Wren, which is always worth walking around on a nice day.

We only visited a small amount of the full museum on the ground floor; the only real hands on exhibits in this was a wave machine showing how waves form and break going up a beach, the Buggies all like to play with this. However, this was not the only thing that captured their imagination. An exhibition of the trans-Atlantic liners gave plenty to talk about, an exhibition of arctic exploration and a steam engine from a small boat also gave a lot.

So to the boat making; this was a paper craft affair along the cutout and glue together, the event was very popular and some kids made very creative models the Buggies, on the other hand, decided to keep things simple shunning even a deck for any would be sailors to walk about. Sadly, like many such events no real attempt was made to bring the museum into the activity, making boats could have been at the local children's centre and both Buggies would have got just as much out of it.

In conclusion a good museum for the Buggies and one we will visit again but if I'm looking for creative arts and crafts I would prefer something like the art trolley at the Tate.

What: Boat making
Where: National Maritime Museum
Getting there: Walk from "Cutty Sark" tube station or get the river boat to Greenwich; map
Cost: Free
Again: Definitely will visit the museum again to see the other exhibitions.
Try:
Arts and crafts: The art trolley at the Tate
Transport and boats: London Transport Museum, Science Museum, London Canal Museum
Top tip: Go on a nice day, although the museum is indoors the area is very nice to walk around.

Apple Day at Vestry Museum

Vestry Museum is one of Walthamstow's real treasures; housed in what has been both a workhouse and then the local police station the museum charts local history covering much of the last two hundred years. The best exhibit is the first petrol powered motor car built in Britain. A garden outside houses various herbs and flowers along with various outdoor exhibits including signs, sundials and a roman coffin.

Today's visit was all in honor of the apple.

On entry both bigger Buggies made a beeline for the car and various toy trains around the museum (no dinosaurs here for Buggy-D) and had to be dragged back to the garden. Apple cakes (complete with a paddy from Buggy-D), apple bobbing, apple drawing, apple crushing, apple drinking, apple growing were all on offer adding up to a surprisingly entertaining day. Not a vast amount for the Buggies but being local there were plenty of friends to be entertained by and there was always the fall back of some old toy trains and a very old car.

What: Apple Day
Where: Vestry House Museum
Getting there: Walk from Walthamstow Central; map
Cost: Cheap
Again: Yes
Top tip: Have a cake, yum.

Gamalan

With shadow puppets and the disappearing rooms so far the day had been quite a long one and the buggies were getting tired so we spend what little time was left listening to the Gamelan concert. I've heard a Gemalan orchestra once before in a Proms concert at the Albert hall; the intricate designs of the drums and gongs worked very well against the high Victorian setting, the setting behind this orchestra was the rather more incongruous Heywood gallery!

Surprisingly both Buggies listened quite attentively to the music and, even after a long day caused little trouble until Buggie-D had to answer the call of nature and we decided to call it a day and return home.

What: Gamalan orchestra
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Try: The south bank have many concerts in their free spaces.

Disappearing rooms

At lunch time we met up with Mrs Bug and ate lunch before investigating the disappearing rooms on the terrace. The fountain is made up of four “rooms” whose walls are 7ft high fountains that switch on and off allowing people access to the room. While the fountain or wall is off you can walk into the room, when it is on you just have to wait. The same fountain was here last summer where a nearly two year old Buggy-B unwittingly wandered into a room as the fountains around it started. Not wishing him to be cut off from the Bug even for the few seconds by a wall of terrifying water I jumped over the fountain as it started; the result was a wet Bug and a screeming Buggie. This year was much more successful, both buggies ended up soaking but very happy.

What: Disappearing rooms
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Again: If I'm around, its around and the weather is good, I'm sure we will pay a visit!
Try:I'm not aware of many good fun fountains in London. The play area in Finsbury park is well worth checking out though. Map

Shadow puppets

The shadow puppet workshop at the South Bank Centre were based around the stories of Kancjil the Mousedeer; Kancjil may not be the biggest or strongest of the Indonesian jungle dwellers but his brains and cunning get him out of many problems.

The workshop contained kit and instructions for making various characters from the plays and a couple of light boxes to then try them out in, I suspect that the intention was to then put on the plays at the end, if this happened then it was after I left and it didn't look like it was going to! Also provided were a number of story sheets with various stories of Kancjil's adventures.

The puppets were too complex for either Buggy to manage, but the opportunity to cut up pieces of paper is never missed. However, Buggy-D (4 yrs) was engaged enough with the idea to help with sticking and some cutting and things while I told Kancjil and the Crocodile to him. Afterwards he did get a lot out of trying the puppet in the light box; since he could not see this I videoed it on my phone which he enjoyed watching.

Conveniently placed next to the workshop were some lifts in a glass lift shaft, this managed to stave off sufficient boring bits for Buggy-B who, at nearly three, was still to young to really enjoy the workshop.

What: Shadow puppets workshop
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Again: I'll possibly try making a light box and puppets at home
Try: Plenty of arts and craft activities exist, try the art trolley at Tate Modern

Storytelling at Museum in the Docklands

For the two bigger Buggies a trip on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is a trip out on its own; as we left Stratford station Buggy-D wistfully remarked "This is my favourite railway in the whole world"
"Now, there's an accolade" I replied.
"Where?"

The Museum in the Docklands is housed in an old warehouse on the West India Quay, despite the time of year the weather was fine so we decided to eat our packed lunch sitting on a bench on by the side of the water. The added temptation of a group of boats to look at kept the Buggies more than happy. In order to generate some interest in London Bridge I told them the story of The Peddler of Swaffham in which a Norfolk peddler makes a journey to London Bridge only to find everything he wanted was back at his home in Swaffham.

Next step is into the museum and checking the times; the staff on reception didn't know it was happening, not a good start, but after a bit of investigation and talking on walky talkies the times were ascertained and we made our way into the Mudlarks education area.

Buggie-D refers to the Museum in the Docklands as "the stone museum" because of an exhibit in Mudlarks which shows how rivers pull stones down a river; the area also houses a soft play area (for the younger kids) and various docklands and river Thames related activities. As it turned out both buggies were more excited about the soft play on this visit and pursuading them to join me in the main museum was tricky.

The event that we had come for, aside from the general museum which I'll talk about soon, was about London Bridge and set on the top floor of the museum next to a model of the 17th Century bridge (image from creative commons) complete with the houses and shops. I wasn't expecting anything in particular but was a little surprised to find that the story told was.... "The Peddler of Swaffham." I was half expecting Buggie-D To point out as mistakes any deviations from my version but, thankfully, he just enjoyed it for what it was. The group attending was small and, as can be expected with an audience of under 5s, attention wandered, but the storyteller did a good job of keeping it going and, I think, both buggies got a lot out of the second version of the day. However little use was made of the model, as I expected would have been, a prop that, to me, could have really set the scene against the London bridge up the river.

The museum its self is excelent, I've visted it in the past; sadly we didn't have as much time to look round it as I would have liked but both older buggies liked the the information about whaling (Buggie-D's love of all things natural has extended very much into the kingdom of aquatic mamals) the museum has in its collection a narwal spike and the lower jaws of a sperm whale; also various tools from London's old whaling industry. The mocked up docklands street was also popular as was the WWII exhibition; Buggie-D is beginning to put things together aboutt his piece of history and is aware that it is a huge war fort against Germany, this pressents a problem to him as he loves Germany due to a holiday in Berlin "they're not baddies now are they?" he asks pleadingly. In general this was a very good day out, in fact, as we left the museum an accolade was perching by the window, glancing in it took to the air flying along West India Quay towards Canary Whaff before flying off into the distance; it very nearly made an bigger apearance its self.

What: Storytelling
Where: Museum in the Docklands
Getting there: Near Canary Wharf Station; map
Cost: Adults £5 (annual ticket); children free
Again: Yes, probably when an interesting event is on
Try: Museum of London (BuG entry)

Museum of London

The Museum of London tracks the history of London and Londoners from prehistory to the present day. On the whole the museum does live up to its good reputation, however the Bug, as always is interested in what the buggies will make of it and here, sadly, it falls down. The few hands on exhibits are aimed at older kids or adults; computer terminals provide more information but that only results in requests to watch the green anaconda (not something I would normally write in connection to this museum!) add to this the generic nature of most of the exhibits makes it hard to keep them engaged or interested in what they were looking at.

The great fire exhibition and video interested them both, as did the prehistoric stone tools. The models of buildings from Roman London also caught their attention and we could talk about the origins of London Bridge; but after that we found little else.

In conclusion, this is a good museum, but clearly not intended for children so young. If that's what your looking for try the Museum in the Docklands.

What: Museum of London
Where: City of London, map
Getting there: Between Bank and Barbican stations
Cost: Free
Again: Possibly when they are older
Try: Museum in the Docklands
Top tip: Walk from the Barbican station is almost all under cover. Also, an indoor picnic area is provided so bring your own lunch.

Coram's Fields

Coram's Fields is a large children's playground area in central London. The field contains various playground equipment which is good but not spectacular compared to many other playgrounds, it also houses a number of animals including sheep, goats (which were free to roam when Bug and Buggies visited) and birds. A cafe provides coffee and food (Bug didn't visit so no comment) and finaly there is plenty of space.

Generaly the bigger Buggies found the playground fun, imediatly zooming in on the bigger childrens play ground; there were not many people arround so only the hurdle of climbing up something they couldn't reach got in the way of a great deal of fun. We also looked at the birds
which are housed in a very dated aviary and sheep in an enclosure on one side of the fields. The littlest Buggie slept.

Over all the history of the fields seemed far more exciting to the Bug than the fields themselves but that shouldn't take away what is, after all a large free play area walking distance from King Cross, The British Museum, and various shopping areas; nothing short of an oasis.

What: Coram's Fields
Where: Between Russel sq and Kings Cross; map
Cost: Free
Again: When I'm in the area.

Latitude (out of town)

Latitude is one of Glastonbury's many little brothers or sisters but aiming to provide much more than just pop music and overcrowded camping; offering literature, dance, music, film, poetry, the all important Children's area and, of course, pop music and overcrowded camping. Many people have reviewed the actual event in terms of what it has offered and generally the reviews are very positive; I'll concentrate on what it offered families.

In summary Latitude lived up to its name as a child friendly event with a very relaxed feel and open to all ages; L, aged just 2 months was not the youngest!

Getting there

The festival is in Henham Park, Sussex; it was a sufficiently long drive that, with kids, it was worth stopping on the way. But the drive was simple and reasonably quick beyond that.

Our first mistake was to park in the wrong place and ended up having to carry a lot of stuff a very long way with two children and a baby in tow (not a great start); however wheelbarrow hire and very friendly and generally helpful staff made this much better than it could have been.

Camping

The family area is an area of the camp site only accessible if you have the correct family pass; although this was inconsistently policed (sometimes our friends could come in if they were with us; others they could not) the area was certainly populated with plenty of children of all ages. The camping area also provided some simple children's activities (circus stuff and art material), separate loos (see below) and its own food tent.

The family camping area seemed more crowded than other parts of the campite and overflowed into the caravan park, this could well be as a result of the success in the last few years; but hopefully the organisers will take note and increase its size next year.

One major downside to the festivals are toilets; the family loos were generally cleaner (porta-loos rather than latrenes) but frequently blocked or ran out of water. I would not be too critical however; the organisers did provide extra loos when it became apparent that they were needed.

Family arena

In the arena (separated from the campsite) was another family area, again only allowing families access. This provided the bulk of the family orientated activities which were as good as they were varied. D & B particularly liked the pond dipping and woodland activities; also covered were parachute games, plays, stories, arts and general play stuff with an under fives "parent and child chill out area" providing free refreshments, suncream and nappies.

Sadly we did not make it to a daily performance of Hansel and Gretal; a shame as it is one of both D & B's favourite stories. I think D was worried that the witch would turn out to be real...

General arena

In the main part of the festival the areas were very welcoming of young children, the programme marked where an event was not appropriate. This meant that all of us could see performers that I would not have expected to be able to take them to at any other place, including a Michael Nyman piano concert which D & B both slept through.

There was a daily children's book session in the literary area; sadly we managed to forget this on all three days.

Conclusion

This was a great weekend; through all the problems, tiredness and very frayed tempers by the time we left on Sunday evening all four of those that could express an opinion wanted to come back next year. My only main concern is that our camping holiday in the Isle of Wight might now prove to be a disapointment to D who will be expecting music, drama, pond dipping, etc.

What: Lattitude
Where: Henham Park; sussex
Cost: Adults £130; children free
Going again: Already have tickets
Try: Innocent viliage fate
Top tip: Don't take too much, you probably won't need it. Find out how to get to the closest car park to the family area BEFORE leaving

Walthamstow Young Peoples' Caribbean Carnival

This is an event that I remember from when I was young. The parade is populated by young people from various groups and schools throughout Walthamstow who parade about one to two miles through Walthamstow to the town square. D's nursery was represented, using the theme of Indian animals and so, dressed as tigers (pictured) and peacocks we walked the mile or so along the route.

The parade costumes were far more impressive than those in my memory and ended with a full funfair, including rides and games, with all the children taking part getting their five minutes of fame on a big stage.

My only real complaint was the lack of advertising. I live on the route of the parade and only knew about it because I was in it and, thus, the roads were not so much lined with cheering crowds as bemused shoppers and annoyed motorists. Probably not enough to ruin what was a good day out, but annoying none the less.

What: Young Person's Caribbean Carnival
Where: Starts at Walthamstow Town Hall finishes at Walthamstow Town Square (close to Walthamstow Central)
Cost: Free
Going next year? Possibly, depends if we're involved and if not if its advertised!
Try: Notting Hill Carnival

Twenty20 Cricket

I sometimes take D & B (and probably now L) to watch Leyton Orient play and have been meaning to take them to a cricket match for a while. However, the prospect of choosing between watching the game with bored children or not watching the game entertaining them behind the grandstand did not fill me with joy so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Middlesex vs Hampshire was played at the Richmond cricket ground. This is much more fold-up chairs around the boundary rope than permanent grandstands allowing a full view of both match and space for the kids to play when they had become bored of watching.

IPL this was not but for introducing young kids to cricket this was perfect.

What: Twenty20 cricket at Richmond Cricket Ground (see Middlesex cricket club)
Where: About 15 minutes walk from Richmond tube station
Cost: Adult £15; concessions are cheaper, check for details
When: Hopefully this is an annual fixture
Going again: Yes
Top tip: Take a toy bat and ball; there is plenty of space to use them.

London Transport Museum

A journey getting around London in the past 200 years. The permanent exhibition takes you through early omnibuses, horse drawn trams, etc; many of the exhibits can be boarded, and in fact the barriers preventing the rest were small enough to allow B free access when I wasn't looking!

Further on one fines various ages of tube trains including an underground steam train and finally the main room contains various old busses, trams, trolly busses; a picnic area with transport related toys. The opportunity to sit in the driving seat of a big red bus. Surrounding the large exhibits are various smaller models; information posters and old adverts. Finally each child is given a card to stamp at various points throughout their journey keeping them entertained throughout.

This was a fantastic museum with a huge amount to engage kids and enough to be interesting to adults too. However, I went on a Monday which I had taken off work, given its Covent Garden location I would imagine that this could become very crowded at weekends.

What: London Transport Museum
Where: Covent Garden
Cost: Adults £10; under 16s Free
Going again: Probably
Try: Science museum, Kew steam museum
Top tip: The cafe seem to be happy to feed your children with food taken from home assuming you buy something for yourself.

Discover - story trail

Let Hootah lead you through a world of stories in one of most creative children's centres I have ever seen. Outdoors an playground of themed climbing frames were put to waste by the miserable weather, however indoors the fun really started.

The permanent facility includes various zones each with things to do; D and B set to work acting out the adventures of various dinosaurs across a crocodile infested river and a lions den; elsewhere children can turn a wooden spoon into a spoon puppet (despite my best efforts I did this on my own); draw on mirrors with mirror pens, act out stories in a puppet theatre.

Downstairs a temporary exhibition (City of Stories) contained various zoned rooms each with a recording of a story; D & B continued the adventures of their sparasauruses in a middle eastern tent.

As part of their eastern European week we listened to a telling of the Dragon of Krakow (B aged 2 1/2 didn't find this engaging and played elsewhere although he usually enjoys stories but D aged 4 listened intently); this was followed by a make your own dragon puppet but the lure of the rest of the centre was too much for my two.

Children as young as mine will find much of the story element little more than a slight distraction but I would imagine older kids would find this very exciting.

What: Discover - story trail
Where: Near Stratford tube station
Cost: Child/Adult £4; children under 2 are free; family ticket up to four people £15
When: Permanent with activities and temporary exhibitions
Going again: Yes; probably to other events
Try: Many play facilities exist but I have not found anything this creative or engaging.
Top tip: Take lunch, 20p for a locker and a lot of energy to get the best out of this place

Tower Bridge (opening)

Tower Bridge; or Clever Bridge as D (3) calls it, is one of many across the Thames, but, without doubt it is the grandest and, to my knowledge, the only one that opens.

As the bridge was built in the late 19th century when most shipping was powered by wind the bridge was required to allow for tall masted ships to pass; many designs were submitted and Tower Bridge was selected with its visual design in keeping with the near by Tower of London and its ability to raise the main bridge. Now such shipping is fairly rare but frequent enough to require regular lifting.

Most openings seem to be early(ish) morning and late(ish) afternoon; I found that an afternoon opening provided just enough time to get home in time to get the kids in bed.

I found three reasonable spots to watch from. On the north bank in front of The Tower, from The Tower's walls (requires entry to the Tower), oposite the Tower on the south bank of the Thames. We chose the first, which was a mistake; D's view was partially blocked by a railing and I was forced to carry B.

D watched transfixed holding his arms in imitation for the duration of the event; it turned out to be one of the highlights of his weekend.

What: Tower Bridge raising
Where: Closest tube is Tower Hill; map
Cost: Free
When: Permanent - check times
Going again: Yes, next time I will take them to the exhibition too
Try: Open for suggestions!
Top tip: The Starbucks in Katherine docks provides good coffee, cakes and views of yachts.

Tower of London

Beafeaters, beheadings, ravens and lots of stairs; the Tower is in London's premier league of tourist traps attracting large crowds and long queues. In mid February, however, it was reasonably quiet and not a queue in site.

On entering it was clear that B's nappy was in need of change. The man in the tourist shop told me that there were no changing facilities; I found them in the disabled toilets behind the crown jewels.

We started with a walk round the wall. This takes you into many of the rooms used as prisons and one King's bedroom. I remember, as a child, being impressed by the graphiti carved into the stone on the wall by various inhabitants before their fateful walk up to the hill overlooking the tower; D, however, was uninterested but enjoyed looking out of the windows along the way with views of the Themes and Tower Bridge.

Next to the crown jewels; in the summer the queue can last for hours. In winter there was no queue at all. Many of the exhibits require lifting a child and one never got the feeling that they really liked what they saw. D did not think that, even if you asked REALLY nicely they would let you eat of one of the various imperial gold plates in the cafe. B, however, was very impressed with the security doors.

The White Tower houses exhibits from the Royal Armoury; lots of model horses and suits of armour. Also a lot of stairs "Unfortunately, in the 11th Century they didn't think of putting in lifts" I explain as we walk up another flight; "Why?" asks D. The top floor houses a hands on place where one can try out pulling an archery bow and lifting various swords and looking through the visor of a suit of armour. Both kids enjoyed this, but at only 2 B was too young to try things and D always needed lifting and or help.


What: Tower of London
Where: Near "Tower Hill" tube station; map
Cost: Adults: £15
When: Permanent (very permanent)
Going again: Yes, but probably when the kids have more of an understanding of the historical context.
Try: Hampton Court
Top tip: Don't turn up with a buggy, lots of stairs. If you can choose when to go choose a warmer winter day to miss the crowd.

Human Biology - Natural History Museum

We have two children (D 3 years and B 2 years) we are expecting a third referred to as "Project X" this leads to inevitable questions from D; enter Natural History Museum.

The Human Biology exhibition is in the blue zone close to their famous Dinosaurs. The exhibition opens with cells with microscopes set up to view examples (D looked and told me he saw something, I've no idea what!). We move quickly on to reproduction, which was a bit of a time jump for me as it is exactly the same exhibition as when I was growing up in the early 80s with some improvements to the graphics on the video.

Both D & B enjoyed videos of a sperm entering an egg (now a subject of D's drawings at nursery) and a baby growing inside a womb.

A feature of the reproduction part is a model of a giant baby with sound recorded from inside a pregnant woman's womb (see photo). This terrified D to the point that to continue he need to run through as fast as possible; B, however, loved it.

Further on demonstrations of muscles and nerves and joints and things proved interesting to both. The exhibition continued, however, sadly we ran out of time.

What: Human Biology
Where: Natural History Museum; map
Cost: Free - with a suggested donation
When: Permanent
Going again: Yes
Similar: London's Museums of Health & Medicine

The Power Within - Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum's Red Zone deals with all things geographical with many exhibitions on the subject. Enter the museum from the side entrance on Exhibition road rather than the main entrance. An escalator will then take you up through a model of the planet to the top floor of the building.

Volcanoes and earthquakes are capable of inspiring most little boys and D (3 years old) is certainly no exception. While most of the exhibits were too advanced he found plenty that did interest him; including videos of volcanic eruptions and volcanic rocks that locked like hard mud.

Else where we looked at, but didn't go on the earthquake simulator; B (2 years old) "Why is the floor moving?" and talked about pictures of houses that earthquakes had pulled down.

Although they enjoyed the beginning, the exhibition was too large for children as young as mine and by the end the staircase down to the Dinosaurs was a welcome relief.

What: The Power Within
Where: Natural History Museum; map
Cost: Free - with a suggested donation
When: Permanent
Going again: Yes, but when they are older
Similar: Nothing comes to mind

Art Trolley - Tate Britain

The art trolley at Tate Britain provides art material which can be taken into the gallery for children to do their own work based on, or inspired by, what they see. The trolley contains material for drawing and collage along with short introductions to some of the works in the galleries.

So glue, scissors, paper, pipe cleaners, straws and two children in hand we set out to find "Dark landscape" by John Craxton. After talking to D about the picture and what was in it he set to work cutting, gluing and instructing me and friend where to put things. It has to be said that this was by far the most complex picture he has ever produced; how much this was due to discussing Dark landscape and how much this was because we could discuss what he was doing and how he was doing it is, obviously, impossible to say.

B(2) stuck one piece of paper to another piece of paper and tried to eat both pipe cleaners and scissors.

What: Art Trolley
Where: Tate Britain
Cost: Free - suggested donation of £3
When: Saturday's and Sunday's every week
Going again: Yes
Similar: Many art galleries

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Since moving to London the Natural History Museum has been a regular fixture in days out. It is the ultimate temple of D's (3) major obsession (Dinosaurs) and the venue of one of my favourite proud parent stories:

D, standing in the prehistoric swimming reptiles section spots a curator holding a dolphin skull. She crouches down and shows the skull to him, "do you know what this is?" she enquires; "um... I think its an Opthalmosaurus skull" he retorts.

This trip was to see the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. This was aimed directly at adults, the only real attempt to engage children was a scratch-off-the-answers question sheet asking questions about both nature and photography; also all photos were presented at an adult's height requiring any child to be lifted to get a good view. Fortunately I was in a group of four adults to two children so this was not a real problem.

However, with effort to engage D (the love of my life looked after B) he got a lot out of it; even if he did think that a magnificent shot of a crocodile hiding in the water was a dinosucus.

What: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Where: Natural History Museum; map
Cost: Adult £7, Concessions £3.50, under 3 free, family ticket £18
When: Until 27th April
Going next year: probably
Similar:

• Animals
• London Zoo
• London Aquarium
• Horniman Museum
• Photography
• to be added...
  

London Model Enginering Exhibition

Who with little boys could possibly resist such an opportunity! And the number of little boys clearly showed that I was not alone. However, most of the exhibition was more targeted at big boys with many modelling companies and tool manufacturers displaying their wares.

What was available for little boys was reasonably good, D&B both spent a lot of time staring at trains (both and stationary), traction engines (stationary), helicopters (moving) and a hovercraft (moving) and a miniature steam train ride. And for this it was well worth the visit, however, having a show area and a trade area and perhaps some more adventurous demonstrations would have improved the day out immensely.

What: London Model Engineering Exhibition
Where: Alexandra Palace
Cost: Average (Adult £9.50)
When: Jan 2008
Going next year: if there is nothing else on
Similar:

• Various miniature model railways (I'm familiar with the one in Chingford, Waltham Forest, but others exist)
  
• Kew Bridge Steam Museum - Never visited
  
• Science Museum - Many examples of old machines in the permanent "The making of the modern world" including models; most of these are stationary exhibits with no working railway.