Visiting @Bristol, At Bristol!

'At Bristol' is a great city centre science museum perfect for a family day out. We spent the later part of an afternoon here recently and thought we'd share with you what we thought!

The museum is over 2 floors and is well spaced to allow easy access for prams and wheelchairs. The exhibits are all hands-on; so much in that it was difficult to decide where to start! When you buy your tickets, you receive a wristband which you can scan on various exhibits as you go along and then by visiting the 'At Bristol' website from home, you can download your results and 'experimental findings'!

Our favourite part of the museum that we saw was the human body area. There's lots of different experiments to take part in - everything from hearing and smell to bones, muscles and energy!

There's also motion and physics displays showing how pulleys work and problem-solving, for example transferring kinetic energy to light energy. I've always loved science and my children seem to be taking after me in that way! They were really interested in everything that we saw and we will definitely return to see the remaining exhibits that we didn't have time to explore.

My daughter especially liked reading the weather forecast using the auto cue and 'blue screen'. There are also different activities at various times throughout the year - live Science shows and 'Spring Alive' are running at the moment so keep an eye on their website for up to date information.

Just one tip - we arrived late on in the afternoon and purchased a late entry ticket (available 1 hour and a half before closing) - this didn't give us enough time to see EVERYTHING but saved us about £8 per adult and £5 per child (approx. £34 for our family!) so I'd recommend either arriving as early as you can to see everything in one go or if you only have a short amount of time to spare, arrive 1 1/2 hours before they close. There's no mention of this discount anywhere that we could see in the reception/booking area so make sure you ask!

Also, if you Gift Aid your tickets, you receive vouchers to spend in the gift shop - a win/win situation! There are lots of different things to choose from, ranging from pencils and rulers up to larger items and toys/science kits. 

Overall, this was a great afternoon out in a great part of Bristol - why not visit if you're in the area? You'll be amazed at what you will learn!

You can keep in touch with them via Facebook here or Twitter here for regular updates and fun!

Half term fun at Danger Point, Talacre, North Wales

Over the last half term, we were lucky enough to win tickets to a great new style 'museum' on the North Wales coast. Danger Point is a state of the art, interactive learning centre for children (and adults!) of all ages. The centre was previously just used for educational group visits but has more recently opened it's doors to the general public.

 

Without giving too much away, you are firstly introduced to K-Os, a naughty little gremlin who LOVES to get himself into trouble and often gets up to some pretty dangerous activities. You can then 'follow' him around the exhibition as he leads you through the dangers of everyday life!

If you are visiting with a group, Danger Point can tailor your visit to what you and your group want to get out of it. For example, schools can have before and after sessions to track the increase in knowledge of the pupils and uniformed groups (Brownies, Cubs, etc.) can follow the syllabus of one of their interest or challenge badges. For individual visits, you get a clipboard and activity pack to work through as you travel around.

Teaching children about the often hidden dangers of life can be difficult as sometimes, I feel that they don't actually believe you that something bad could happen and you are just being a mean parent by not letting them have some 'fun'! At Danger Point the risks are shown to the children but in a measured and safe way. There were actually a couple of times that my youngest (6) was a little bit scared but with reassurance, he was OK but it did make him understand that there are dangers out there in the big wide world. Sometimes, a bit of controlled fear is a good thing as it really brings the danger and/or risk to life!

My daughter (9) loved all of the exhibitions within the centre, but her favourite was definitely The Co-Operative checkout! We felt that all of the sections were relevant to our lives, from the kitchen safety though to the beach and sea safety.

For me as a parent, the most useful part of the exhibition was the digital safety area. With so many children now fully proficient in the use of laptops, iPad's and other digital online gadgets, digital risks are now amongst the most dangerous and it certainly makes me as a parent stop and think about online safety. The way Danger Point explains these risks to the children is done in an excellent way. Using an online computer game as an example, they show how strangers can hide behind a 'friendly' character who quickly becomes your 'best online friend' and can lead you into real-life danger!

I would definitely recommend paying them a visit - we were there for a couple of hours so it was a lovely afternoon out. One good point was that there's no hard sell at the gift shop! This may sound a bit silly, but the gift shop is really quite small, situated near to the welcome desk. There's a nice selection of pencils, pens, stickers etc. but nothing extravagant that makes you feel that you HAVE to buy something!

Pop over to Danger Point's Facebook page here and you can also keep up with K-os and his friends here on Twitter. Why not have a little explore of their website too - there are links to useful resources covering all the different aspects of safety in everyday life.

If you do visit, make sure you say hello to K-Os for me!

Around the world in 80 animals! Britain's Best Days Out - Chester Zoo!

When we applied for the opportunity to review a family day out we were thrilled to receive a family ticket for Chester Zoo, courtesy of MoneySupermarket.  MoneySupermarket have a great section of their website "MoneySupermarket Days Out Discounts" with money-off vouchers and days out vouchers for some great family days out!

I would definitely recommend having a good look around the Chester Zoo website before your visit - there are lots of things to find out, maps and quizzes to download.  You an also make use of the clever webcams to have a spy at the animals before and after your visit.

Once you are there, there's 110 acres of award-winning gardens to explore, and over 8,000 animals to discover. (Yes – 8,000!)  My daughter thought that it would be a challenge to count them all... but lost count (read - distracted!) once she spotted the cute baby giraffe!  I'm sure she would have been a great help(!) to the staff as we visited on their annual "stock-take" of the animals at the zoo!

The animals include more than 400 species of rare, exotic and endangered wildlife.  The enclosures are cleverly designed to provide great experiences for the visitors (little legs as well!) but also providing the best possible animal welfare.  I especially liked the low-level viewing windows, so that wheelchair users, toddlers in pushchairs or "little-legs" like my 5 year old can see everything without having to be picked up.  And to be honest, often the view of the animals is better from their level!  So I spent part of the time crouching down to get a child's eye view of things!

The enclosures are cleverly designed with minimal high fencing, using water moats and low-level perspex sheets instead so most of the animals do not look as though they are "contained".  It makes the zoo have a very happy feeling about it and you really can get close to the animals.

Throughout the zoo, there are simple but educational plaques for you to learn a little about the animals you can see.  As my youngest (5) loves looking at maps and globes, his latest future job role ambition is to be an "aeroplane-driver" *read pilot!*.  So whilst we were at the zoo, we kept a track of where the animals were originally from and then plotted them on Google Maps when we returned home to see how far we had "traveled" during our trip to the zoo.  Any guesses how far...???



View Larger Map

Well, we actually traveled 46635 miles!  From aardvark to zebra and 78 other species in between, we saw them all!

We took hundreds of  photographs whilst we were there... here's just a few of the best ones!

But Chester Zoo is not just a zoo, they also have acres of award-winning gardens, where you’ll find all sorts of plants from around the world, reflecting some very exotic species in our natural habitats.

And, as you can never guarantee the weather... they have a great Wet Weather Trail helping you to plan your visit.  With the help of this rainy day guide, your visit will be just as fun and animal-packed!  The route is put together to avoid the wettest weather whilst not missing out on the animal attractions that you came to visit.  The weather was fine for our visit (by some amazing stroke of luck, we didn't get rained on at all!) but there are plenty of shelters and exhibition areas/viewing platforms under cover so the rain would definitely not spoil your day out.

 There are great views of the monkeys and gibbons from a large indoor viewing area - Realm of the Red Ape... we even spotted a little monkey looking at the other monkeys!

Throughout the day we chatted to different members of staff in different areas, all very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their work.  The staff in "Guest Services" are also very helpful - here you can hire pushchairs for the day, a single one is £6 for the day and a double pushchair is just £10 (with a £10 refundable deposit for each pushchair required).  As I no longer have a pushchair-sized child *sad face* we left our picnic in the car so that we didn't have to carry it around with us - this is not a problem at Chester Zoo!  They will gladly stamp your hand with a return entry stamp so that you can pop to the car for any essentials you need and then you can return with your picnic and eat it at one of the many picnic areas within the zoo.  They even provide an indoor Picnic Room especially for visitors with their own picnics.  So, we got takeaway coffee from the cafe and enjoyed our picnic in the partial sunshine!

And a little bit of "housekeeping" reviewing... there are plenty of toilets dotted around the zoo - clean and well-stocked with the essentials!  And also a good number of small play park areas for the adults to rest their legs whilst the children run wild for a while!

As this trip was a surprise for my children, we didn't get the opportunity to sing this on the way there... but the adapted version "We've been to the zoo zoo zoo...." was definitely ringing out from our car windows!

And here's my favourite photo from the day...

Defintely one for the wall...!

*Disclaimer - we were sent a family ticket from MoneySupermarket for the purpose of reviewing the family attraction, Chester Zoo.