The Science Museum in South Kensington is one of my favourites to visit with kids. I have been taking my son there since he was 2, but now that he has reached the age where he can experience and most importantly understand the interactive exhibits our visits to the museum are much more fun. When he was younger we would visit the galleries and he was attracted by the colours and the fact there was a lot of touching and moving exhibits as well as interesting noises, but we mainly visited the Garden section in the basement. The Garden is a gallery specifically designed for 3-6 year olds to experience science by playing in a multi-sensory environment. Young children experience playing with water, construction toys, sound, shadows and reflections. This area is always very busy with kids having fun; the museum staffs are very friendly and available to answer questions and join in the games.

Apart from the very interesting permanent exhibits the Science Museum runs a lot of fun and educational events and exhibitions for the various age groups. Some events have a limited amount of openings as they take place on specific days and are very popular like the Science Night Sleepover, which is already sold out, others are free events taking place everyday during museum hours and do need reservations.

A full list of events is available on the Science Museum’s website. Amongst the great selection I particularly like the Orchard Days event at the Challenge of Materials gallery, which is a 20 minute interactive story telling aimed at educating children to save the environment by choosing natural materials. Kids meet drama characters, who take them on an adventure through the world of materials. The children have to help Bogbean the Fairy and her friends who live in the trees to stop the humans from cutting the trees in the orchard whilst learning how to use the materials from the natural world without ruining the environment.