Natural History Museum memories
There are parts of your childhood that stay ingrained in your brain - the massive dinosaur in the reception of the Natural History Museum is definitely one of them for me.
I was so, so excited to take Alfie there recently as part of his home education, and all the way there I was telling him about this amazing display as you walk into the building, got him all excited and buzzed for it, to arrive and for it not to be there.
"Erm, where is the dinosaur, mum?" He said.
I had absolutely no idea. A member of staff overheard and told us it had been moved down to Coventry. It felt like a real shame to be honest.
We spent a whole day there with another home ed family and I was quite taken aback by how modern it all is now - moving from wooden displays to technical ones. It feels like it takes away a little from the fact it's a history museum.
You used to be able to really indulge in the history, to almost take yourself back in time and be there in the moment. It was immersion and felt somewhat real. It's all very clinical these days, which is great I'm sure for health and safety, and for cleanliness and ease of access, but there's a part of me very sad it's so different to how it used to be.
Like all things though, I guess it's adapting and changing and moving forward, what used to be becoming another part of history.
That being said we did have a lovely day there, there was lots to see and do, and so much to learn.
From exciting exhibitions to world famous dino displays... learn about fossils, bones, marine reptiles and human evolution. There's the animal kingdom where you can be amongst the history of mammals, birds, even creepy crawlies. As if all the animals - prehistoric, historic and present - weren't enough, there are also displays and exhibitions about the Earth itself. It's natural history, minerals, the environment.
There is a lot to take in and it's definitely worth setting aside a good amount of time to visit, if you do decide to go.
Despite missing the giant dino display, it's definitely a place I'd revisit. You can come away having learned something different from there each time.
Visiting the museum is actually free entry, which is an added bonus. You can get your free entry ticket here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit.html I highly recommend booking your free tickets in advance, as the queue for general entry was very long, and as we had advance booking we walked straight through.