I had seen this event advertised on social media and it sounded really excited, there’s not that many events at musuems that are usually based around Toddlers, usually it’s aimed at bigger children and toddlers kind of tag along so this was really exciting!!
We arrived and was met by a lovely friendly gentleman at the gate who explained how it was laid out, he gave us a card and a map detailing where all the activities was based on different jobs that are carried at the museum. He showed us on the card that there was a space for the person who was supervising that activity to give it a stamp to say we had helped them do that job, if we ticked them all off we could come back to him and be rewarded with a big sticker, since Haribo is at the age where we are just discovering stickers are very exciting it sounded lots of fun!
Our first activity was to help look for items buried in the sand, Haribo isn’t that keen on sand but as soon as saw that were items buried in it, he enjoyed looking for the different coins and placing them in his box.
Our next job was on the big garden, we had to help pick some items for the cafe and put them on the plate. although Haribo enjoyed finding all the different foods and putting them on the plate, the garden games that were also set out were too much of a distraction.
Helping choose the food for the cafe
He loved the giant Lego bricks and building a tower, also the giant inflatable dice, he kept asking if we could take it home he liked it that much. We also had a little game of croquet, he did quite well at hitting the ball, he was having such a great time! Infact I had great difficulty getting him inside to do the rest of the activities, there’s a lesson for Mummy….don’t go into the big garden until you’ve gone inside the museum!
Our next activity was a security guard, we were given a torch and a badge and we had to see if we could find certain items around the museum. Haribo struggled to focus with this activity as he was more interested in shining the torch but the day was aimed at the under 4’s so maybe those a little but older would have appreciated this activity a little bit more but he still enjoyed shining the torch on objects and we spoke about if it was dark, we could use the torch to see the objects.
Haribo the security guard
We then went to find our next activity which was cleaning, Haribo loves to think he is helping so to give him a brush, he was easily pleased in here and loved to sweep up all the mess. He loved the little vacuum cleaner that they had which is something i’m always happy to encourage, we shall maybe see about putting one of those on his Santa list this year! He refused to take off his security guard badge though!
Cleaning up all the mess
Our last activity was a colour sorting activity, a lady gave him an object that was either yellow, red or green and you had to sort it to the matching tray. Haribo is quite good at his colours and it also gave me the idea to do this with him as a simply activity at home because he did enjoy it and on some of the objects he did struggle so it’s something we can work on at home but still make it a fun activity.
It was a really lovely and well planned activity day, the fact that it was also free was great!
Haribo was very proud when he got his big sticker at the end and if it hadn’t have been so close to Haribo’s naptime I think we would have had lunch in the little coffee shop, but he’d had such a busy time at the museum I didn’t want to push him further because he was already showing signs of being tired.
It’s a lovely museum, that I remember visiting a lot as a child and also during the holidays they often hold free activities for children, I know they have lots planned for the big summer holidays which is fantastic because the summer holidays can be really expensive so it’s lovely to have somewhere to go and spend a few hours that’s free and lots of fun!!
Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid to write this, nor is it an paid advertisement. Just sharing what Haribo and I did.
Toddler takeover at Erewash Museum I had seen this event advertised on social media and it sounded really excited, there's not that many events at musuems that are usually based around Toddlers, usually it's aimed at bigger children and toddlers kind of tag along so this was really exciting!!
