Our Trip to the Natural History Museum!!

[Lady Haha]

Well, what a day!!! Didn't get home til nearly 10pm!!!! But it was sooooo good!!!

All the three mindees were on time this morning at 8am and off we set for the coach! We got to London at 11.30am and I nearly fainted when I saw the queues for the museum!!!! We had to queue for an hour and a half to get in!!! So we had our packed lunch in the queue!

Inside the museum it was absolutely crammed, but we did see lots! We had to queue again to go into the dinosaur gallery, but it was sooo worth it! The kids had such a great time and I think they will remember it for the rest of their lives! We trekked to Burger King after for a cheap tea! 5.30pm we were back on the coach and on our way back to Bristol, but the traffic getting out of London was a nightmare! It took us til 7pm just to get to the motorway! Then the driver decided it might be nice to stop at Reading Services, so that was another half an hour! Four hours of overtired, hyper kids on a coach is not ideal!!! But they were really well behaved for the most part.

A lady on the coach asked how many kid I had with me, so I explained I was a childminder and she said 'wow, taking them to London, thats so nice! I think I might nominate you for childminder of the year!':blush: Shame she didn't take my name, so she could actually do it!

Got back to Bristol at 9.15pm and dropped mindees home one at a time, apologising for the hour to each mum, but they were all fine about it! I had been texting them all day at regular intervals to let them know what was going on.

I just feel on such a high, cos it was such a big undertaking for me to actually do this trip and apart from the long journey home, it went soooo well!!!

Just had to share! Have same mindees tomorrow and we are off to cinema in the morning, whats the betting we ALL fall asleep during the film!:laughing:

[mama2three]

wow , sounds wonderful - and i bet youll all be talking about it and linking things to it for months to come. Lucky kids to have such a great cm!

[LOOPYLISA]

Sounds like you had a fantastic day, well done, braver than i would of been x :clapping:

[emmadines]

Well, what a day!!! Didn't get home til nearly 10pm!!!! But it was sooooo good!!!

All the three mindees were on time this morning at 8am and off we set for the coach! We got to London at 11.30am and I nearly fainted when I saw the queues for the museum!!!! We had to queue for an hour and a half to get in!!! So we had our packed lunch in the queue!

Inside the museum it was absolutely crammed, but we did see lots! We had to queue again to go into the dinosaur gallery, but it was sooo worth it! The kids had such a great time and I think they will remember it for the rest of their lives! We trekked to Burger King after for a cheap tea! 5.30pm we were back on the coach and on our way back to Bristol, but the traffic getting out of London was a nightmare! It took us til 7pm just to get to the motorway! Then the driver decided it might be nice to stop at Reading Services, so that was another half an hour! Four hours of overtired, hyper kids on a coach is not ideal!!! But they were really well behaved for the most part.

A lady on the coach asked how many kid I had with me, so I explained I was a childminder and she said 'wow, taking them to London, thats so nice! I think I might nominate you for childminder of the year!':blush: Shame she didn't take my name, so she could actually do it!

Got back to Bristol at 9.15pm and dropped mindees home one at a time, apologising for the hour to each mum, but they were all fine about it! I had been texting them all day at regular intervals to let them know what was going on.

I just feel on such a high, cos it was such a big undertaking for me to actually do this trip and apart from the long journey home, it went soooo well!!!

Just had to share! Have same mindees tomorrow and we are off to cinema in the morning, whats the betting we ALL fall asleep during the film!:laughing:

we popped in there before our visit to great ormand street for my son, we gave up straight away as we wouldnt have enough time to look around after the q :(

[Lady Haha]

we popped in there before our visit to great ormand street for my son, we gave up straight away as we wouldnt have enough time to look around after the q :(

To be honest, we could have done with more time, could have seen alot more, but after coming all the way from Bristol, we weren't going anywhere!!!

I saw a few people in the queue giving up and walking off though!

[emmadines]

To be honest, we could have done with more time, could have seen alot more, but after coming all the way from Bristol, we weren't going anywhere!!!

I saw a few people in the queue giving up and walking off though!

lol might have been us (you weren carrying a light weight buggy on ur sholder were you lol)

[Lady Haha]

lol might have been us (you weren carrying a light weight buggy on ur sholder were you lol)

No:laughing:

My mindees were aged 9, 8 and 5 and my own son who is also 8. I wouldve been the one with the four bright yellow kids!!!! :laughing: :laughing:

[emmadines]

No:laughing:

My mindees were aged 9, 8 and 5 and my own son who is also 8. I wouldve been the one with the four bright yellow kids!!!! :laughing: :laughing:

thats ok then :laughing: ....... coz I gave her what for after almost (a very close almost) hitting my 8 year old in the head with it..... :angry:

[Roseolivia]

Sounds like you all had a good day.

[TheBTeam]

Well done to you! Sounds like you had a brilliant time, we have been to Chessington with older mindee and had a great time.:laughing:

[venus89]

Well done you - but I don't envy you. We went to the V&A yesterday and walked past enormous queues for the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum (that was definately the worst). The underground was horrendous. I think the weather drove everyone to the museums yesterday.... Never again in half term :panic: (V&A was lovely once we battled throught he people going to the other museums though)

[amanda1309]

sounds like you had a great day.

[louise]

I'm glad we chose th science museum yesterday(we could of all met). We got there about 11.00 and the que was in the tunnel but i knew it moved quickly as in may half term it was round the corner. We only waited 10 mins probably. We had already planned what bits we wanted to do. We had to que for launchpad about 15 mins. We had nearly done it all when they had to evacuate the building(1.30ish). I asked if my ds, brother and sister wanted to wait or go and grab some lunch they decided on lunch. We never found out why.
Like i said we went in may half term last year but it wasn't anywhere near as busy. We didnt have to que for launchpad then. Does May half term differ in areas?

Well done for taking them all. I was worn out and i was home by 6 so you deserve a medal.

[wellybelly]

Well done you! I can't beleive how long you waited to get in!

[Polly2]

Well done thats fantastic - what a brill cm you are I would have stressed too much to do something like that :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Lady Haha]

Aww, thanks everyone! I am absolutely shattered today though! I dozed off in the cinema earlier!:blush:

I bought an excavation dinosaur kit a while back and have been saving it for an emergency activity and today it was well needed! Same three mindees and my son again spent over two hours quietly chipping away at this huge block of plaster......heaven!

I forgot to say yesterday, there is always one isn't there!! Mum I mean! I had sent detailed letters out asking for permission from mums for this trip last month and got them all back signed. In the letter I specifically said that we would not be back til around 8pm, but I would drop them home.

At end of Jan, I sent out the newsletters as normal and attached extra sheets for these mindees mums detailing times they had to be here, when we would be doing what, dinner, etc and what time I would be bringing them home.

Good as gold, there's me sending out the regular texts as I had promised and at 4pm I sent a text saying 'off to Burger King now' and half an hour later I get a text from one mum saying 'Will you home at normal time?'.......meaning 6pm.

Shows she didn't read ANY of the stuff I gave her about the trip!!! I had to ring her and say, 'um, no, we will be back around 8ish and I'll be dropping X back to you, it was in the newsletter!'

Turned out to be nearer 10pm, but then that wasn't my fault!

This mum did the same thing last year the Friday before my hol at end of August. I mentioned somethign about the holiday (which I had told parents about in JANUARY as well as quick reminders at the bottom of every newsletter) and she looked panicked and said 'Is it next week you're on holiday?'......

Maybe, just maybe, she will start reading her newsletters now!!!

[Tatjana]

I take my hat off to you! You must be shattered.

I live in London so am lucky that we can get there really early to beat the queues and the crowds, but it's still tiring and making sure the kids are safe all the time especially on public transport. We're normally back by mid afternoon and all very tired so can only imagine how tired you all were!

xx