Goblin loves vehicles so we are always on the look out for new places to take him that feed his interests. The other day we took him to Brands Hatch to see some truck racing. It was surprisingly good value. The way the circuit is laid out at Brands Hatch means you can see the racing from all over without being stuck behind crowds of other people.
Given Goblin's sensitivity to noise we wisely brought his ear defenders which he asked for about two seconds into the first race. The races were quite long and while he was interested in watching bits of them, he didn't want to watch every race all the way through. But that was fine because as well as the racing there was a circus skills tent and a big fun fare with dodgems and diggers that the children could drive (these were from Digger land which is quite close by).
Best of all, you could go down to the pits and the paddock where all the racing trucks were parked up. Goblin was able to climb into some of the trucks after their race. And he collected free posters, postcards and sweets from the drivers. We watched some of the racing cars being loaded into two tier trucks using winches. And Goblin inspected some of the cars that had been damaged during racing and had fibreglass body parts taken off exposing their engine. (Grandpa will be so jealous!)
Despite it being a very cold day we stayed for about five hours. Goblin was so tired by the end of the day that he fell asleep on Hublet's shoulders while walking back to the car park. But he woke up in the car and spent the entire journey back excitedly telling us about the various trucks we'd seen. A great day out!
Recently I took Goblin to Bressingham Steam and Gardens. Its over an hours drive away but I planned it so he could nap in the car. He has been hassling me to take him to see steam trains for a while. We normally go to some nearer home but they are only open at the weekends and all our weekends for the foreseeable future appear to be jam packed with activities, so I needed to find somewhere that was open on a school day.
The site is not as large as I'd thought it would be from the pictures on the website. But never the less it boasts an impressive three running narrow gauge railways. It also has three large sheds with full size steam engines and traction engines on display. But Goblin was most impressed by the model railways. In fact he would probably have insisted on doing the hours drive just for these. At one point I wondered if we'd ever make it out of the model railway exhibits and onto any of the trains.
This feeling didn't disappear when Goblin also discovered a little kids playroom with soft play for tiny toddlers and a brio train track for his age group. There is plenty to see without this room and a part of me wondered why I was spending half an hour watching my child play with a brio set in Bressingham when we have one at home. But Goblin seemed to be very excited by it so I let him play. Eventually I managed to convince him to ride one of the trains.
We were the only people on the smallest of the three trains which rides along the side of the beautiful gardens. Goblin and I could see right into the fire box as the driver loaded the coal ready to go. Every half hour the larger narrow gauge also runs. We discovered that this train runs along parallel to a twin steam train and they cross tracks several times giving passengers on both trains the opportunity to take pictures of the other train. Its a great idea and it was really exciting seeing which train woudl arrive at the crossings first. The journey take twenty minutes which was a perfect length for us.
If you are thinking of visiting you might like to know that as well as the trains and gardens there is a playground, a 9 hole crazy golf course and a slightly out of place old fashioned penny arcade with lots of 20p ride on vehicles (like you find in supermarkets). There is also a carousel in the middle of the site which again felt a little bit out of place. The cafe does some nice cooked food and sandwiches but in the day we went there was only one person serving so service was extremely slow which wasn't optimal for a small hungry person. All in all I think we'll visit again, but I wish it was slightly closer and slightly cheaper.
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With the weather improving we've been doing more outdoor outings. Recently we took Goblin to Duxford Imperial War Museum. It is not a cheap day out. Tickets for adults are £17 each. Having said that I hadn't appreciated how enormous Duxford is. You could easily spend an entire day there with hanger after hanger of amazing planes, land vehicles, radar and radio equipment, and informed volunteers on hand to explain stuff enthusiastically.
There are lots of exhibits with buttons and levers so children can interact - although some of them aren't exactly at the right height for little kids. We managed to show Goblin some of the science of aircrafts using fans and control panels.
For older kids this is a wonderful place to learn a bit about WWII, but Goblin is a bit young to be burdened with that so we stuck to the engineering and science side of the learning.
And there are things for the adults to drool over too. Hublet was very excited to find the Blackbird - the fastest manned aircraft and heights flying aircraft ever. Even I was rather impressed by how beautiful its engines were.
The museum hangers sit along side a light aircraft runway. So when you aren't ogling the old planes you can watch the little ones taking off.
As Goblin's vehicle obsession has extended to planes over the past few months this was a pretty perfect day out for us. And the open outdoor space meant he could have a but of a run between hangers so he didn't get too antsy.
I usually try and avoid playing Lego with Goblin. I find it quite frustrating trying to design something with a small person asking every five seconds if its finished and then inevitably breaking it about two seconds after you hand it over. But today Goblin insisted that we make lego boats, and by we he meant me.
So I set to work sifting through our giant box of lego to find some suitably boaty parts. Hublet recently dismantled his Millenium Falcon and that has provided quite a few nifty boat shaped bits and bobs. So I soon managed to piece together a few - complete with jets and propellers as instructed. However Goblin has a rather annoying habit. As soon as you have completed the item he first asked for he requests something even more complicated. And today was no exception. "I'd like a submarine"
Of course you would - *sigh*
Well I have to say I was actually rather excited by my awesome submarine. So much so that I am going to talk you through the highlights: As you can see it has torpedos, and an opening hatch for the men, and the periscope goes up and down and round and round.
In what feels like an ongoing battle between Lego and me, I feel I may have won this round. In your Face lego!
Its Kids Co-op time again - Please link up your kid centred ideas and display the kids co-op badge somewhere on your post or blog. Here is what I will be linking up this week:
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Animal Sensory Play
(Goblin is 32 months)
I recently got some new and excitingly effective food colouring, so I put them to good use making some green play rice and some purple and blue sensory play spaghetti for Goblin. I put out two sensory bins for him to discover in the morning.
The first was an animal safari complete with jaguar, puma, zebra, tapir, giraffe, warthog, crocodile and dear. It also had some safari vehicles that we picked up at the zoo.
Next to it I placed an ocean sensory bin with urchin, star fish, jelly fish, marlin, turtle, octopus and ray.
I thought the bins looked very inviting, but Goblin taught me a very important lesson when he came down in the morning - Never put cars in a sensory bin. Goblin is way too obsessed with vehicles and he picked the four vehicles out of the bins and went off to play with them. The poor sensory bins were left untouched for the rest of the day. Lesson learned.
Its that time again: Time to link up your great ideas and browse through some of the other ideas linked up. And here is what I will be linking up:
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Cardboard Fire engine fun (Goblin is 31 months)
We got a new coffee table last week. When the delivery men left, they offered to take the box with them. Before I had a kid I would have thanked them profusely for taking the litter away with them. But now that I have a child my response is
"ARE YOU CRAZY THAT'S AN AWESOME BOX, NO WAY ARE YOU TAKING THAT, ITS MINE NOW - MY PRECIOUS!"
So I kept my giant box but I didn't have any plans for it. It sat up stairs taking up space until last night when I decided to make it into a fire engine for Goblin. In my usual unplanned way I started painting the box before I'd really thought out how I was going to make it.
Fortunately Hublet was on hand to help. He created a vehicle with a bit more structural integrity than I would have managed on my own. And hurrah for duct tape, and craft foam. The engine even has a steering wheel that actually turns. And you can't see from the pictures but the blue light on the top is painted with sparkly paint so it looks like its flashing.
Of course I had been so busy with the structure of the vehicle that I had forgotten about the accessories a fire engine requires. When Goblin came down in the morning he was delighted. But insisted he needed a hose and ladder. These were duly acquired from the recycling bin and bathroom - a shower that attaches to the taps makes a great hose. He also wanted me to draw buttons on the dash board so he could turn on the lights and siren - Of course! Silly Mummy.
We played in the fire engine all morning, we put out fires and rescued people (he even took one toy to hospital in the fire engine). We climbed the ladder and Mummy had to ride on a small fire engine because I could't fit in the big one. Normally Goblin's favourite imaginary play is fishing. It involves standing still with a stick in your hand talking about fish. Rescuing burning dolls and doing high-speed chases on mini fire engines is slightly more energetic imaginary play than I am used to. Thank goodness Goblin still has naps!
This weekend was Grandpa's birthday (my Dad). He has always been into cars and motor sports so we went to Brooklands Museum "the Birthplace of Britsh Motorsports and Aviation" for a family outing. I didn't know how much there would be for Goblin to do at a museum and I was a little concerned that he'd get bored. I needn't have worried.
The Museum is set out in a series of hangars and buildings. The first one we visited had old planes in it. Granny and Grandpa were fascinated by this really old plane made out of what looked like waxed paper. It was huge and the propeller was positioned behind the seat so it pushed the plane along rather than pulling it. It was a really strange design.
When Grandpa first came to England from India he worked as an apprenticeship building aeroplane engines - one of the ones he worked on can be found in the Science Museum in London (how cool is that!). There were some truly amazing pieces of engineering on display and I was fascinated. Goblin was not so fascinated and ran through the hangar pretty quickly missing some of the more beautiful pieces.
But we did manage to show him this Wellington bomber. Granny remembers these flying over her house in Scotland when she was a child. The one on display crashed into Loch Ness, so it could actually have been one of the ones that flew over her house.
The panelling had been removed to show the skeleton of the aeroplane. It was phenomenal.
Goblin wasn't very interested in the old planes but he did like going inside the modern aeroplanes. He wanted to go in all of them, even the ones that didn't have steps. One of the planes was hilarious. It was donated by the Sultan of Oman and it had a gold velvet covered toilet and double beds with seat belts attached across the bed.
While Granny and Grandpa seemed enthralled by the aviation hangar, Goblin seemed to be more at home in the bus hangar.
Especially when he found a bus drivers seat to play on.
Grandpa seemed to like it too, They played for ages with Grandpa doing the peddles because Goblin couldn't reach.
And finally the bit that Grandpa had been waiting for. We went to see the cars. Goblin got to sit in a Formula one car. I think Grandpa was a bit jealous because he couldn't fit in the seat.
Before going home Goblin and I did a bit of spinning. Despite the fact that I know I get really bad motion sickness in cars, trains, planes and boats, and even feel ill if I go on a roundabout, I somehow concluded that this was a good idea. I was so wrong!
Today is Monday, two days after this spinning activity and I am still suffering from waves of nausea. So my advice would be, if you suffer from motion sickness let your kids spin on their own.
