Family Fun: Kendal Museum

Today we were in search of family fun on a shoestring and went for our first visit to Kendal Museum as entry is free and we only had to stump up a £1 for an hour's parking (with hindsight 2 hours parking would have been better!). It's only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so there is a limited chance to get in but its worth it.

When we got in another child was asking about quizzes so I paid 10p for each child to have an age appropriate quiz. For my 4 year old it was to spot the objects matching the silhouette and for my 7 year old solve the hieroglyphics and find the objects mentioned in the museum. Both of these took us through all the various rooms in the museum with very keen children.

The museum has a great mix of Kendal/Cumbrian history back to pre-history, natural history and currently an exhibition on the Egyptian excavations of John Garstang. There are also a couple of exhibitions (1 art and one natural history) centred around the dodo:

These are designed to make you think about extinction and what we can do to prevent more animals becoming extinct. I would love to go around without my children to read more about the exhibits!

The museum has a very hands on approach to history and encourages children to try things and get involved. Both of them enjoyed trying out the rock xylophone and having a go at being mini archaeologists:

All in all a fab and incredibly cheap way to spend a couple of hours as a family. We will be back and next time will allow more time to explore. The children were proud of their Kendal museum badges they got for completing their quizzes and I'm sure they will be happy to have a go at another one next time.

Having had a quick browse of their web site whilst writing this they also offer adult education evening classes and a children's astronomy club. A great local resource so we need to use it (and make some voluntary donations/spend in the shop) to keep it free).