National Space Centre

Met up with a few families from our HE group at Leicester's National Space Centre a couple of Friday's ago. Met at 11 and after a rather lengthy sorting out of correct entry prices we set off round the first part of the museum set on three small floors which travel up the side of this pretty tall space rocket (Thor). We were all booked into a fabulous "Astronaut" film at 12 noon which Ben was a little dubious about to start with. A little daunting I must say for those not happy with the unknown! A bit like a planatarium inside, the comfy seats are designed to enable you to view the screen which covered the sides and ceiling of the theatre giving you a wonderful experience during the performance. The film was about how to be/what it's like to be an astronaut, which was very well put together and I only had to close my eyes once (in fear of going horribly dizzy) when they showed us some anti-gravity machine which we'd seen before on a James May programme on TV. I know for sure that I certainly haven't got the staminar, brains and probably the guts, to be one of the fortunate few to travel into space.

After the film we grabbed our picnic lunch and were lucky enough to have space in the indoor school's picnic area. The lady on the desk said we'd picked a really good day with only a handful of schools there and they are all small numbers. She said the week before and week after they were having very large numbers of children.

We headed for the rest of the exhibition on the ground floor which was just excellent. Lots to read but also lots of fun and easy interactive areas for everyone to try out. So many great sections, but I loved the solar system, Ben enjoyed sitting inside a pod, turning himself into an alien and also this huge world and I think Katie and her friend enjoyed being weather girls!

Took us a while to get there but I think it was well worth it and I must say the staff at the Centre were really friendly, helpful and happy to please. Before the visit, the staff were quick to answer my many emails about pricing, eating areas, etc., etc., and when they'd got the pricing wrong on the day, they were quick to deal with it and refund families who'd been overcharged.

If you're planning a visit, email them first. We were told that HE families receive school discounts for entry (quite a bit cheaper than normal entry prices) if you show some from of ID. I explained that not all H. Edders belong to an organisation and therefore wouldn't have an ID card and she was happy to continue to offer the same discount. We also used our Tesco vouchers with the school's discount, so it wasn't a pricey day out (apart from the petrol of course!).

Their website's educational section has some really good ideas for fun learning too.