A trip out - Centre for Life

We have annual passes for the Centre for Life in Newcastle but haven't visited for several weeks so we were really looking forward to going with a friend today. It didn't disappoint - we all had a great time. I like the large open space here now Harry is old enough to have earned some freedom to be out of my sight sometimes and there is plenty of room to move between the exhibits. 

We went to a science theatre show called 'do try this at home', where we were shown how to make a balloon hovercraft and great noises using a slinky spring. The presenter talked about the principles of friction and air pressure too whilst demonstrating how to turn a vacuum cleaner into a very large pea shooter!

The curiosity zone exhibits were very popular. Peter experimented on the wind table to see which items blew into the air

The magnet towers - Harry made a 'bread machine' with different colours supplying the bread ingredients

The spinning wheels

Large wind tubes blowing coloured scarves into the air

And we also got busy in the under 7's play area with some cooking, jenga and soft play (even some writing by Harry as he took my order!).

There was also a Chinese Dragon craft which we all did on the way out, so I will include that with our Chinese New Year activities. It was very windy on the way back to the car and the paper dragon blew into the road - a kind man came to its rescue and returned it. The science of the day had obviously rubbed off on Harry as he said 'if my dragon had been made out of metal it wouldn't have blown away as it would have been too heavy'.

A thoroughly tiring but lovely, fun and engaging day! Peter fell asleep on the short drive home but it was already 3.30pm so he had to manage without much of a nap today.