Wonderful Wetland Centre

I have recently fallen in love with Barnes. My aunt has lived there as long as I can remember but I have only just ventured out of her house to see the gorgeous surrounding area. It is really close to where I live and I thought that the Wetland Centre would be a lovely outing with the duck-loving toddler. Now growing up I had to do more than my fair share of bird-watching as my Dad was a big fan. I love wildlife and have a strong interest in natural history, I'm sure encouraged by my Dad's enthusiasm but a bird-watcher I am not. But I am enjoying sharing all the new discoveries my little one is making. The WWT centre is brilliant for this -it really is a zoo for ducks (and other bird-life) so it is really easier to negotiate. The birds are all in plain view and you don't feel the need to constantly shush the little ones. It is completely push-chair friendly and there is massive of free parking.

We had a really lovely day, and the little one enjoyed the children's activity room, we are still too small for Explore, the outdoor learning area. I will absolutely go again but I do have a couple of tiny thoughts....

1. It is quite expensive- it was near enough £10 for the day (and this is with the toddler being free at the minute), having said that to join for a year is £36 which works out really reasonable so if I go again I will join, you can reclaim the money of a visit from the membership if done within 30 days.
2. This one is probably my own issue as I have come to realise I am a play snob. The children's room is fun and as I said my little one loved it but... to me it felt a bit like walking into a fairground, yes the activities were sort of linked to ecological things but I'm pretty sure most of that was lost on the kids. I think for such a lovely place this area could have been a bit more low key and allowed the children some more hands on activities with natural objects and problem solving. Kids enjoy those opportunities just as much as the more fairground game activities.

But overall I did love it and I love having outside places to take my son, I also noticed they run quite a lot of family activities which I am looking forward to checking out.
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