Eureka for toddlers – visit the National Children’s Museum

I wish they’d had museums like Eureka! when I was growing up. Back then, the emphasis was on education but I’m not sure anyone expected us to be entertained – with the possible exception of the Natural History Museum (because who isn’t entertained by a huge dinosaur skeleton).

Now the emphasis is far more on the interactive, and educating through enjoyment. Never more so than at a museum aimed specifically at children as I discovered checking out Eureka for toddlers.

review visit*

In fact, all the exhibits at The National Children’s Museum, in Halifax, Yorkshire, are designed to inspire children aged 11 and under to learn about themselves and the world.

For ideas of more things to do in Yorkshire with kids, check out my top picks

And as anyone who’s ever had a toddler knows, that means being fascinated by the most everyday of things.

Eureka! has captured this perfectly with its first section, Living and Working together, a mini Town Square with plenty of everyday places to explore – a supermarket (complete with M&S branding), a Post Office, a garage, even a house with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

While the older kids jumped at the chance to operate the car wash and fill up with petrol, Minnie clambered into one car after another.

Next up, some shopping. Frankly this is toddler paradise, with mini trolleys, little baskets, and fake food to put in, take out, rearrange, sort and generally play with. Getting to push the trolley round – while merrily calling ‘sorreee sorreeee’ to anyone she was even vaguely close to – was a definite two-year-old highlight.

For slightly older visitors, you can scan the food and watch ‘money’ being whisked off by pneumatic tube into the ceiling, as well as guessing the item in the look and feel boxes, or learning more about individual ingredients by scanning another code.

It’s a reminder that while trudging round the supermarket endlessly stocking up on essentials is a chore for me, it’s surprisingly interesting for her, especially when there’s no-one to stop her taking everything off the shelves as she pleases.

The same goes for the pretend kitchen. Drawers to open and play with, a mini sink and oven, bowls, more food… it was only the realisation that Minnie needed some actual food which persuaded her to leave.

And that’s just one of the galleries. There’s also SoundSpace, with an alien guide to help discover the science of music, and the SoundGarden, which was great for under-fives, with dress-up animals, a honeycomb to climb in, butterflies to draw and a baby section in a giant garden.

The other special under fives area, Desert Discovery, has a cushion quarry and ball chute for some mock construction – another high point of Eureka for toddlers

Meanwhile the Global Garden is a great mini introduction to the environment, including a game where you pull up vegetables (and one cross gnome, to Minnie’s delight) along with penguins and a soft play igloo.

The latest opening, All About Me, is the biggest of the six galleries – costing £2.9 million, it’s also a blueprint for the future of the rest of the museum’s galleries. This one looks at the human body, everything from height/weight/stride length to teeth, plus a mock dentist chair, skeletons and the workings of your digestion, and a model of the human body with the most sensitive areas blown up larger to create a very odd creature.

Even outside the galleries, there’s endless things to discover. Archimedes intermittently sinking into his bath, a hurricane simulator, an activity room, play equipment outside and a storytelling tent.

According to one member of staff, most visitors spend around three to four hours in the museum. With so much to see and do, I can only assume that, as with our visit, it only ends when the smallest visitors are too worn out to explore any further.

Eureka for toddlers: Need to know

Tickets cost £16.95 for adults and children aged three or above, £7.45 for ages one to two. Under that age, entry is free. Admission automatically gets you an annual pass to Eureka, so you can return as many times as you want.

Eureka opening times are based on local school terms, so it’s worth double-checking on the site, but the museum is open 10am to 5pm daily during holidays and bank holidays, as well as at weekends in term time, plus 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday during term time. If you’re visiting during the holidays or on rainy days, Eureka! has tips on avoiding busy periods, especially February and October half-term.

There is a café with kids’ meals and some much more adult-friendly options, as well as endless high chairs – warning, you do have to walk past the edge of the shop (and on the way out), so allow extra time to tow fascinated toddlers away from the toys.

There are also several places indoors and out where you can have your own food, also with high chairs. No alcohol and no smoking anywhere on the site, including e-cigarettes.

There’s space for buggies to be left outside various galleries, baby changing and child toilets (as well as adult ones).

Car parking costs from £3.60 for three hours. There are brown signs for Eureka,Halifax, around the city but for an added point of direction, the museum is right next to the train station. Surprisingly we struggled to get phone data for maps or a satellite signal for satnav, so if you don’t know the city, it’s worth checking your route.

For more ideas of things to do in Yorkshire with toddlers and young children, check out our visit to the Room on the Broom trail as well as to Nostell Priory. Or for more child-friendly science museums in the UK, check out my tips for visiting the science museum in London as well as Glasgow Science Centre with toddlers and Bristol’s We The Curious

Disclosure: Our tickets were courtesy of the museum. All opinions about visiting Eureka with toddlers and terrible sense of direction are my own.

All images copyright MummyTravels

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