V&A Museum of Childhood - Touring Tuesay

We took full advantage of the sunshine on Sunday morning.  The kids were happy to get moving once they found out where we were headed - The V&A Museum of Childhood.  I was surprised to know that we had to travel out to Bethnel Green (almost to all the way to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), as the original V&A (Victoria & Albert) is at South Kensington.  Hey, the sun was shining so we had no worries.

The museum is an easy two block walk from the Bethnel Green Underground Station.  On our way in I made sure to warn Youngest Kiddo that the museum had toys he could not play with.  I can only imagine the fits kids can have when they cannot touch the beloved toys behind glass.  The display in the museum's foyer related to toys in school.  A teacher/artist made a collage of the contraband he collected from his students over the years.  As his charges grew, so did their contraband.  Kids bring the darndest things to school.  

I liked seeing toys I had as a kid.  

Tenderheart & Birthday Carebear

It was also fun to see the "technologically advanced" computer-based toys.  Do you remember if your computer games ran off of cassette tapes?

Smartly, there were areas of toys for the kids to actually play with; it kept Youngest Kiddo entertained while the rest of us walked around the exhibits.  A few exhibits ran with a 20 pence coin, and it that was well worth it to watch the trains run through the model city.  

Oldest Kiddo at a big Wooly Willy table

Until March, the Museum of Childhood has a War Games exhibit.  We could see toy soldiers and different war-themed board games.  

The whole family enjoyed our visit to The Museum of Childhood.  We fully toured the exhibits in about an hour.  It has a cafe in the center for a quick sandwich or coffee.  Other than that, there is not much around the museum so we walked back to the Underground and rode to Stratford for lunch at the Westfield Mall.  

V&A Museum of Childhood

Admission: Free!

Nearest Underground: Bethnal Green (Central Line)