A Gruffalo Experience in Milton Keynes
We love Julia Donaldson books, with the Gruffalo being one of N’s favourite characters. We’ve seen The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child on stage, so when I noticed there was a Gruffalo Experience running this spring at Milton Keynes I decided to take N along.
I presumed it was going to be similar to The Lost Gift, an immersive experience where you met characters as the story was told, and it wasn’t far off.
We arrived having totally mucked up the timings – me thinking our ticket time was 10.45 when actually it was 10-10.45. Oops. Luckily it wasn’t a problem and there was room for us to join the next session. Most of the children were younger than N, although there were a few older ones too. Everyone had been given mouse ‘ears’ to wear, so there wasn’t much getting out of wearing them.
Every went into the deep dark wood and the story teller got to work, telling, singing and acting out the story with input from the children and some help from the characters in The Gruffalo. N did make me laugh though because she got out fox and straight away, N whispered to me behind his hand
‘Mummy, that’s a fox puppet. Ssh, no-one knows, but it is’.
The kids all got to touch each of the animals if they wanted, before heading through the door to hear and watch the story, and then meet the Gruffalo. Volunteers also got to find the specific descriptive pictures of the Gruffalo’s body parts….before the Gruffalo appeared.
The story was then complete, and we were able to move through to a play area to then meet the Gruffalo and have a picture taken with him. Of course N refused to get too close and definitely wasn’t having a photo taken (which saved me a bit of money in not having to buy it afterwards).
The whole Gruffalo Experience probably took only 45 minutes, plus whatever time it took to get your children off the climbing frame and slide afterwards. Our guide and story teller was excellent – really clear to hear, good with the children, and related the story well. For around £8 each, it wasn’t bad value either.
Afterwards we headed off to a couple of shops (it feels like I’ve not been shopping in Milton Keynes for a long time, although it was a little odd and empty on a Sunday) then grabbed some food. It’s all change, with lots of restaurants and coffee shops right by the main Middleton Hall which are new since the last time I went.
N enjoyed himself and while he refused to wear his mouse ears through the experience, he was quite happy wearing them all the way home.
It was nice to do something fairly relaxing and just take things as they come.
Have you been to any similar immersive experiences for children?
Why not take a look at these similar posts:
- Days out ideas in Buckinghamshire
- Christmas at Milton Keynes
- The Grufflo theatre show in London
- Gruffalo’s Child trail in Wendover Woods
We did this last year when they were at Bluewater and Monkey really enjoyed it too. Its good to do something different around such a popular story. Glad that N enjoyed himself 🙂
This looks like so much fun and very reasonably priced. We love her books in our house but my daughter does seem scared of this one. Perhaps she’ll love it the older she gets x
We love the gruffalo!!! This sounds fab and very reasonably priced. That’s great that they let you go in with the next group too. I want to go to Milton Keynes, I’ve heard it’s really great for shopping. x
Oh I love the Gruffalo although I haven’t been to the Gruffalo experience. My little sister would love it!
Sounds like lots of fun, it’s great when they get really involved. My eldest loves the Gruffalo. Thank goodness they let you in the next session, oops!! This reminds me we must do the Gruffalo trail that is not far from us. X
Sounds like a lot of fun! I think my son would’ve found it a bit intimidating when he was younger and we used to read that book a fair bit, but would probably love it now! We’ve not done anything like this, so will have to keep an eye out for anything local! x
What a fun and memorable experience! I love a good hands-on experience for kids, and this looks like it was a lot of fun.
How awesome would this have been! We’re Gruffalo fans here too – we did one of the trails in the Lake District a few years back, and last year they published the Gruffalo in Shetland dialect, which was fun!
T has seen the Gruffalo at the Eden project a year ago, but I think she won’t mind seeing it again, preferably in a different venue of course 😉 My in-laws live in Woburn Sands, every time we visit, we make it a point to visit the malls in MK. After all, we don’t have a single one where we live. I keep forgetting how old is N? I think he’s a year older than T (she’s 5). x
N’s 5 too, back in January.