nature centre Archives

We went out for the day on Friday, a visit to Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Centre. It’s not very far away and it’s somewhere we’ve been before. I would have liked to have ventured further but Star was adamant that she didn’t want to go out and when she’s like that, forcing her just makes things worse.

The morning was stressful. We’d talked about our day out but she’d changed her mind about going. Not only that but the other two didn’t want to go either. But we managed to persuade them and with the Conservation Centre being local and familiar we got them to agree to go.

We had a little meltdown in the car park but everything changed once we were in there and it turned out to be a lovely day. The sun came out, the animals were playing and the kids had a great time. Sometimes you have to know when it’s worth the effort to persuade an autistic child to do something they don’t want to. It can end in disaster or fun, and this day turned out to be really good.

There was also some new things that we’d not seen before. One was the tree person which I’ve used as my Sunday photo. The other was a playground which the kids really enjoyed. There were also some new animals but I will write more about the things we saw later.

Yes, it doesn’t happen that often does it, sunny days in February I mean. Just last week we had snow, and today it’s raining and miserable, but yesterday the sun was bright and it was fairly warm, just perfect for a trip to the Nature Centre. It also happened to be Dad’s birthday so it was really nice to have a day out together.

We let the Little Man loose from his buggy and all three had a real good run around. The girls were intent on giving names to all the animals they saw. First up were the goats and the ostriches. The Ocelot was beautiful but also very sleepy so we didn’t get to see much of her. There were some gorgeous little monkeys, some with gold fur and some with beards, so very cute (but I did notice how sharp their little teeth were!) Dad took the girls in to see the bugs and Boo came out traumatised by the tarantula…mmmm, guess why Dad took them in and not me? I do like the snakes and lizards though. We managed to fit in a play in the little playground where the kids burnt off their remaining energy. So much so that Star decided she just couldn’t walk to the bus stop, and Little Man slept all the way home.
We can’t wait to go back in the summer with a picnic!

My Family and Other Animals