Brockwell Park is one of London’s essential green lungs and part of the cornerstone of the Brixton/Herne Hill area. After your kids have raced through the park, tried out the BMX track and the brilliant lido, climb the hill to the community greenhouses at Brockwell Park, where unsupervised activities include an earth kitchen, soundtrack, orchard , vegetable and herb gardens and ferns. ravine. During the school holidays, there are children’s workshops on everything from twig weaving to berry ink writing (October half-term sessions include Bonkers on the Birds and Luscious Leaves – Why Do They Fall? for 6 to 10 year olds). Or go for Story Stompers, where preschoolers are invited to enjoy storytelling sessions and let the garden inspire them to create.
Free admission to the community greenhouses; other events from £4, brockwellgreenhouses.org.uk
Rock splitting at the National Slate Museum, Snowdonia
Carwyn Price looks too young to have more than 30 years as a career, but that’s because he started when he was 15. Today he works at the National Slate Museum, part of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales), demonstrating slate splitting by hand and answering questions about life in the quarries of North Wales . The museum sits just below the Dinorwic quarry, where former workshops and cottages tell the story of life during the slate industry, from the heyday of the 1860s to the collapse of industry in the 1970s. The whole site gives the impression that the engineers and quarrymen have just knocked down their tools for the day, and that former workers organize all the demonstrations. It’s about as interactive as the story gets.
Free, museum.wales
Fossil hunting in Whitby, North Yorkshire
You’d be hard pressed to find a more atmospheric beach for fossil hunting than Whitby: set at the base of looming cliffs, beneath the towering ruins of the Abbey and steeped in the gothic spirit of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Children’s excitement will already be heightened when they meet Will Watts, geologist and founder of Hidden Horizons. He’s the perfect blend of education and hands-on fun, having kids chase down gray sedimentary rock with a telltale fault line that marks an ammonite, cracking it open with his hammer to tell them they’re the first being. alive to see this. creature in 185 million years! Fossil hunting is much better in winter, when stormy seas bring more rocks. And Hidden Horizons also has a fossil store 40 miles south of Scarborough.
Two hour fossil hunting session adult £15, child £10, hiddenhorizons.co.uk
In search of food Braemar, Cairngorms
Forager and medical herbalist Natasha Lloyd and her dog Rosie meet families in the lobby of Braemar’s Fife Arms for a foraging adventure. They start with first principles: never take more than a third of a patch and never eat anything that you are not 100% sure is edible. Autumn means berries, fruits and mushrooms. Lloyd teaches all about the Mycelial Network – the mind-expanding communication of fungi, trees and plants. At the end of the visit, she brings out her range of wild homemade condiments, including strawberries marinated in apple cider vinegar – a big daring game for children’s palates.
Two-hour foraging walk: £90 adult, £45 child, gatheringnature.com
Street art tour, Bristol
Proudly Bristolian and part of its famous street art movement for decades, John Nation is an excellent guide to Bristol’s most ornate streets. Two-hour walking tours start at City Hall, opposite Banksy’s Well Hung Lover. The monochrome stenciled image of a naked man hanging from a window was illegally sprayed in broad daylight while Banksy was dressed as a decorator. Nudity and illegality are a good hook for those who are worried about the attention span of the youngest. But the fun doesn’t stop there: beyond Banksy, the tour winds past the dizzying murals of Nelson Street, through a centuries-old archway adorned with Andy Council’s fantastical figures, and into Stokes Croft, where color and creativity burst from every crevice.
From £7.50, wherethewall.com
Egg tempera The painting, Peak District
Although she is a world expert in folk art, she almost single-handedly revived the tradition of bonad painting (traditional painting with egg yolk and pigment) in Sweden and has won several awards , Sue Prince is all about accessibility and fun. Her studio and gallery are in a converted stable at Beechenhill Farm – an unspoiled Peak District plot a few miles from Ilam on which she has lived and farmed for most of her adult life. A natural with children, both pragmatic and kind, Prince leads egg tempera painting workshops that focus as much on making paint and telling a story through an image as on painting. herself.
Family workshops on request, sueprinceartist.co.uk
Ornithological safari in Elmley Nature Reserve, Kent
Elmley Nature Reserve is one of only three family nature reserves in the UK, occupying an alluring and wildlife-rich slice of the Isle of Sheppey. Abbie Burrows has been birdwatching here since she was a child, and now, thanks to Elmley’s mission to make nature accessible to everyone, she shares her passion with visitors. Wildlife tours are done on foot or in the reserve’s Land Rover, and whether you’re admiring swamp frogs, lapwings or long-eared owls, Abbie’s enthusiasm will appeal to all ages. Although there is something to see all year round, it is a particularly good place to admire the wintering birds: between October and February, wild birds and wading birds will number in the tens of thousands on the adjacent estuary of Swale.
From £6 elmleynaturereserve.co.uk
Pottery in the Malverns
Jon Williams and his partner Sarah Monk combine 50 years of potting experience in their bucolic studio on the grounds of Eastnor Castle at the foot of the Malvern Hills. Despite their impressive credentials, there isn’t an ounce of creative intimidation: At a half-day pottery class for families, clutter and imagination are welcome. Sessions are usually seasonally themed, but the weird and wonderful are heavily encouraged, from worm-invested fruit at harvest to spooky aliens on Halloween. After the tactile pleasure of shaping creations, everyone gets to paint before the masterpieces are put in the oven and eagerly awaited in the mail.
From £25, eastnorpottery.co.uk
Train back in time with the History Whisperer, Liverpool
The voice and a projected image of 12-year-old Livia, a fictional character based on archival excerpts, invite visitors to follow her through Liverpool’s famous St. George’s Hall as it would have looked at the end of the 19th century . The result is a wonderfully challenging and, at times, oddly immersive journey into the darker side of neoclassical building grandeur – the prison cells and courts that sent many desperate Liverpudlians to penal colonies in Australia for stealing food for their families. Although some of the content, including death and disease, is heavy for young children, the interactive nature of the experience means visitors can choose what to dwell on.
From £4, stgeorgeshallliverpool.co.uk
Stargazing in the Valleys, Brecon Beacons
According to Dark Sky Wales founder Allan Trow, children are always the quickest to ask his favorite question: “Are we watching aliens right now?”. That’s why he loves to welcome families on his stargazing tours at the Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre. Now a trained astronomer, Trow fell into the hobby while waiting for his uncle’s carrier pigeons to return to his child’s home a few miles away. A passionate advocate of the importance of dark skies, not only for astronomy, but also for nature and our sanity, his tours are full of intrigue, from constellation myths and legends to tales of epic observing experiences. stars.
From £25, two hour sessions, darkskywalestrainingservices.co.uk
