School holidays can hit your wallet hard. A family trip to the cinema can set you back almost a hundred pounds when you factor in tickets, sweets, lunch, parking or train tickets! Do something different and cheap with your kids this Easter break, here are a few suggestions that are under £10:
The National Trust website has listings of country-wide Easter weekend events. Find something to suit all your kids, from egg and bonnet decorating to parades and live chick’n’bunny petting activities.
Explore the sensory world of butterflies and see live butterflies fluttering around you in the beautiful, outdoor butterfly house at the Natural History Museum (£3.50 excluding donation – children under 3 free).
Take advantage of the weather (22 degrees forecast in London for Easter weekend!) with a visit to one of London’s major parks (free).
Take part in the Easter egg hunt at Valentines Mansion and Gardens (Essex IG1); follow the nature trail around Valentines Park and see if you can find the Easter Bunny and chocolate eggs on Tuesday 19 April (£3 per child).
Take the brood out to Kentish Town City Farm (NW5), where you can see lambs, goats and chicks. Children, young people and adults are actively encouraged to participate in all aspects of animal care, from mucking out to helping with feeds and site maintenance (Admission is free, donations welcome).
Visit the Science Museum (SW7), where kids can investigate science in hands-on galleries, discover famous objects and see amazing effects in the IMAX 3D Cinema and motion simulator rides (admission free, excl. IMAX and specialist exhibitions).
Take a trip down memory lane with your kids and visit BFI Southbank (SE1 ).To mark the release of Disney’s 50th animated feature, the BFI and Disney have entered into a unique partnership to present to our audience the complete works, chronologically, over an entire year, this month Alice in Wonderland (the best one!) is showing (from £6.50).
See Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories brought to life at the Pleasance Theatre London (N7) from 20 April — 25 April. Cushions, pillows, and duvets await for your little ones to snuggle into and watch in wonder as ordinary household items are turned into an entire world of magical storytelling on stage in front of them (from £7).
Join in a weekend of 30-minute chocolate decorating workshops led by The Chocolate Source (£5)at the V&A Museum of Childhood (E2), or attend a free storytelling session; then show your kids one of the finest collections of childhood-related objects in the world. Spanning the 1600s to the present day, the collection features toys, dolls, dolls’ houses, games, puppets, nursery, children’s clothing and furniture (admission free).
Go on a free Friends of Richmond Park Guided Spring Bird Walk (free); visit the Diana Playground in Kensington Gardens, or watch Pelican feeding in St James’s Park. You can also visit the Giant Observation Wheel in Hyde Park until May 2nd (from £5 and additional 10% discount when you book online in advance).
{photo: Splorp}
