What to do with two year 8 boys in London

[Almahart]

Hallo, I’ll have my son and a friend without younger siblings for a day over half term. We live in London and have done most of the obvious things. It will be the second week of half term as schools round here have a two week break . Any ideas? I was wondering about that silly cereal cafe in east London combined with something else but we don’t have to do that. They are both quite into science.

Science museum?

The Thames Rocket speed Boat is great fun, bus sight seeing tour or a musical such as school of rock

Actually you do sometimes overlook the obvious don’t you. I’ll see if they’d go for that. I know they’d prefer to be on the Xbox but if I’m having to take a days leave I’d rather we did something

HMS Belfast
Climb St Paul's
Churchill War Rooms
Cable Car
Postal Museum
Cutty Sark
Concorde at the Brooklands Museum
Old Operating Theatre

Can't you just red0 whatever their favourite thing is? DS never gets bored of going to the South Bank for a couple of hours. We walk, watch the skateboarders, hit the carousel, watch the street performers etc. Usually choose somewhere nice for lunch and he aways gets an ice-cream. if I let him, he'd go on the Eye every time too! :)

When do ice skating things start? Is late October too early? We did that after a museum trip one year which he loved. At this age, I think they don't mind doing similar things because they enjoy them. And if there's something that's a little bit daring and exciting, every time they go back they try to do a bit more.

Take them to see School of rock. Such a great show and loads of bargain tickets - no bad seats either.

Great ideas, thank you

My two really enjoyed the Transport Museum at that age.

The Tower of London.

A bit niche, but we did a great Dr Who guided walking tour of London recently if they are into that. There are loads of other tours you can do- we also did a haunted London one which they loved

The Orbit slide in the Olympic park is another good option

Walking tour is a great idea.

Has anyone been to the new Jack the Ripper museum in East London? Looks great but not sure if too scary for 12 year olds

Greenwich:
Maritime Museum
Astronomy Museum at the Observatory
Look at the Curry Sark
(All free)

Check the new Samsung Centre at Kings Cross

If the day is nice and the journey not too long Crystal Palace Park: ‘dinosaurs’ and maze.

Have a look at the Microsoft website to see what's on at the main flagship store. They have loads of stuff that year 8 gamers would love - workshops and the like

Natural History Museum

We take our 3 DS to London for a weekend every year. Highlights have been: Postal Museum (has it's own tube system you can ride on), Thames Boat Ride, Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark, seeing Tower Bridge rise, going on the DLR (they LOVED this, sitting at the front of the driverless train), Science Museum, HMS Belfast, Windsor Castle (on the way home!), London Zoo, Kew Gardens, The London Eye, the Greenwich foot tunnel, The Imperial War Museum. Your problem will be narrowing it down! I find we always plan too much but actually 1-2 things in a day, with a stop for lunch, is plenty!

One of ides this year is to go on the Emirates cable car across the Thames.

Cable car is a good idea. My ds (11) loves it.

Take them to Myrtle Avenue near Heathrow for a free day out plane-spotting. My DS has just been and absolutely loved it. Get there well before 3pm though because the landing pattern changes.