to want to poke my eyes out with summer hols in London!!!

[fuzzybuzzy]

Deary me.
I didnt "plan" a schedule of events for the summer holidays.We went on a weekend camping trip at the start and will take another at the end of the holidays.

Did the science museum, library, city farm, local parks....Stressful outings.dd 18 months ds 5 yrs.Feel like I am damned if I do and damned if I dont. Staying in has meant too much tv, going out= throbbing headache.

WTF do you do with two kids for 6 weeks!!!

dayfay are you the OP?
Don't be jealous of the boring countryside much.
OK I'd love a bit more space and a garden, but London has so much to offer for children and lots of it is free. Perfect your packed lunches and get out there.

Another suggestion (if you have a car it's really easy) is a day in Richmond Park - almost like a trip to the countryside in itself.

And a day trip to Brighton perhaps? the seaside etc and if you walk along the sea front heading east there is a fab childrens playground with all the water spray stuff.

Time Out's wesite has a kids section and TO do a book on Kids in London for about £7 on amazon

Do you like the Olympics? There is a screen at Canada Square (Canary Wharf). Free of charge - hardly anyone there as no one seems to be aware of it (until now). It's on a big grassy area where kids can run around and play. It's a little busy in the evening but not at all on weekends or in the day time. You can take a picnic along (including wine for you if you fancy a glass!) and just sit around and relax. It's lovely there - busy enough for atmosphere but not crowded and lots of grass for the children to run around on.

Oh - and there's the beach on south bank at the moment which could be fun.

The Science museum was mostly a success, we left at nap time so the twins slept the whole journey there in the pram. They loved all the interactive bits, lots of buttons to press!
I don't think 21 months is too young, but we mainly went because there is a brilliant children's area in the basement. It includes an area children wear plastic coveralls and play with a huge water feature, there are little boats and the girls just loved it.
The way way home was more challenging, but they were mostly placated with constant snacks.
I had DP with me though, no chance of me doing it on my own.

I feel the same as Op...

3youngest dc at home. Dd10, ds7,ASD&ADHD,ds4.

Due to ds needs we are very limited to what we can do. No playscheme he can attend,tried from April to get DCT to help. Ds gets 8 weeks hols,other 2 get 6 weeks...

Im feeling a bit mad by now!!

There is often far less to do with kids in the countryside, some areas don't even have many places you can walk.
The key thing is, don't try to do too much at once. Different parks are a huge treat. What about the London Wetlands centre? You can see their resident collections without too much walking, and there is a play/explore area.

YY to London Wetlands Centre. Expensive though unless you plan to spend several hours there (which might be too much for young kids). Turn left from the entry, rather than right, for the more child friendly section. I did Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern with young children - they were fascinated!!! Easy to do a day in Hyde Park, perhaps after Olympics, lots of walking, things to look at (feeding the geese at the Serpentine but they are a bit aggressive!), Diana memorial fountain and the playground in Kensington Gardens, Peter Pan etc etc.

Haven't been here but really fancy it. Again, after Olympics would be better.

With kids of your age I'd be up for an hour or so at the British Museum - keep it short and sweet, perhaps go and look at the Egyptian mummies or something and just generally hang out in the main entrance, and follow with a picnic in Coram's fields.

South Bank is ace at the moment. Happily killed an hour just on the beach with my two last week. On Friday's they have live music in the South Bank centre from 1 til 2 and mine always bop along happily to that (it's very relaxed), also often stuff going on outside the national theatre.

All of the above free or very nearly. And of course all the suggestions that are more home based and less organisation are also brilliant options too.

Week 1 - family holiday
Week 2 - ballet school/playdates/pottering at home
Week 3 - family holiday
Week 4 - drama school/Grandma's
Week 5 - singing workshop/playdates/pottering
Week 6 - nothing scheduled so pottering/playdates/library

I reserved all weekends for museums/galleries etc in town (we're in London too) as DH is home then and he loves doing all that as a family.

Only have one DC though and she's very easy going - happy to do activities but also to potter.

The weeks are whizzing by so far and we're loving it.

If the weather's ok go to the V&A - we took a picnic and sat in the courtyard yesterday, there is a big paddling pool in the middle ok technically not a paddling pool bot the kids love it!

We also went to the national history museum, it was reasonably quiet for summer holidays.

I wish I didnt have to work - there are so many things I want to with the dcs (in london and at home), but I cant fit it all in

Seriously OP do not be jealous of those living in the countryside! I grew up there and it was totally boring! We had no bus service and my mum hated driving and there were no pavements so it was quite dangerous to walk so we basically never went anywhere!!!! I was bored stiff. I live in a city now and spend most of the holidays with my DC at one or other park. We take scooter, bike etc, picnic and stay put for most of the day. It is virtually free besides the odd ice cream.

I took my dd's to the Lido in Hyde Park last week. It was fab, 2 other families there.

I don't know if you've been there before but it cost us about £5 to get in, it's all enclosed so you can let dc run around quite freely, they have a paddling pool, play ground area and big grassy area. Just take a picnic and a book and let the kids go nuts.

I agree, live in zone 6 and hardly ever go to London, even on a quiet day (took ds1 after hospital once) the science museum is mega busy, people sitting there giving you evils because your child wants to play on the same bit of interactive doodah their pfb has been monopolising for an hour (probably the same smug mummies who proclaim London to be great and stroll to the museums daily).

It's expensive, even to get to free things, that is even before the dc's start demanding things.

Everything that isn't free is totally expensive, £20 at least for my lot to get into soft play, that is before travel costs are included.

People chuff on about the parks, but tbh basically everywhere in this country has access to lovely parks (lucky about that I suppose), honestly you can get bored of parks if you are skint enough.

I would love to live somewhere more compact where it didn't take at least 90mins to get anywhere, also near to the coast, that would be fab.

Mine are now teenagers and no longer want to do the museum thing with me! All Im needed for is to provide cash at regular intervals! They mostly amuse themselves! But when smaller we would go the museums, sit in convent garden and watch the world go by, picnics in parks, baking at home, made dens and tents! Used to love all that......

Mine are now teenagers and no longer want to do the museum thing with me! All Im needed for is to provide cash at regular intervals! They mostly amuse themselves! But when smaller we would go the museums, sit in convent garden and watch the world go by, picnics in parks, baking at home, made dens and tents! Used to love all that......

you probably perceive you get evils at the Science Museum because of your crappy attitude MrsJohnMurphy.

Not sure where you are in London but when my kids were your kids age I used to hang out at the One O'clock club on Hampstead Heath a lot. It was easier than the park as completely enclosed with different activities. I used to take a packed lunch and stay for morning and afternoon session!

DD is now 10 and 7 year old twins so it's easier. This week is a park, playdate week and next week I'll be doing all the museums and the South Bank. We did the RAF museum last week and my boys loved it.

I love the holidays despite not going abroad this year!

ps. I always packed a HUGE bag of snacks bribery!

squeakytoy agree with that for the 5 year old but keeping an 18 month old in for a few days would drive you insane. They won't chill and watch TV, they have the attention span of a fly at that age.

We live in the back of beyond, when we had kids we left London and moved back to the village I grew up in.
It's all very pretty BUT there's no buses, no pavements, the lanes are full of mad bastards in huge tracytractors and as the local school has a really massive catchment area all my 14 year old DS1's mates are miles away so he's been hanging out in his room painting his warhammer stuff and watching DVDs for a week and a half. I don't know if I should feel horrified or jealous!

I do miss the Smoke.

OP YABU there is so much to do in London, much of it free/fairly cheap:

Regents park - lovely place to feed the ducks, there are some extremely tame squirrels who will accept food from your hand too.
London Zoo
Unicorn children's theatre run lots of workshops aimed at young children
Victoria park - there is a great outdoor paddling pool area with slides etc.
Thames clipper boats
London open top bus tours
The Tate modern gallery
Natural History Museum
Bethnal Green museu of childhood is fantastic
Search online for the children's playbus, they do visits to certain areas/parks and its great fun.

Coram's fields is worth several visits alone, because they will want to get used to it at first and then come back. It is brilliant. We used to go there after GOSH visits. It has a small menagerie, paddling pool, slides, cheap and cheerful shop cafe, is enclosed, no adults allowed in without a child. It would cost you your travel ticket and ice creams. It has got good loos.

And my chikdminders used to take children this age up to trafalgar square, chase pigeons, have picnic, look at horses at horseguards and go home.

Likewise a trip to Greenwich. It's the trip that is exciting and praise be exhausting.

And being stuck in the sticks is dire. And even more expensive.

We live in zone 2/3 borders and go into central London every weekend. There's so much to do and loads of it is free. We get Time Out each week and subscribe to several email lists and blogs so we know what's going on around town.

I love London with the kids (9 and 4). No clue what we'd do to amuse ourselves out in the 'burbs or the countryside. I think the key is to plan, so that you have something (even if it's quite a small, low-key something) to do each day and you don't get up every morning wondering how to fill the time. It doesn't have to cost much. And the good bit about living in London rather than visiting from somewhere else is that you can go to places like museums for short periods, knowing that you can go again soon to see the bits you didn't get round to first time. We've so far done a mix of local and local-ish, central London and the odd trip out of town. Which bit of London are you in?