Flying long haul with 4yo and 1.5yo with 1 change in order to save money - crazy idea?

[confusedperson]

I would appreciate any advice, really. We are planning to travel to Kenya (DH Kenyan) with our 4yo and 1.5yo next spring. Just found out, that flying with change in Amsterdam would save us about £350, which is significant money for us. Total time through Amsterdam is about 11-12 hours, as opposed to 9 hours direct flight. Also the direct flights would be both night time, and inter-change flights one day, one night.
I wonder if it would be completely stupid of us to go for cheaper and one flight daytime?
I only flew short haul with small children, but not long haul!!! Have no experience if this could be manageable.
Any advice welcome, please!

Bumping for myself..

For £350 you can have a couple of nights in Amsterdam, or a shorter break and buy a diamond.

That's the way I think, but you lknow your kids

So you are flying daytime to Amsterdam, then on to Kenya over night? The flight to Amsterdam will be short, like a short train journey. The flight to Kenya will be the long one. I'd do it. You get a chance to stretch your legs etc. and Schipol is a fairly nice airport from my memory. Of course I'd check what the airline is like for the long stretch. If you are any distance from London it can be much easier to fly to Amsterdam locally, my SIL usually travels those routes for this reason.

No, it's not stupid at all. You can tear the first flight as awake time as they will so excited and the next one can be time to go to sleep.

Finally somebody has replied, thank you thank you!
Our ideal option is direct flight Heathrow-Kenya, both outbound and inbound overnight flights, but that would cost our family around £1450.
The cheaper option would be something like 8pm-7am Heathrow-Amsterdam-Kenya outbound, and 8am-4pm (shorter due to time difference) Kenya-Amsterdam-Heathrow inbound, all together costing around £1090.
The difference is significant for our budget, but I am worried about the following:

• Connect time in Amsterdam is 1h 20mins and 1h 30 mins, and I wonder if it is not too short for dragging two children from one plane to another, and also passing non-EU passport/security check (DH is non-EU).
• Possibility of loosing luggage (KLM is quite famous for that, apparently one out of three luggage gets lost).
• Daytime flight could be much more tiring than overnight flight, right? I am not sure that the saved money is worth the additional hassle and stress, but perhaps I am over-thinking? Staying in Amsterdam is not an option, because eventually it wouldn?t save us any money.

You need to find out what would happen if the Heathrow to Amsterdam flight was delayed.

hmm.

I have done connecting flights with small children (then aged 5 and 2, so not a huge difference), and it wasn't too bad. but serious organisation was needed, and it did add a lot to my (and dh's ) tiredness levels - there's lots of walking (and carryong bags and children) off the plane, through the airport, waiting in queues, then back to the gate etc.

OTOH, I have had nothing but good experiences with KLM. we used to live in kenya (pre-children, then for a short while after dd1 was born), and so used them a fair bit. but this wa sa few years ago now.

we sometimes found the Emirates flights were cheaper - longer overall, though, and still with a split as well.

Is the Heathrow one with BA? Because all the bags I have lost have been with them (unless you count the one bag lost by US airways for my DD, but they were very good at getting us her bag, in time for her to get dressed the next day).
I would try to keep buggy's with you, or use Trunki's if possible.

From experience, 1hr 20min will be a very tight connection at Schipol. The airport is huge and the connection time is usually from when the plane touches down, that means you could be taxiing to the gate for 15mins of that, then you have immigration and security to clear again, then getting to your departure gate.

All flights are with KLM, and the are meant to sort out all the problems if the flight is delayed or passenger problem with passport control etc. In the worst scenario they are obliged to put you in the next flight.
Thanks to your responses, I think I have made up my mind not to do connecting flights this time, due to short connecting time, non-EU spouse, sleepy children that have to be dragged long distance in Shiphol and possibility of lost luggage with KLM.
Maybe we will do that when the children are older. So this time will just take direct flights with Kenyan Airways.
silverfrog, just checked emirates lines, and their connecting flights as expensive as direct ones. But thanks for your reply anyway!