What do you do on the Wkends?

[sammythemummy]

I live in London so no beaches or beautiful scenery here, nor do we have a car, so we're pretty much limited in what we do.

What do you guys do thats fun with your kids?

[This shall be my last thread for the week]

Where in London?

There are MILLIONS of things to do in London.

Where in London and how old is your child? London is chock a block with lovely parks & free museums etc if nothing else.

Journeys may need to be more carefully planned than for most people if you are reliant on public transport but are usually still possible if you use the transport for London website to check disability access, timetables etc. You should also be able to get a RADAR toilet key from your LA to facilitate trips to the powder room.

You may need to look outside of the confines of your own LA for suitable activities. Mine seems to be a bit crappy for suitable affordable activities for DS so I tag along to other councils. (I think different areas develop particular strengths in catering for different types of SN's). e.g DS has just started doing a film making club at the discover centre in Stratford on Saturday mornings and always joins the Gardening club each holiday at a city farm which is also outside our LA.

We're in the countryside and have to rely on the car to get just about anywhere. We don't do wonderful fun things involving going out every single weekend, since we have other things that need doing (house is falling apart at the seams!) and sometimes the boys just need a break from other people. We would visit museums more if it was less of a trek and DS2 didn't get bored of it.

This month, though, DH is taking DS1 to do a B&Q DIY class and he'll be going to the Dimensions ASD friendly screening of Despicable Me 2.

I would love to go to the museum, used to take my lil bro when i was preggers but my dd is 3 n hyperactive so im dreading going there. I could give it a go i suppose.

Im in North London, so far im thinking of taking up swimming on sarurdays at Clissod Park (hackney), the park there is lovely as well.

I was thinking of enrolling lil sam on a tennis course for under 5s but again, scared of how she will behave.

our whats a asd friendly screening? Apparently theres a slot for disabled people at my local odeon but its for over 8s :/

bochead i took dd to our local farm, she enjoyed it but wanted to touch the roosters that were uncaged, she kept running back to them, and may I say, those things are huge when near your

Thats another thing she does a lot of, running!

What do u do star

We are rural so spend a lot of time walking and cycling in the woods. This weekend the younger DSs spent most of Sunday damming a river, whilst DS1 went cycling with DH.

They love visits to London though and happily spend hours in the museums there.

Oh, and just zooming around on the Tube all day. Not sure I could afford that every weekend if we lived there ghough .

sammythemummy

When my ds was smaller and we lived in London we used to go to Coram Fields which is near Russell Square. This is totally fenced with one gateway which is manned - so good for bolters - and there are animals, play equipment, sand pits actually lots of great things. It is free to get in as well. There is also an outdoor cafe which I presume is still there - maybe you could Google to check if you are interested.

www.dimensions-uk.org/what-we-do/autism-care/autism-friendly-films/

apparently vue cinemas create social story templates for their cinemas.

Well, I'm in greater London and don't go into the centre all that often, but the Docklands Light Railway is fun, as is the cable car over the Thames at Greenwich.

Strolling along the South Bank is good but can be a bit busy. I like Canary Warf area on a weekend as it is calmer.

The parks are good, spacious and often have amusing things to watch i.e. roller bladers, Hyde Park ranters, boating lake, ducks, trees to climb.

Changing of the Guard? Just looking at them is quite entertaining. Waiting for Big Ben to Chime.

I like Coram Fields too.

Tate is fun for it's big slope to run up and down.

There are LOADS of museums, and most are massive so concentrate on just one and just one section of one to avoid overload.

I took DS to the Royal Albert hall recently and though expensive was imo the best money I had EVER spent. From the second he entered and announced 'gosh what a lot of people' until the end, was utterly utterly magical.

There are some posh adventure playgrounds in Kensington iirc.

Walthamstow Market is a mile long and still quite tradition with the vendors shouting out their adverts.

There's the gerkin with spirally ramps/paths.

There's St Pauls with the whispering gallery, or just stand outside and sing 'Feed The Birds'.

Riding the buses can be fun, especially the number 4 who they appear to deliberately recruit crazy drivers who go a different route every time.

St Martins often has free lunch time music. Trafalgar square is good for people-watching.

Embankment Gardens is nice for a stroll, and there are plenty of boat rides on the Thames.

We visit lots of parks! Ds1 is like a coiled spring if he's at home for more than 2-3 hours so we have to do at least 4 decent outings per weekend.

Quite often it's simply the park across the road or a (very) long scoot along the river. But we go to neighbouring parks, and parks up in London too.

Ds1 loves Kew gardens too, and the London aquarium is his absolute favourite. He does love museums but they get ridiculously crowded at weekends/ hols so we save those for inset days. Or there are now occasional early openings for children with ASD at the science museum, which are fab.

We go to the ASD friendly showing at our local odeon once a month.

Oh, and we do a lot of swimming. One place near us has waves, floats and a slide, and ds is blissed out there

Thanks ladies, ive forgotten all the places available, but due to my dd short attention span, i often just go locally.

Will definitely check out the aquarium so thanks googly and conram fields looks interesting as well.

I guess i have lots of planning to do :)