Tell Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins about your favourite family activities – iPad Mini up for grabs! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins now offer a free soft play session for one child with each purchased pack of promotional Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins. To celebrate this, Bassetts Soft & Chewy want to find out what Mumsnetters' favourite activities are to have fun as a family.

Here's what Bassetts Soft & Chewy have to say, "Mums have told us that they want their kids to be healthy and active so that they can enjoy school. That's why we decided to make mums' lives a little bit easier with free soft play sessions on every promotional pack of Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins offering a free soft play session for one child. With nearly two hundred great soft play centres around the UK taking part in the promotion, children around the country can have fun at their local centre, while mum enjoys a hot cup of coffee. Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins promotional packs can be found in the UK (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) in most major retailers."

You can find your nearest participating centre here.

So, what are your favourite family activities? Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children? If so, why? If not, why not? If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good?

Everyone who enters their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad Mini.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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[serendipity1980]

we tend to go to soft play during TD days, it's too busy for our 5 & 3 yr old during weekends and holidays. We love being in the outdoors though and we've just bought a canal boat which the children love. So I think that's going to be our best activity for the future.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Swimming, soft play, the beach, cycling, theme parks and farms.

[mumnosbest]

Our favourite activity is going to the woods to climb trees and cycle but as British weather usually makes this impossible, soft play and bowling would be our second favourites, along with swimming, iceskating and cinemas.

[BadRoly]

Our current favourite family activity is surfing/body boarding. This is the first year the youngest has wanted to join in - although mostly he is pulled along in a board in 3" deep water

We do go to soft play but as my dc are across a big age range, the best ones for us have big slides as well as the traditional soft play bits. Throw in a trampoline or those ball guns and we can easily spend half a day in one!

[AtYourCervix]

Outdoorsy stuff.

Walking in the forest, building eeyor houses, picnics, exploring, sleeping out.
Beaches, sandcastles, rockpooling, bbqs.

[domesticslattern]

My favourite family activities are ones which all members of the family enjoy ie not just for the kids. So museums, the beach, gallopping around woods, kite flying etc - basically things I used to enjoy doing pre-DC.
Which kinda rules out soft play tbh. I do go but with slightly gritted teeth.

[CMOTDibbler]

Our favourite family activity is cycling or walking in the countryside - ideally woodland.

We do go to softplay occasionally, if the weather is really grim, but its a last resort generally

[Letitsnow9]

Fresh air, I love how kids can get joy from the simple things in life and how exciting being timed to run to a certain tree or hope around a bush can bring

[babyboo1and2]

Indoors, baking with dd aged 7 is always fun.

We also enjoy walking our dog in our local forest.

Family fun time sessions during school holidays are enjoyed.

[babyboo1and2]

That is family fun time sessions at our local swimming pool .

[ThePortlyPinUp]

My favourite family activity is socialising with other families, this summer we have been to some lovely bbq's and picnics where the children all play happily together and the adults get to relax and chat. We haven't been to a soft play for a while as they aren't suitable for our children ranging from 12-5 plus I think they can be expensive. Our children would rather we spent that money on a picnic or parking so that we can have a trip out to the beach or Sandringham.

[AFishWithoutABicycle]

I love head over heels in chorlton Manchester. They make such an effort to

make interesting and exciting. It rains a lot here so it's brilliant to

have somewhere indoors where the DC can run off some energy and have

lots of fun.

It even has a little night club.

[KnottedAnchorChief]

I don't use soft play. Favourite activities are beach, local park or trip out in the country somewhere exploring, I suppose because that's what I did as a child. My DC's are 4 and 18 months and they both spend a lot of time outside in all weathers as they are both very energetic and can be hard to contain. We are the last ones building a giant fort on the beach, individually hermetically sealed in waterproofs and thermals, as the fog closes in around us!

If the sleet or gales defeat us then favourite indoor activities are baking or cooking or building dens in the house with cushions and blankets. Both mine are up a 5.30 am and don't stop for a moment from then until bed, so if we are all together as a family we tend to do one or two activities a day that will fill 6 hours or so and we take food and everything with us. Budget is also a factor so we tend to do free stuff if possible.

[Joycey29]

Woods walk with den building option!

[SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots]

My DS is too old for soft play now at 12.
He did really enjoy it when younger though. There are 5 places I can think of close to me in my town, and we me always preferred the cleaner / newer / refurbished ones. Some of them can get really manky.

Our favourite family activity currently is treasure trails or geocaching.

[manfalou]

We love soft play areas! We've taken DS1 since being 1 (first time was on his 1st birthday!) and he loves it. Unfortunately he's not always big enough to be able to climb by himself as he wishes but he loves to go and burns off so much energy. Now we have a 4 month old too I can't wait for them to be able to go round together! The closest 'free' one too us isn't all that close, we'd still choose to pay to go to a closer one.

Our favourite family activity is going to country parks such as Chatsowrth or Rufford and taking the eldests balance bike with us. Theres so much to do with the ducks, bike rides and tons of space its great! Plus you only have to pay for parking if you take a picnic.

[Theincidental]

Favourite family activity? Going to the beach and jumping in the surf or rock pooling, picnics and sand castles.

I like soft play for rainy days, but they have to be clean and well maintained. There are two locally - one is gross and the cafe is in the next room serving greasy food. The other is well laid out, clean and friendly with good equipment and cafe serving nice healthy food.

P.s love chewy vitamins... For me!

[WeAllHaveWings]

Ds(9) is now a bit old for soft play, but a new local one has parties at night where they turn the lights down and the kids play laser tag. He loves it.

Favourite family activity recently is walking and trying to train our 5 month old labrador puppy, In between football training and ds plaing in matches.

[sharond101]

So, what are your favourite family activities?
Anything outdoors really. We love walking our dog to the park and running around after the ball when we get there. We love cycling together as a family and most of all going to the beach.
Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children? If so, why? If not, why not? My DS loves softplay so yes we do enjoy it. We go as a weekly or fortnightly treat and he has come on so much since we started going in terms of climbing and his confidence so I think it's a good thing. I don't like the food they serve (chips chips and more chips) so we come home for lunch.
If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good? One close to use has lots for younger children my DS's age so that stands out for us. There is lots of free spacce too so they can run around. The spacehoppers are a hit with all the children as is the little tikes car.

[dahville]

Our favourite activity is walking! We both get on a carrier and get to the coast. Since our youngest is just weeks old we look for short routes and flat terrain these days.

We've been to a couple of soft play centres but haven't been impressed. Both seemed rather grubby, both were poorly lit, one had a lot of broken toys, and neither had good food.

In the end I think we prefer to be outside.

[beeelaine]

our family favourite activities are wresting, picnics, ball games of almost anykind except football, camping, cycling and taking walks. Inside the home we like movies and board games.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

baking cakes and preparing lovely meals for us all

[LovesBeingOnHoliday]

Anything where we can laugh and be silly together

[Ruby6918]

there is a brilliant soft play activity centre called Jumping Jacks in Lisburn, its spotless, has great viewing so you can see the kids all the time, a lovely cafe and seating and its never overcrowded, if we are staying at home then we make rice crispy buns, or i get out a large roll of backing paper which is far cheaper than buying drawing pads! and let them draw and paint i also use my left over emulsion and put in into small pots so dont need to spend on paint either