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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[ShatnersBassoon]

Cycling is our favourite at the moment.

I'm not a fan of soft play. They're not fun for all the family. I would never just pop along to one and pay to get it, but they are good party venues - other parents to chat to, lots of little friends to stop the children pestering you to get in the ball pit with them because they're lonely

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

Our favourite outdoor family activities are trips to the park or beach for picnics and digging the sand. Indoors we like baking together.

We don't often go to soft play and if we do we try to go when it's quiet with fewer big kids around or go to one aimed at smaller children.

[MakeTeaNotWar]

DD aged 3 enjoys soft play but we don't go very often as they are a bit grotty and boisterous. Now that DS is 1 and crawling, he absolutely loves them. Our favourite is Monkey Business in Lewes

[MakeTeaNotWar]

Oh and forgot to say that our favourite activities are walking in the woods or throwing stones into the sea at the beach

[NorkyButNice]

We have family membership of a local gym and there is a soft play area there which both of our boys enjoy using. While they clamber around there is a comfortable area for me to sit and drink Costa Coffee and we can order quality food (proper meals, not just chicken nuggets or pizza).

As for other soft play, I can't stand them - too noisy, hot, parents ignoring their rampaging children... We generally go to the park to let them burn off some energy!

[SoupDragon]

As a family, we enjoy geocaching - using billion dollar satellite technology to find Tupperware in the woods :)

My days of soft play are now over but my favourite ones where where they had comfortable seating and good coffee and were safe enough for my children to run about by themselves and have independence.

[MaxinePeakedistrict]

Geocaching is a great treasure hunt in the fresh air - a country walk with a focus.

[k8vincent]

Yesterday we tried to go blackberry picking - no ripe fruit but we did find some more sticks to add to our growing collection - and a tree swing. So I think at the moment our favourite family activity involves finding trees to climb/swing from and sticks to fight each other with (3 boys).

Soft pay is expensive, especially when you have to pay for adults as well. It just isn't worth it.

[mamamidwife]

My kids are of an age that they love soft play, to the point of unbearable excitement! The soft play barn we go to is on a farm, so there are lots of animals to see which is an added bonus. At the moment every animal we see there is a 'cow' according to my youngest (they are her current obsession!)

We also love going to a place called Brock Bottoms. A big but shallow, pebble filled river where the youngest of kids can paddle, skim stones, build dams, & get thoroughly wet. It's a free day out perfect for picnics, wildlife, treasure hunts etc, you can make your trip in to whatever adventure you like.

[BigGapMum]

Our favourite family days are beach days. Luckily we live near the coast and have several beaches to choose from to visit. We always take a packed lunch and stay for most of the day. DS loves playing in the sand or in shallow water. As long as its not raining too much we'll stay even if the weather changes.

When we do soft play it's usually a soft play area within another attraction IYSWIM. We always have annual membership for at least one attraction with soft play facilities, so tend to combine soft play with other activities on the same day out.

[lilmrschatty]

Our favourite family activity is walking in the woods. The kids love putting wellies on and jumping in puddles.

I do like taking them to soft play as it gives me a bit of a break. My favourite one has wifi, nice coffee and good cakes. Lots of comfy seats would be a bonus!

[puffylovett]

My 2 boys 3 and 6 LOVE soft play, but like others I agree the food and coffee could always be better...

Our favourite family activity is mountain biking - it's fun, free and keeps us fit. All our friends and kids love it. We love trailcenters or just picking out trails at the local park. It's a new thing for me and I've built up so much more control on my bike just following my two biking demons around on their bikes and copying everything they do, like wheelies and jumps

[supergreenuk]

We love swimming and we also have a family kayak so love doing that too.

Soft play centres have there place but can be quite expensive. Swimming is £4.10 for me and 2 under 5 and play centres are way more than this. We like them but keep them as a treat and avoid school holidays.

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

Cooking and baking, going for long walks, reading, swimming, watching cycling tours on tv, drawing/painting, going to the seaside and the playground. I haven't been to a soft play centre. Don't know why really, just haven't!

[fffinsake]

Geocaching is our favourite family activity.

We do like soft play, norovirus aside, but with little children we avoid it during weekends and holidays because they tend to get trampled by lumbering ten year olds playing in the toddler section.

The best soft plays are the ones where you can go in with your child to play.

[aristocat]

Mine loved soft play too, sadly they are too old for it now. We enjoy bowling very much (they are so competitive) and cycling on a trail or just at the Park.

Soft play centres need comfy seating and a decent cuppa. Always go with friends so you can just sit and chat while the children wear themselves out

[lottytheladybird]

Family favourite activities: going to the park!

We like taking our toddlers to soft play at less busy times. The best one we've been to is one in Newbury, where they had several different zones for the very little ones, an area with toy cars to play with, a disco room, as well as a brilliantly laid out soft play area for the older ones.

[JulesJules]

Mine are too old for soft play now - they used to love it.

Our favourite things would be walks on the beach and paddling, and going to the Lake District

[slev]

DS (3) loves soft play although his parents aren't always so keen on the clambering around... He'll also run round the models at Legoland for hours on end given the chance, but again, we lose patience!

Favourite things as a family - we like to cook and eat together, story time, going for walks, feeding the ducks, going to the local farm to feed the animals. And like others have said - the beach when we can, but there aren't too many of them in Surrey sadly...

[GummyLopes]

Our. Favourite. Fun. Activity. Is. Soft. Play. Sponsored. By. Bassetts. We. Are. Lean. And. Healthy.

Will this do?

Just send me the fucking ipad.

[GummyLopes]

Sorry for rudeness.

[Moochicken]

We go to softplay fairly frequently as 3yo DD loves it. The difficulty is that she is still too little to go round on her own and I have to sit out with 6mo DS. Adults aren't supposed to go on our local one, but often do when it's not busy. This is really great fun when DH and I both go as we can take turns watching the baby and running round with DD. When they can both go on the equipment unaccompanied, I think we will go more often.

Our other favourite family is a trip to the beach. Even when it's cold we take a bucket and spade for digging holes and building sandcastles, followed by a walk along the sand.

[strawberrypenguin]

Feeding the ducks at the local park. It gets us all out of the house for a bit, it free (apart from the cost of a few slices of bread) and nearly 2yo DS loves it

[AllThatGlistens]

Favourite family activity has to be getting outdoors, recently had a day in the woods collecting pinecones and it was fantastic!

Anything that keeps us active, trips to the zoo, going for walks, picnics etc are things we all love to do.

[Mekaine]

The beach DD scuba dives at her club DS surfs if there are waves. Me and the dog walk and photograph and watch, a hefty picnic and a walk together later with plenty to talk about. Lovely