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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[ImFineThankYou]

We like nothing more than packing a picnic (we have it in the car if it's wet out) and heading off to the local park. We feed the ducks, have a run about and when it's wet it's wellies on and splashing in the puddles. Even if we just go for half an hour in the evening it gets us out for some fresh air.

Much nicer than a softplay.

[Gracelo]

We like to pack a picnic and go for a walk either up a hill or along the coast. This time of the year bramble picking is popular. I also take them swimming most Sunday mornings.
My children aren't keen on soft play. They enjoy parties there but not one of them has ever suggested to go there at other times.

[Squiffie]

Our favourite family activity is going to the local RSPB reserve! There's loads to do - pond dipping, bug hunting, bird watching, walking trails and a fabulous playground that has a kind of 'tree house' feel to it all. In addition there's a lovely little cafe for lunch or tea and cakes!

We don't mind soft play if the weather is dismal but think the entry fee is often overpriced accompanied by overpriced and crap food and drink. I like the one local to me that does free entry after school in term time plus gives the kids a free soft drink! Don't mind paying for an overpriced coffee so much then.

[ClementineKelandra]

I'm not a huge fan of soft play areas as they're usually very hot and noisy. I start to feel quite claustrophobic after a while.

My children love anything outdoors. Particularly being by the sea (even in the rain) we love looking for interesting shells, pebbles etc.

We also love riding our bikes but have done this much as its starting to be really difficult to do due to the amount of traffic on the road.

[tinypumpkin]

Getting out and about on days out. Another picnic fan here as a good way to spend time out and about with the children.

Soft play does have its place but it is not my choice. The children love it. Better ones have separate areas for smaller children and a better choice of food (and coffee!).

[littleoaktree]

Favourite family activity is exploring castles and ruins - both boys (4.5&16mo) love climbing up towers, playing hide and seek and working out where the people who lived there would have had their dinner (the most important thing to the dc )

Absolutely detest soft play - I am not comfortable letting either of mine out of my sight and you can never see everywhere, the areas are often not secure, other people don't supervise their children properly meaning that bigger children often push/hit etc - oh and ds1 gets scared at the top of things meaning I have to climb up and rescue him clutching ds2 while I do. The food at the cafes is always overpriced and unhealthy and the facilities dirty.

The only type of soft play I don't mind is where there is a small soft play bit in say a museum/cafe/other attractions as it's usually compact and easy to see where the dc are and usually not as crowded.

[Spottybra]

What is our favourite family activity? Definitely varies as to which member of the family you speak to;
DS 4yrs - swimming, going to the park with friends, going to the beach, riding his bike, soft play areas, basketball, football with daddy, ice skating, chase, playing monsters and sly fox. Dislikes - sitting still and school.
DD 2yrs - swimming, going to the park, playing sly fox and chase. Dislikes - mummy refusing to read another fairy story at half past nine at night.
Me - anything that makes my children laugh and smile and be active. Dislikes - dinner time. I just love cooking meals from scratch tailored to DS's special diet (food intolerances) to be told 'its yuk, I hate dinner times, can I just have a sandwich?'
DH - all the above, anything which means he gets to hear dc laugh, tire then out, get them to sleep so he can have ahem, private time with me. Dislikes - dc not going to sleep until 10pm. Keep telling him its a sign of intelligence, especially as they already have an answer for everything.

[SmokedMackerel]

Favourite family activity - I think going to the seaside. The kids love building sandcastles, collecting shells, paddling in the sea, eating fish and chips and ice cream. It was DD2s first time at paddling this summer because she wasnt walking last year.

I have to admit to not being a great fan of soft play. I always lose sight of my child and find it hard to keep my eye on two at once, and my feet are always freezing because they make you take your shoes off. And the coffee from the cafe is always disgusting. My children love it of course.

[ShelleyGal]

Favourite family activity, going down the river and feeding the ducks.. It's free and the kids enjoy it, so we do it as much as we can!

[shash1982]

We all enjoy going on adventure's from taking a walk though the woods to exploring the lake district. We recently went for the day to groombridge place & all of us loved the enchanted forest.

[littlemonkeychops]

Favourite family activities are anything active and outdoors, fresh air and exercise means the DC sleep well :-) The best near us is a forrestry commission wood with lots of walks.

We do enjoy softplay though. The best are big ones with a cafe so we can watch the DC whilst having a cuppa.

[HappySunflower]

Things we like to do together:

Swimming
Baking cakes-and then eating them!!
Reading stories
Spending time together at bedtime talking about our days and having nice cuddles.

I like soft play, but some of the places we have been to are such a nightmare. There's one place we absolutely love though. The reasons are as follows:
Its clean and has an obviously good routine/policy for hygiene and cleaning routines.
They have separate areas for children aged 0-2', 2- under fives, 5-8's and 8-12.
There is clear vigilance from the staff aout numbers which avoids overcrowding
Decent coffee and wifi for parents!!

[threepiecesuite]

So, what are your favourite family activities?
Going to country parks with something for all to enjoy - kids play park, nice house for me to look round, lake to mess about in.
Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children?
I do cos I get a quiet coffee with other mums and its a godsend on rainy days but my DD isn't that physical and gets a bit bored after 20 mins.
If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good?
We love Jellybeans in Widnes, Cheshire - it's clean, airy, you can see your child wherever they are as the play frame doesn't go too deep, there's lots of parental seating, and they do nice homemade cakes and chunky chips!

[rootypig]

Baking bread together - making a basic dough and letting the kids make their own shapes. Bake and they eat their own roll for lunch!

Painting at home - taping huge sheets of sugar paper to the floor and letting them go mad finger painting, foot painting, covering themselves (with vegetable based paints).

Afternoon tea - making a cake together then having a little tea party on a random day in the middle of the week, especially in summer in the garden. Hilarious to see how formal little people get with their stuffed animals.

Fancy dress from the dressing up box and putting on plays on rainy days!

Making Christmas presents for family together - baskets of homemade cookies in Christmas shapes, mad child decorations on top.

Birthday parties! with smartie buns.

[Jux]

Body boarding. DD (14) and dh both love it. I'm not strong enough but can bob about in the sea watching them. I love bobbing about, so we're all happy!

The other thing we all love is camping. Put me in a tent in the middle of a field and I'm happy. DD is the same. DH now has a wonky knee (old age catching up with him ) and was finding camping harder this year.

[MrsFrederickWentworth]

Soft play is brilliant. Used to take our son, have a cup of tea, rescue him on the slide, have a glass of water, rescue him on the nets, result exercise for parent and child with the possibility of a bit of socialising. And it wore him out so he slept well. We used to go often in the winter on wet and nasty days. I now take my godson there, and he met Santa for breakfast there two years ago. Magic.

But what we like doing is a water based picnic. It could be swimming, paddling in the sea or a paddling pool in the park , building sandcastles, fishing for minnows in a stream, with a family picnic. That way everyone has fun including the dog, it is age and gender unspecific and children love it, even if in the local park. They never get tired of the excitement of eating outside and running around where noise doesn't matter and you make your own fun.

[SLINKYDREAMER]

We love being outdoors as there is so much to see and do for all age groups. Feeling all the different shapes and textures of leaves and bark, the power of the wind blowing on our faces, the shapes of the clouds passing in the sky and watching all the birds, animals and insects about us so we can try and draw them later.

[JaquelineHyde]

Our favourite family activity at the moment is walking round our local farm, while the weather is nice it is a perfect day out.

Once the winter starts drawing in we shall once again be visiting our local soft play centre.

When the children are younger I always find them a bit of a nightmare but the dc are now 8, 7 and 6 and so as long as I manage to bag a big comfy seat (rather than one of the wooden benches) it really is quite fabulous. The children disappear and I sit with a hot choc and read/play on my phone or talk to the baby. Better than sitting in doors and getting Mummy, Mummy, Mummy every 5 mins.

[LegoAcupuncture]

Our favourite family activity is going for a walk somewhere scenic where there is a park for the boys to let of steam and somewhere to picnic. Our most favourite place is Kielder Forest.

Do we like soft plays? Depends on the soft pay and depends on how busy it is. I prefer going when they are not too busy as I find the soft plays too noisy and more often than not leave with a headache. Our favourite one is in a huge warehouse, the soft pay area is massive, over 4 floors high and the DC get lost in there for a good hour. The food is good quality as well, all home made and they sell jugs of squash for £2.50 rather than the obligatory fruit shoot.

[Lilyloo]

My youngest dc is 5 now and eldest is 11 so we are moving away from the world of soft play.
I did take mine a lot when they were little though. We limed those that served good food at a reasonable price, good comfy chairs, clean toilets with good changing facilities and we particularly liked this that offered discounts for extra children.
We like to go to the beach, bike rides and long walks with the dog.

[Mumtochops12]

I have recently discovered the world I soft play! Have taken my 8 month old to a few in the local area and he loves it. I meet friends there so I get to socialise over a cup of coffee and charlie gets to have a good at with his pals. He is currently free in most of the centres near us until he is 1 so we are making the most of while we can!

[Iwaswatchingthat]

Jumping on the trampoline - I even join in....but after two kids only with an empty bladder.

They love playing on their swings and taking their babies out for some fresh air in their pushchairs.

Making assault courses and racing each other on them has become the number one pursuit of the summer this year - crawling through a tunnel, doing six star jumps, spinning the hula hoop ten times, then repeat until exhausted!!!

[Iwaswatchingthat]

Whoops - I have mentioned my dds activities when they play together. But as a family we like to go for long (ish) walks which usually end with an ice cream, ride the bikes around the park, all go on the mini train at our local park (really fun despite only doing one mile per hour) and this holiday our dds have got really into playing 'poo sticks' when we cross a bridge on one of our local walking routes. The competition can get quite serious. We also often have a stroll to our local town and the dds often bring their babies in their pushchairs too.