Chelmsford Summer Holidays Activities for the Under 5's

I've had some fantastic feedback from the 101 Things to Do in Chelmsford This Summer with Children but I know that there are lots of you (me included!) with children under the age of 5. With normal classes and toddler groups not running through the school holidays and hordes of school age children invading all the normally quiet parks and soft-play centres it can be difficult to know how to cope with the long 6 weeks of summer and our children aren't even in school yet!

So to help you here is 'Chelmsford Summer Holiday Activities for the Under 5's'! Not all of these activities are exclusievely for the under 5's  and it goes without saying that wherever you go it will be busy. But allow extra time, take a picnic to avoid queues at food outlets (and a rug to avoid frustration at the lack of picnic tables!) and just enjoy the sun. September will be here before you know it...

1. Natural Foundations are running a play cafe on various days over the summer. Natural play including games for all ages to play in the beautiful gardens with water play, mud kitchen, storytelling, along with lots of fun! (See our review of their regular sessions here).

2. Jester's Holiday Club in Bicnarce. Children from ages 3 and above are welcome and I've heard excellent reports. 

3. Inflatable Fun at Hylands House 3rd-6th August. Under 3's will be given discounted entry.

4. Thorndon Country Park with Gruffalo Trail. If it is busy there is plenty of space here to get away from the crowds. 

5. Promenade Park in Maldon. Avoid the pirate ship play area and head to the play area to the left of the sand-pit. This area is just for the under 5's. The sand pit is great but remember to take your own bucket and spade! The splash here is also fantastic and they do limit numbers so it's a great way to cool down on a really hot day. 

6. Frinton Beach. With no amusements and pier this tends to be a quieter beach than nearby Walton and Clacton. 

7. Oaklands Park has it's own dedicated under 5's area so is an excellent choice for a sunny day. 

8. The Essex Libraries Summer Reading Challenge is something that all age groups can take part in. My 20 month old already has her first sticker! 

9. Kids and Koffee is a soft play centre aimed at ages 8 and under.

10. Pickles Playhouse is a little further afield but worth a visit as it for ages 5 and under only. 

11. Lathcoats Farm is great place to while away an hour or two. With animals to visit and a newly built natural play area, your under 5's will be entertained while you enjoy a coffee (and a piece of cake) from the Beeshed Cafe. 

12. Play in the Park Held at various parks in Chelmsford on various dates, some welcome under 5's as well as older children; check the website for full details. Free!

13.  Wild Wednesdays at Danbury Country Park. Free outdoor fun and games for all ages. 

14. Tropical Wings is a great place to visit with the under 5's. Small enough to see it all in one day but big enough to have a wide variety of animals and birds. Also one of the cheaper 'day out' places in Chelmsford. 

15. Chelmsford City Council Activity Courses. Some of these courses are available from ages 1 and up. Art and crafts, gymnastics and swimming are among them and they are run at 4 different centres across Chelmsford. 

Please do leave a comment below if you know of anything else going on that I've missed out. 

Enjoy the summer and I'll be writing a post for the beginning of September with a round up of pre-school classes and groups. If you have something you would like to include do let me know!

101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer - Part 5

And finally Part 5 of 101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer. This post includes soft play areas and everything slew that didn't really fit into the first four posts. 

Have a fantastic six weeks! Let us know what you've loved (and loathed!) about the places that have been suggested...

81. The Playloft at Rivendell Village in Maldon

82. Dizzee Rascals in Maldon

83. Creepy Crawlies in South Woodham Ferrers

84. Mace Playce

85. Kids and Koffee

86. Pickles Playhouse in Witham

87. Rocky's Funhouse

88. Wacky Warehouse

89. Cheeky Monkees in South Woodham Ferrers

90. Lathcoats Farm and PYO

91. Hazle's Pottery Barn

92. The Glazed Look

93. Ceramics on the Hop

94. Odeon Cinema

95. Swimming

96.  Essex Libraries reading challenge

97. Tenpin Bowling

98. Pitch and Putt

99. Ice Skating

100. Shopping (It's almost last on the list as I know it's most parents idea of hell but it's going to have to be done anyway for all the back to school stuff!)

and finally 101: A nice relaxing day at home!!


Don't forget to check out the other blogs in this series!

Part 1: Summer Courses, Camps and Holiday Clubs 1-20

Part 2: Days Out 21-40

Part 3: Events and Activities 41-60

Part 4: Get Outside! 61 - 80

101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer - Part 4

Part 4 of 101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer is a showcase of some of the best parks and outdoor spaces that we have right on our doorstep in Chelmsford. We'd all love for the sun to shine all summer, so I've included some of the closest beaches to Chelmsford as well. So go on - get outside and try somewhere new!

61. Play Cafe with Natural Foundations in Writtle

62. Hylands Park

63. Oaklands Park

64. Danbury Lakes

65. Galleywood Common

66. Hatfield Forest

67. Thorndon Country Park with Gruffalo Trail!

68. Saltcoates Park

69. Promenade Park

70. Walton-on-the-Naze

71. Clacton on Sea

72. Frinton Beach

73. Great Notley Country Park

74. Castle Park in Colchester

75. Epping Forest

76. Admirals Park and Tower Gardens

77. Three Shells Beach in Southend

78. Brightlingsea Beach

79. Cudmore Grove Country Park

80.  Mersea Island


Don't forget to check out the other blogs in this series!

Part 1: Summer Courses, Camps and Holiday Clubs 1-20

Part 2: Days Out 21-40

Part 3: Events and Activities 41-60

101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer - Part 3

Part 3 of our series '101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children this Summer' covers various special events that are taking place in and around Chelmsford. I've tried to keep them in date order but some of the activities take place on more than one day so do check the links to find out more. 

41. Wild Wednesdays at Danbury Country Park 23, 30 July, 6, 13, 20, 27 August

42. Play in the Park - Taking place at various venues across Chelmsford 

43. Submerge Pool Disco at Riverside Ice and Leisure 23rd, 30th July and 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th August 

44. Horse and Carriage Rides around Hylands Park 23rd, 24th 28th July, 1st August

45. Wednesday Wonders at Chelmsford Museum 30th July, 6th, 13th and 20th August

46. Archery at Hatfield Forest 6th July and 17th August

47. Maldon Carnival in Maldon High Street and surrounds 2nd August

48. The Puppet Festival at Southend Pier 2nd and 3rd August

49. Horrid History Weekend: The Time of Witches and Witchcraft at Mountfitchet Castle 2nd and 3rd August

50. Open Sundays at Sanford Mill 3rd, 17th and 24th August

51. Inflatable Fun at Hylands Park 3rd-6th August

52. Kids Fest at Marsh Farm 8th -10th August

53. Southend Carnival 16th August

54. Carnival-on-the-Naze 16th and 17th August 

55. Late Night Opening at Colchester Zoo 9th and 23rd August

56. Clacton Air Show 21st and 22nd August

57. Jousting with The Knights of Middle England! at Castle Hedingham 24th and 25th August

58. Alice in Wonderland at Hylands Park 26th August

59. Scrapbook Safari at Hylands Park 30th July and 27th August

60. Train Operating Days at Colne Valley Railway 



Don't forget to check out the other blogs in this series!

Part 1: Summer Courses, Camps and Holiday Clubs 1-20

Part 2: Days Out 21-40

101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 in our blog series, 101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children this Summer. This post will focus on days out, so pack a picnic and hope that the sun shines! 

Some of these are a little further afield than Chelmsford but you are going for the day...

Days Out

21. Colchester Zoo - book tickets online to get a discount.

22. Marsh Farm

23. Tropical Wings

24. Chelmsford Musuem

25. Barleylands

26. Hyde Hall

27. Essex Police Musuem

28. Museum of Power

29. Hopefield Animal Sanctuary

30. Adventure Island in Southend. Get your wrist bands in advance on the website to save money!

31. Old MacDonald's Farm

32. Colchester Castle

33. Audley End House and Gardens

34. Tilbury Fort

35. East Anglian Railway Museum

36. Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary

37. Hedingham Castle 

38. Combined Military Services Museum

39. Cressing Temple Barns

40. Layer Marney Tower

Don't forget to check out the other blogs in this series!

Part 1: Summer Courses, Camps and Holiday Clubs 1-20

Part 3: Events and Activities 41-60

101 Things to Do in Chelmsford with Children This Summer - Part 1

With the Summer Holidays fast approaching and parents torn between 'how lovely to have 6 weeks with my children' and 'September can't come soon enough!!' I've put together 101 things you can do with your children in Chelmsford this summer. (OK - some of them aren't strictly in Chelmsford but none of them are more than an hour's drive!)

The first 20 include courses and camps that will need probably need booking before the holidays start - so get yourself organised if you need to!

Summer Courses, Camps and Holiday Clubs

1. Activity courses at Riverside Ice and Leisure

2. Activity courses at Chelmsford Athletics Centre

3. Activity courses at Dovedales

4. Activity courses at South Woodham Leisure Centre

5. Supercamps at New Hall School

6. City Camps run by Chelmsford City Council in different Chelmsford Venues. New this summer!

7. Netball Youth Camp run by England Netball at Sandon School

8. Mega Camps in Brentwood

9. Barracudas Day Camps at Chelmsford County High School

10. Jesters Holiday Club in Bicnarce

11. YMCA Holiday Club in Central Chelmsford

12. Little Stars Theatre Workshops at venues across Chelmsford

13. Mad Science Summer Camps in Great Baddow

14. Bear Grylls Kids Survival Day Courses in Chelmsford

15. One Day Activity Courses at Danbury Outdoors Centre

16. Holiday Clubs at Danbury Sports and Social Centre

17. Essex Cricket Summer Courses

18. Dance courses at Essex Dance Theatre

19. Animation Workshop at Just Imagine

20. Saracens Rugby Camp at Chelmsford Rugby Club

Don't forget to sign up via email to receive the rest of the posts in this series!

Part 2: Days Out 21-40

Part 3: Events and Activities 41-60

Diggerland in Kent

We were invited to along to review Diggerland in Kent and, being obsessed with anything construction related, T was very excited. Diggerland opens at 10am and we arrived shortly after that. (It’s just under an hour’s drive from Chelmsford). The Diggerland website promises to be 'the UK's most unique attraction where children and adults have the chance to ride and drive REAL full size construction machinery, under the guidance of our trained staff - no driving licence required!'

I would definitely recommend arriving earlier in the day as it meant that we were able to go on some of the rides before any queues built up. The park was smaller than I have expected but there was more than enough to keep us occupied for the day. 

All of the rides have a height minimum; some have a minimum of 80cm whilst others have a minimum of 1m and some rides have different minimums for drivers and riders, so adults can go on some of the rides with their children. All the rides and their height requirements are available on the Diggerland website and you are strongly advised to check this before visiting as, although children under 90cm gain free entry, they are restricted on the rides that are available to them. Staff are vigilant in checking heights of children before allowing them to ride too. 

But you really do get to ride on the diggers! I was surprised at the size of some of the diggers that we were allowed to use and to drive. Obviously they have restricted the speeds of the machines but this really didn't detract from the enjoyment of the ride. Being completely honest, I am not that interested in diggers, but even I felt a huge sense of accomplishment as I drove a dumper truck round a track and managed not to bump into anything! They are also much more difficult to drive than you think. The vehicles have a huge number of buttons and levers and even with just one or two levers to control it still took a lot more concentration than I had anticipated. 

There were other vehicles (I really should know the different names after spending a whole day on them - if you know the names of them please let me know and I will amend this post) that didn't move but you could use the levers on these ones to use the front loader (I did learn something!) to knock down skittles or to find buried treasure. We could take L (over 80cms) on these ones and  it turned into a bit of a race between two teams to see who could knock down the skittles fastest! Again it was much harder than it looked. 

We could also all go on the Tractor train ride around the park and L loved this. The train ride was interesting as we got to see the part of the park where the 'Diggerland Experiences' take place. On the day we were visiting there was some JCB racing going on and it was watching this that I realised the speed limit that had been applied to some of the other vehicles. JCB racing did not appear to be for the faint hearted! Other experiences offered by Diggerland include using a giant excavator and JCB's. They also host birthday parties for children. 

Alongside the rides there were is also a small climbing frame, a soft play area with arcade machines. and a restaurant, where we had lunch. The food was of reasonable quality and was good value for money. It is worth noting, however, that there are a number of coin operated toys and rides at Diggerland that are not included in the entry price, the dodgems being one of these. 

Another big positive of the day was that the staff in all areas of Diggerland were very polite, friendly and really looked as though they were enjoying their jobs.

Diggerland is now open for everyday through the summer. It is open rain or shine so if you know that rain is expected make sure you’ve got your wellies and rain macs!