Summer Sorted
by Educate Magazine May 9, 2017 · Latest Features
Great holiday activities for kids, teens and families.
With lots of free time ahead here’s our pick of the best activity based things to do across the North West this summer.
Throw a pot
The Great Pottery Throw Down (BBC2), which featured 10 potters from around the UK, no doubt inspired many to want to have a go at this ceramic craft. Based on the Wirral at Claremont Farm, Paul Gould, a ceramicist and experienced potter, runs pottery classes in his studio for both adults and children. With special sessions for kids to teens, ranging from something as simple as making a pot, to more themed classes making animals, masks, tea-lights, and many more creative ideas, Paul’s studio is a great place to learn how to work with clay, express your ideas, or make that special something.Summer holiday sessions are running from Saturday 22 July until Friday 11 August and cost from £15 per person per session lasting an hour and a half.
Tel: 07454 671296
Learn how to stand up paddle board
First practiced by Hawaiians, paddle boarding otherwise known as SUP, is growing hugely in popularity around the world. According to Andrea Doyle from Liverpool Watersports Centre, she has noticed a massive growth in interest and believes this is because the sport offers a new challenge, is lots of fun for all the family and accessible to most people. Every Wednesday a special SUP night at the centre offers lessons in a class environment between 6-7pm at a cost of £11 per hour for a child and £16 for an adult. Also on offer are Pay and Play sessions open 7 days a week at a cost of £6 per child and £11 per adult, which includes the board hire and buoyancy aid. With Liverpool’s dock system right on the doorstep, paddle boarding offers fantastic freedom to explore the south docks and is a unique way to view the heart of the city. The club has a range of boards from beginner to racing, as well a giant SUP board for up to six people!
www.liverpoolwatersports.org.uk
Tel: 0151 708 9322
An amphibious adventure
Possibly already a big part of children’s lives, why not combine the sporting disciplines of swimming, and running by getting your kids to train for and enter an outdoor swim run event this summer. Part of the North West Junior tri series, the Crosby Lakeside Junior Aquathlon takes place on Sun 23 Jul 2017. The race involves a swim in the Lake at Crosby Lakeside and a run up to the promenade overlooking the famous ironmen.The race is part of the North-West Junior series and although it does attract some serious, talented youngsters it also perfect for first timers and attracts younger kids too. The club organisers coaching sessions involving open water swimming, and running, as swimming outdoors is quite a specialist skill. Wetsuits are provided for the sessions which have grown in popularity in recent years.
Kick a ball into a big hole
An increasing number of North West golf clubs are bringing the game of footgolf to their courses and offering a new way for families to keep active this summer. The sport combines golf and football on a modified course, where players kick a football into a 22 inch hole in as few as shots as possible. With pretty much the same rules as golf, it has opened up the sport to a whole new audience and is an inexpensive activity for all the family to play.Bowring Park’s tree-lined footgolf layout is just one example of many, and is open seven days a week. Located in Huyton there are two courses, a9-hole relatively short course and a longer 18 hole course. Both are ideal for families of all ages and prices start from £4 per child/£8 per adult for the 9 hole to £5 per child/£10 per adult for the 18 hole. Footballs are provided for a £5 deposit.
www.ukfootgolf.com/bowring-park
Tel: 0151 480 8685
Get on track with new cycle route
Launching in May the new Sefton Circular cycle route covers 24 miles, 20 miles of which is traffic free. Cyclists of all ages and abilities are encouraged to get on their bike and explore the borough’s coastal path. The launch of the route coincides with ‘2017 the year of Sefton’s Coast’ a celebration campaign to recognise, promote and enjoy the superb Sefton Coastline; the Sefton Circular route takes in many miles of the coastal path, before heading inland along the Cheshire Lines towards Maghull and eventually the Leeds Liverpool canal, bringing you back to Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre via Rimrose Valley. Children and adults will love this new family friendly route and it offers a great low-cost and fun day out for the whole family while getting active too.
Send in the secret agents
Breakout is a live escape room game located in Liverpool city centre. The concept is simple; you are locked in a room for an hour and have to solve a series of puzzles as well as find different clues to find your way out by eventually finding the key that will open the door to freedom. A real team game where up to five children can play as a group to try to search high and low for clues by working together in a race against time. With only 60 minutes allowed and by using only your brain there are no physical activities or challenges involved in the game. Each room is carefully designed to ensure maximum entertainment value. A fun, interactive and different type of experience for both younger children to teenagers to play on their own or a challenge for the whole family to test your wits.
Open 10.00am – 10pm Mon – Sun
Tel: 0151 227 1765
A wet n muddy day out
How do you fancy getting wet in a dunking chair, running crazy on a hamster wheel or falling in mud off balance beams? A great place, where all this is possible, is not too far away located just outside Frodsham in Cheshire. The Manley Mere Adventure trail, set in the beautiful countryside, follows the twists and turns of a stream running though woodland, presenting obstacles and challenges along the way. The outdoor trail itself is about one and half miles long, and as it is also a country walk, there is an easy path to follow that allows you to walk past any obstacles, making it suitable for the less fit or able, or those with pushchairs etc. At the end of the trail there are changing rooms and a cold water hose to wash the mud off! The trail also offers many opportunities to learn about nature while having fun, with a variety of different trees; water and woodland birds, as well as other wildlife to see as you navigate around the course. The trail costs £10 per person per day (under 5s are free), and you can go around the course as many times as you like. There is an additional car parking charge of £2.
Manley Mere Sail Sports
01928 740243
info@manleymere.co.uk
Head off to the coast
New Brighton is a seaside resort located in the north east corner of Wirral, and following a £60 million development, Marine Point, the resort offers restaurants, shops, a bowling alley, laser quest, a theatre, adventure golf course and cinema. It appears in our list however for its beach, a three quarter stretch of flat golden sand with wonderful and undisturbed views over the Liverpool skyline. A trip to the seaside is a must do during the summer holidays, and New Brighton is near enough to make it easily accessible. A beach is a great place for families to visit as there are plenty of fun things to do for free, from paddling on the shore edge, building sandcastles, exploring rockpools to flying a kite or watching the boats coming in and out of the River Mersey. Obviously the mandatory ice cream and perhaps fish and chips for tea, makes a visit to the beach a brilliant day out in sunny weather for the whole family.
