5 Free (or cheap) Days Out in Gloucestershire...

A big thank you to Jamie from savvyjamie.co.uk, who has written a guest post about her favourite budget friendly, Gloucestershire days out. We haven't been to the sculpture trail yet, but can vouch for how much fun the other options are for families!

Entertaining little ones can get pricey, so here are my 5 favourite things to do in Gloucestershire for free.

1. Head to The Jet Age Museum

Your little budding pilots will LOVE a visit to The Jet Age Museum. With lots of aviation history from around Gloucestershire, full-sized planes in their warehouse-style museum, and small single-pilot planes that can be sat in. There is also a Hawker Siddeley Trident airliner that you can book a free tour of (older children here as there is a height restriction). The museum is free but does ask for a donation. There is also an onsite café and a small gift shop full of reasonably-priced plane memorabilia. 

2. Visit Museum in the Park

This eclectic museum sits right in the heart of Stratford Park in Stroud. The museum also has a traditional “walled garden” which is perfect for playing Peter Rabbit! The museum also has a small giftshop and a coffee shop. Once you are done browsing the museum, talk a walk around Stratford Park and take in the Sensory Garden, dance in the bandstand, or feed the ducks (food is available at the museum).

3. Explore the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail

Download your free trail map and get ready for adventure. There are 16 sculptures to find and explore. The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail is 4.5 miles long, but there are shorter routes too. Car parking is £3 and the trail is free.

4. Wander around Gloucester Docks

With the guarantee of seeing boats, who wouldn’t love a visit to the docks. With added excitement like watching the bridge go up, or seeing boats being repaired out of the water – the docks can be a great day out. It’s home to award-winning National Waterways Museum and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. There are also plenty of coffee shops and it’s located right next to the outlet shopping centre, Gloucester Quays. 

5. Check out St James City Farm

Who would believe that right in the centre of Gloucester is a sweet little farm?! Well, you better believe it. St James City Farm is home to rabbits, pigs, sheep, chickens, horses and more. Get up close and hands-on at this charity farm where entry is free!

Let's Make Some Noise...

Next up from the Miniature Music Music Bag Club is the 'Let’s Make Some Noise’bag. I'd explained that we were going to return the 'Zoom' bag, but that we would still get to see Kate and the rest of the toys during Miniature Music classes. Honey was fine with that but Ace got a bit upset and wanted to hug Kate the astronaut goodbye, which was super cute.

Honey and Ace were really excited to open up the new bag and even more exited to see what was inside! 

This bag contains:
1 story book (including CD and DVD content).
1 melodica
1 accordion
4 shaker eggs
2 sets of hand bells
2 sensory sticks

Ace absolutely adores books and the fact that this one has vehicles in it AND a song to sing along to, pretty much blew his mind and it's been a firm favourite here over the last couple of weeks. The book comes with a CD/DVD so you can sing and watch along or remind yourself of the tune if you forget! The instruments provided lend themselves to becoming bicycle bells, rumbling trucks and beeping horns during the story but can also be used on their own to accompany a range of toddler performances or family sing alongs. 

Honey loved using the sensory stick as a conductors baton and could regularly be found conducting an imaginary orchestra or choir (Melody Mamas warm up Bella Mama being the performance of choice). Ace's favourite was the melodica, he learnt to fit the mouthpiece by himself and loved dancing round with it playing his own, wonderful compositions! Both children are big fans of a shaker egg or two and love a round of Wind the Bobbin up, as well as recreating class favourites such as fast and slow and shake and dance around.

If you fancy joining the Music Bag Club, you can find all the details in the latest Miniature Music newsletter. We hope you have fun making some noise!

Honey wears... Bunny sweatshirt by H&M
Ace wears... Hooded sweatshirt by Primark

Fly me to the moon...

As Brand Ambassadors for Miniature Music, our first assignment was to test and review their brand new Music Bag Club. The idea is that you can hire a bag containing everything you need to recreate your favourite Miniature Music moments at home. For two weeks, you get all the puppets and props required to sing songs and play games around the bag's engaging theme.

We tried the Zoom Bag first, with Honey and Ace pulling out puppets and fabric then itching to get started straight away. I set us up to sing Zoom Zoom Zoom, We're Going to the Moon and we had lots of fun and giggles launching Kate the astronaut off into space and challenging ourselves to get her to fly higher or land in a specific place (Honey came out with some fantastic positional vocabulary here)!

Next, Honey asked if I could fold the fabric up into a little rectangle, which she then used as a pillow for Kate and tucked her inside the bag because she was apparently tired from all the zooming! This led to a round of 'Fly Little Astronaut' which Honey cleverly adapted from one of her favourite songs 'Hop Little Bunny'.

A while later, Ace picked up one of the star puppets and started chatting and singing to himself. He toddled over and gave me the other star so we sang 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and Ace improvised some actions.

As well as prompting songs and games, we also found the bag to be a great stimulus for conversation. We talked about space, pulled out our non fiction books to learn about planets and space travel and watched YouTube videos of rocket launches. The book that came in the bag 'Blast Off' was requested often too, with Kate being invited to listen along. We can't wait to see what's in the next bag!

Jump...

This week on our tour de Gloucester, Honey and I ended up at the inflatable theme park at Over Farm. For £7, your child (aged 2-14) gets a wristband that gives them all day access to most of the activities within the park (bumper cars and zorbs are extra as they're run by an outside company).

Within the site, there are some basic but well stocked portaloos, as well as a small food stand for emergency drinks and snacks! The theme park is cash only but if you're like me and never remember to carry cash, the lovely farm shop offers cashback when you spend over £5.

Lots of families had come prepared for the long haul, armed with picnics and sun shades. We only had a couple of hours, while Ace was at a nursery settling in session, but still felt that it was good value based on the usual price of around £1 for a 5 minute bounce elsewhere!

Honey felt very grown up when the young man who served us came round, popped a wristband on her wished her a great day and she absolutely loved racing round the field visiting the different attractions. I don't think she could believe that she was allowed to keep going back on her favourite bouncy castles. Typically, her favourite one was the tallest, fastest slide in the field which she climbed up and whizzed down at least 10 times!

The inflatables are there until 4th September, so you've still got time to go along if you like the sound of it. Check out Over Farm's Facebook page for information about their other seasonal events and activities.

Honey wears... Dinosaur top by Mini Boden

All that glitters...

Treaure Seekers' Make and Take sessions came to my attention on Facebook (what would we do without Facebook?) and it looked right up Honey's street! A cavern of buttons, sparkles, glitter and sequins where children and adults alike can create to their hearts content, using anything they fancy, what's not to love? We've been spending some time in Gloucester over the summer holidays while Ace is settling in at nursery, so thought we'd give it a try. 

For only £4 (including a drink), you have an hour to cut, stick, paint and sprinkle a picture frame, bag or just about anything else you can think of! After a short explanation, Honey and her friend chose pictures to embellish and set about filling their pots with all manner of twinkly treasure ready to arrange on their pages. Nothing was off limits and the staff were so kind and helpful when Honey wanted to cut pieces of beautiful ribbon off a reel.

If you're thinking of going along, it would be a good idea to have a look at the website or Instagram page with your child before going along so they have an idea of what they want to make during their session, this will help with time management and will stop little ones feeling totally overwhelmed with choice! Honey had a great time and is already talking about her next project!

Treasure Seekers is a social enterprise that has been set up on Westgate Street in Gloucester. Its aim is to 'support vulnerable and disadvantaged adults to help equip them to be the beat version of themselves.' Visit their website to book your session or follow them on Instagram to have a look at whats going on in store.

Honey wears... T-shirt by Frugi