Yorkshire Sculpture Park

We have been meaning to take Olivia here for ages, so we were super excited to go finally on a day trip with her friend Ivy. The girls had an amazing time and it was genuinely fun for the grown ups too – win win!

Planning your visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park

YSP is near Wakefield – it takes around 40 minutes in the car from Halifax, but you can also get a bus straight there from Wakefield or Barnsley. There is a cafe and toilets, plenty of picnic spots, and even some tables under cover for having lunch outside if it is rainy.

YSP indoor galleries

They have some brilliant exhibitions on in the indoor galleries. When we went, there was a beautiful collection of woodland creatures by Mr Finch, and, my favourite, a stunning display of tree-inspired sculptures by Guiseppe Penone called Tree In the Woods. When we entered the Tree in the Woods section we borrowed an art park from the box for Olivia to draw pictures of the sculptures. She loved creating different shapes with the charcoal and magnifying glass.

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The YSP gardens

The sun came out halfway through our visit so we went outside to explore the gardens. They are beautiful in their own right, but it is especially fun to come across the amazing sculptures dotted around. the girls loved peeking through them and running round the secret pond.

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We had a fab day at YSP and we are planning to go back again – there is a lot we didn’t get chance to see, especially outside, so it would be good to go back on a sunnier day. One of the best bits was seeing Olivia just loving running round the gardens!

St Ives Park in Bingley – an awesome adventure playground

We love finding new parks and playgrounds to explore – and especially in the summer holidays. We went along to St Ives to check our their huge adventure playground and had an amazing time.

Planning your trip to St Ives

St Ives park is near Bingley, around half an hours drive from Halifax. There is a huge car park with plenty of spaces, and you can also get buses up there from the centre of Bingley. There’s a lovely little cafe with outside seating, lots of space for picnicking, and an ice cream van next to the play park.

Exploring St Ives estate

You can do some lovely walks around the grounds, and there is lots to see with horses to visit, a lovely lake to walk around, and hidden little gardens to explore. You can easily get a buggy around the main parts, or you can off-road with a carrier  or older legs if you want to explore the nearby moorland and cliffs.

Adventure playground at St Ives

 

The star of the show for Olivia was definitely the adventure playground. It has so much to do for all ages, and she particularly loved the tall wooden castle towers with slides, the climbing walls, the tyre swings and the lovely musical playground area with squeaking planks and a musical tile set you can walk on.

After exploring the park we had ice creams on the grass and found this beautiful carved wooden chair to perch on.

Have you been to St Ives? Which is your favourite bit?

Hebden Bridge park and the Park Life Cafe

I have been meaning to blog about this place for a while now. We LOVE going to Hebden Bridge park, and often have breakfast or lunch in the lovely Park Life Cafe, which has tables outside and suits my little Toddlebeast down to the ground as she can scramble and run around whilst I enjoy a coffee in the sun.

Planning your trip to Hebden Bridge

Hebden can get very busy, especially on weekends or during holidays, as it is a popular destination for tourists. However, I’ve found that if you arrive in the morning, there is always a bit of space in the car park near the train station. There’s a path that goes directly from the car park down into the park, so it is super convenient.

Enjoying the playpark in Hebden Bridge

The playground area is great fun for all ages. There are dedicated climbing frames and swings for younger ones, and a really amazing wooden climbing structure for older ones with a huge tube slide. Can’t wait for Olivia to be old enough to scramble up there! There’s also a pirate ship and a water play area with lots of equipment for pouring and splashing in the summer.

Exploring the garden area in Hebden Bridge

In the bigger bit of the park there is a skate park which is great for older ones, and also an outdoor gym area which toddlers love climbing and jumping around. There’s also a huge field for playing ball games or spreading out for a picnic, and you can easily get onto the canal to spot some boats and ducks too.

Food and drink at the Park Life Cafe

The cafe is in the middle of the park, and has outside seating that looks onto a grass play area with some lovely wooden blocks scattered around for climbing and sitting on. They do brilliant coffee and the food is yummy, with lots of choice and a great range of vegetarian and vegan food too. The staff are very friendly and also very patient and welcoming around young children.

Toddlebeast checks out Wellhome park in Brighouse

With Spring just around the corner we have started checking out some of the local parks we have overlooked in the past. We had never been to Wellhome Park before, but had heard good things about the climbing frames and spacious garden bits. We went along to check it out on a sunny days a couple of weeks ago.

Planning your visit to Wellhome Park

Situated just outside Brighouse centre, the park is easy to get to by bus and also has plenty of on road parking round the edge. We took snacks with us today, but there is a cute looking cafe with an outside seating area which we might try out next time.

Exploring the Wellhome Park playgrounds

The play equipment at the park is brilliant – there is a smaller climbing frame for younger children, which Olivia enjoyed as soon as we got there, with some baby and standard swings right next to it. However, her favourite bit was definitely the area for older children, which has an amazing climbing structure, and lots of unusual touches like rope climbing and trapeze bars.

Walking round the Wellhome Park gardens

As well as brilliant play areas, the park has extensive garden areas you can walk round. There is a river running through the grassy area which was lovely for exploring, and I really liked the huge old tree trunks dotted around – we all enjoyed climbing and jumping off those.

There is also a great area for teaching cycling, with a painted on road, and a couple of little paths leading up into some woodland. We are looking forward to coming back to explore again soon, there is plenty to keep young children occupied over a morning or afternoon.

Exploring Judy Woods with the toddlers

We were lucky enough to have some dry, warmish weather at the weekend, and it spurred me to get us into the outdoors and enjoy some fresh air. The winter months can be hard on parents and kids, with little opportunity to enjoy fresh air and space to run and climb – definitely my toddler’s favourite things to do! So we togged up and went exploring in Judy Woods in Norwood Green, near Halifax.

Planning your visit to Judy Woods

Based just next to the village of Norwood Green, the best place to park is on station road near the marked entrance to the woods. If you are going by bus I would probably recommend getting off in Norwood Green or Wyke, and walking from there. There are no cafes or toilets at Judy Wood, so pack your picnic and be prepared for a woods wee if need be!

Exploring the leaves and mud at Judy Woods

Although the weather was dry, there was still plenty of mud for the toddlers to enjoy! Olivia loved squelching in the muddy puddles in her wellies and jumping through the muddiest bits. The woods are really pretty and there were lots of fallen trees to climb, sticks to play with and different plants to look at. There is a beautiful river running through the woods which we didn’t get chance to explore this time, but we will definitely be going back for a splash in the warmer months.

There are benches dotted along the paths in the woods if anyone needs a rest, and the toddlers enjoyed getting their picnic boxes out for snacks on as many benches as possible!

Trying out Norwood Green playground

Just round the corner from where we parked there is a small village playground, which was great for burning off some extra energy before a lunch time nap. The swings there a fab – old fashioned long chains which means really lovely high long swings, which Olivia loves. There’s also a great climbing frame with different bits for older and younger kids, and a slide.

We had a great morning exploring the woods and the playpark, it was fun to see the little ones enjoying the first nice spring day we have had. I’d like to try more woodland walks with Olivia and would love to hear about your favourite places to go.

Leeds City Museum – a big hit with the toddlers!

We braved the cold weather this weekend to go on a family trip out to Leeds City Museum. Lots of people have mentioned have fab it is for young children, so we took Olivia and her friend along to explore the galleries.

Planning your trip to Leeds City Museum

My partner drove us to the museum, and we parked in the nearby Light shopping centre car park. Even on a busy Saturday it was easy to find a space, although it is £3 per hour so space doesn’t come cheap here! The museum is about a 10 minute walk from the train station. It is generally much quieter in the afternoon, so if you want to avoid the crowds, head there after lunch.

Natural history at Leeds City Museum

There is a lot to get round at the museum, with 3 floors of galleries themed around natural history, different cultures and local history. However we found that there were only really 2/3 areas which were particularly good for younger children. We loved the bottom floor with it’s amazing display of animal skeletons – I had no idea that Elk were so huge! There’s also a great section in there where the children can uncover fossils as part of an interactive display. Olivia spent some time at the colouring table and dressing up areas, but was mainly enjoying looking at all the animals and naming them as we went round.

Local history at Leeds City Museum

On the top floor there is a display all about Leeds and its history, and it houses a really lovely play area for under 5s with a mini town. Olivia and her fiend enjoyed playing in the house and filling wheelbarrows of bricks up to whizz along the little road. The usual endless conversations about sharing toys aside, they both really enjoyed this part of the museum.

Egyptian history at Leeds City Museum

Also on the 3rd floor, there was a gallery all about ancient Egypt, with a real preserved mummy and lots of beautiful artefacts. The toddlers enjoyed playing with the mini building blocks in here (until a grumpy security guard told one of them off for knocking them together!) and me and my partner enjoyed chuckling at a really weird mosaic of a wolf. Win win!

Eating and drinking at the museum

There is a cafe which looked fairly spacious, but we didn’t go in as we were going out for tea afterwards. Having experienced plenty of museum cafe food in my time, I would be tempted to suggest eating out in Leeds anyway, as there are lots of family friendly tasty restaurants to choose from.

Toddlebeast rating: 3.5

We had a great afternoon at the museum, but I think it is really only 1-2 hours worth for younger children. Definitely worth a visit though, and I look forward to trying out their Toby Tiger art club they run at some point as Olivia loves crafting.

Cliffe Castle – exploring a castle in Keighley

I love finding out about interesting and unusual places to explore with Olivia, especially when they are free and on my Yorkshire doorstep! I hadn’t heard of Cliffe Castle before it was recommended to me by another lovely mama, but her description of a museum with lots animals to look at and a great outside space meant we had to go check it out.

Planning your visit to Cliffe Castle

Cliffe Castle is just outside Keighley town centre, around 15 minutes walk from the bus or train station. It is easy to drive to, and has a car park which is free to use. It gets very busy on a weekend though so it is often easier to find a space on the streets surrounding the grounds, which are also free. The museum is generally open 10-4 weekdays and 11-4 weekends, but is closed on Mondays.

Exploring the museum at Cliffe Castle

We went into the museum first as it was drizzling when we arrived, and we were looking forward to exploring the mansion in the warm. The entrance to the museum is very beautiful and ornate, and it was lovely to see Olivia looking up at the carvings and paintings. Once inside, there are two floors of galleries to explore, themed around different areas of Victorian history, natural history, archaeology and social history.

Our favourite spaces were the stained glass display, the preserved mummies and the local student artwork section. Olivia loved pointing out all the different animals in the stained glass area.

The only downside for us was that there was a LOT of pressure on young children to be quiet and slow throughout the mansion. I generally think that, for a 2 year old Olivia understands fairly well about using inside voices and slow steps when necessary, but we still felt a bit on edge. There were signs everywhere in red and bold telling children to walk slowly and be quiet, and we saw a member of staffing walking around telling people off very grumpily. For this reason we only lasted about 20 minutes in the house and then went outside to explore in a more relaxed atmosphere.

The adventure playground

We were very excited to find a fab adventure playground outside which Olivia immediately ran to and starting exploring – I love seeing her confidence in the outdoors, she is such a dare devil! They had a great big tube slide which she played on for ages, and a nice sand pit area and some cool bouncing areas set into the floor. We spent a good hour on the park, and will definitely come back again in warmer weather.

The animals at Cliffe Castle

Unfortunately when we visited renovations were ongoing so the animal areas were not open. We would definitely like to come back and explore them another time, and have been told they will include bees and an aviary.

Eating and drinking at Cliffe Castle

There is a big cafe in the conservatory near the park, which looked nice, but we didn’t eat there so I’m not sure on the quality of the food. We took some snacks and there are lots of places to enjoy a picnic in the huge park in the warmer months.

Toddlebeast rating: 2.5

Cliffe Castle was a fun trip out for the afternoon, we really enjoyed the playpark, but I don’t think the mansion is that welcoming for younger children unless you can keep them VERY quiet and slow! We do look forward to returning in the summer though for picnics and exploring the big gardens.

Manor Heath park in the winter

I don’t know about you but we are really ready to get outside and enjoy some fresh air after the rubbish weather we have had recently! Olivia loves being outside but hates being cold, so we have invested in some awesome warm all in ones and thermal gloves and socks in a bid to make sure we spend more time outside in the run up to spring. One of our favourite outdoor places to go is Manor Heath Park in Halifax, and we went recently on an unexpectedly sunny afternoon.

Planning your visit to Manor Heath Park

The park is easiest to get to by car, but you could get a bus to King Cross and walk down from there in about 5/10 minutes. There is a small car park at the top of the park but also lots of on street parking all the way around. The park is free to get in but the butterfly house is £1 per child.

Exploring Manor Heath Park playground

The play areas are really great, with something for all ages. The main park has a range of climbing frames, slides, baby swings, a big netted swing, a playhouse structure and a roundabout. There are also some lovely touches like some talking/listening tubes which allow children (or grownups!) to talk to each other across the playpark.

Mucking about in the water play at Manor Heath Park

A brilliant feature at Manor Heath is the water play area – in the summer there are buttons to press to make the water flow and then all kinds of troughs and sluices etc to get them children involved in directing, building up and releasing the water in different areas. It really is fascinating and a great way to learn and play at the same time. In the winter though, the water is turned off to avoid ice. Even so, Olivia loves running around and climbing over the troughs, plus what toddler doesn’t love poking a stick around some muddy rainwater for a while?!

Meeting some animals down at Manor Heath Park!

If the winter air gets a bit too fresh after a while and you need to warm up, you can head to the butterfly house for £1 per child. This small tropical conservatory has meandering paths to run along, an amazing array of tropical plants and some fish, terrapins, butterflies and occasionally quails to say hello to. Olivia loves it in here and calls it the ‘turtle house’. It is a lovely way to warm up and explore a different environment.

Are there any particular parks that you enjoy going to in the colder months? Bonus points if they have somewhere indoors to warm up when needed and a place to have a sheltered picnic!

The Smith art gallery and library for toddlers

As we love visiting Bankfield Museum so much I thought it would be a great idea to look at other local galleries and museums which might offer some fun learning experiences for Olivia. Before doing a ‘gallery’ search on Google maps on my local area I had never heard of the Smith Gallery in Brighouse, but I quickly found out it also contained a library and had some gardens to explore, so we decided to check it out.

Planning your visit to the Smith Gallery in Brighouse

The Gallery is located just outside the centre of Brighouse, about ten minutes walk from the main Sainsbury’s bus stop. It has a handy car park with plenty of spaces too. It is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays but other than that opens every day from 10 until 4. Entry to the gallery is free, there is a donation box if you want to pop some change in.

Exploring the art gallery

There are two main rooms to the gallery, one which is full of beautiful paintings, both portraits and landscapes, from a range of artists. There was a particularly lovely one by the famous artist Atkinson Grimshaw. Olivia enjoyed looking at all the different people and their clothes, and really loved posting lots of change in the donation box! The other room has visiting exhibitions which change throughout the year, and at the moment there is a really interesting display of local maps – I enjoyed finding the location of my house on a few. There aren’t any children-focused displays in the gallery but it was interesting to look round and plenty of space for toddlers to clamber around.

The Brighouse library

In the same building is the main Brighouse library and they have a really lovely section for younger children. There were lots of books to look at, some comfy eats and a small table with colouring materials. Olivia also quickly spotted the shelf of sticker books which were for sale at £1 each – great value for some fun and educational activity books. We spent most of our time in the children’s library as it had much more to interest our little ones.

The Smith gallery gardens

To run of some steam we explored the gardens outside the gallery, and spent a surprising amount of time out there. There are paths to run around, benches to sit on, rocks and trees to clamber on, and of course puddles to splash in!

Lunchtime at the Smith art gallery

There isn’t a cafe there so I would recommend taking some snacks and enjoying them in the gardens. If it is a bit chilly then there is a small cafe (The Old Post Office) 2 minutes walk up the hill on the right. We went in for a brew and they were happy for Olivia to have her picnic in there whilst we had tea and toasted teacakes, perfect!

Toddlebeast rating 3.5

We had a fab time here but there isn’t as much to entertain the little ones as at Bankfield Museum. I think it is definitely worth a visit though, especially in the spring when you can spend time outside in the gardens too.

This was our first visit to anything in Brighouse – do you live nearby? I would love to hear your recommendations for fun things to do in this area.

Toddlers investigate the toy library!

Have you ever been to a toy library before? I didn’t even know they existed until my friend invited me to the one in Hebden Bridge. What a great idea though – a place where your children can explore new toys and borrow one they really like for a week. I’m a big believer in not cluttering up our home with every toy under the sun, as I find Olivia gets a lot more out of a smaller number of imaginative toys – she gets overwhelmed and bored when there is too much going on in her playspace. The library means you can try out new items before spending a fortune, brilliant.

Planning your trip to the toy library

The Hebden Bridge toy library runs on a Thursday morning at Hope Baptist Church, opposite the cinema, 10-11.30am. It is really close to the main bus stop, 5 minutes walk from the train station and there are several car parks signposted in the centre of Hebden so it is super easy to get to.  The only tricky bit on our first visit was getting in the building – the entrance you want is around the side of the church, up a small ramp. Once inside, head upstairs to the first floor and you will see the toy library room – and hear the unrecognisable sound of lots of toddlers!

What do they have at the toy library?

The group is run by a lovely lady called Sarah (I think, apologies of I have her name wrong, my memory is shocking and I fully blame sleep deprivation 😉 ) and she has chosen a brilliant range of toys to have at the library. They had everything from a fully equipped wooden dolls house, fire engine and huge spiralled car ramp, to some lovely open ended Grimms and Little Stars toys, plus a beautiful ball run and some great quality dolls. Olivia really loved playing with the doll in the sturdy wooden pram, and also enjoyed the Haba ball run which had this amazing spinning cog that went round the ball track. All the toys at the toy library can be hired for a week and range from 50p-£1.50.

Food and drink at the toy library

A lovely surprise at the end of the session was snack time with fruit, biscuits and breadsticks, followed by a short singing session, which the toddlers loved. If, like us, you are ready for lunch afterwards, I can highly recommend Marco’s pizza just 5 minutes walk away. The freshly made pizzas are the best I have ever eaten and the owner is extremely friendly to families, even providing a little table with toys and books to keep them entertained.

Toddlebeast rating: 3.5 (I really enjoyed this trip out and we will definitely do it again, but Olivia is battling with sharing at the moment so the session was a bit intense at times. This is only natural though and I look forward to going again soon).

Have you been to a toy library before? Do you regularly hire toys out? We didn’t borrow anything this time but definitely will on our next visit.