Five Free Things To Do With Your Family This Weekend

EVENT, DO, RECIPE Jump For Joy
Shrove Tuesday falls on February 25 this year – next week. Pancake-flipping races take place in squares and down streets across the UK, but things are a little different in Scarborough. The town celebrates Skipping Day on the town’s picturesque Foreshore Road. Groups of adults and children leap over single or double long ropes, some dressed in costumes. The 100-year-old tradition originated from Ball Day – a public holiday for apprentices and servants. Why not try some skipping? Learn the basics here, some fancier tricks here, or even go Double Dutch!

If it’s all about the pancakes for you, why not try something a little different? Banana pancakes with sweet lemon drizzle, carrot cake pancakes or chinese vegetable pancakes. If your children are keen on making their own, try our super-easy recipe for raisin and lemon versions. And finally, find pancake-flipping tips and videos (plus a few disasters) here.

EVENT Family Love
Newcastle’s Baltic gallery is unmissable this weekend. Not only are the stunning Animalesque and Play Rebellion installations perfect for kids, but Saturday and Sunday are filled with extra Family Days fun and creativity. Create circles of love with artist Richard Bliss, nurture plants with BALTIC artists Sophie Lisa Beresford and Soodabe Nazarhaghighi, try creative kindness and make natural dyes and flower origami with seed paper, have a herbal tea and hand massage, explore the galleries with your children, listen to choir performances and chill out in the sensory room.

EVENT Play Fair
Fair Trade Fortnight runs from February 24–March 8, and is a chance to pause and think about the way that products on our shelves are made and arrive in our shops. It’s a great opportunity to sit down with your kids and discuss how your choice of what to buy can affect the lives of farmers and workers across the world. This year, the event is once more focussed on cocoa. There’s an easy to understand film about Fair Trade on the website, stories from inspiring women who want to tell you about Fairtrade, or storybombs, for a more practical way to spread the message. Find resources here

EVENT A Shroom With A View
Mushrooms: The art, design and future of fungi is Somerset House’s free celebration of the humble fungus, taking a look at its colourful cultural legacy – including its psychedelic properties – as well as examining how this beguiling group of plants might be used in design, textiles and architecture in the future. As well as watercolours by Beatrix Potter and a collection of vintage Alice in Wonderland books, there are films starring a cheery fly agaric and a ‘death suit’ made of mushroomy materials. It’s small but thought-provoking, perfect for older kids and young adults, and there are wide-ranging events to complement the show, including edible utopia tours that explore the mushrooms growing beneath the building’s courtyard, mushroom growing workshops, a music performance inspired by stinkhorns, investigations into how mushrooms might be used to treat depression. Why not tie in your visit with one of the House’s fantastic, free history tours.

EVENT Making Waves
This year’s Coastival festival

is focussed firmly on free family fun, as the gang take over the Grand Hall at Scarborough Spa for two days of crafting colossal cardboard constructions, interactive performances, music workshops, and arts and crafts. Try crocheting, sing in a family choir, make cave art and clay pots, and attend the children’s university. The weekend ends with a colourful, loud family concert.

What we’ve been reading this week:

12 ideas for observing an eco-minded Lent
“While I am not religious, I remain intrigued by the idea of a 40-day challenge (although this year it’s more like 46 days in length). Lent can be used by non-believers as a time to experiment with new interests and habits, particularly environmentally focused ones. The defined length creates a time limit that is comfortable and manageable, and yet it’s a long enough to make a difference and to establish sustainable practices.” Read more here