5 Things to Do in London This Weekend with The Kids My Baba 11 February, 2016 Activities and Days Out, Features Around Town Ring in the Year of the Monkey in Chinatown this Sunday, as the West End turns red for a daylong festival of music, dance, street food and acrobatics. There are martial arts displays, opera performances and kid’s entertainment in the family area on Charing Cross Road, and the firework finale is held in Trafalgar Square at 5.20pm. Next week, the Ragged School Museum celebrates the history of Regent’s Canal with water themed children’s activities, ranging from barge building to face painting, while the wonderful Geffrye Museum has craft sessions in candlestick making, porcelain painting and more. VENUE: Various venues, see event PERFECT FOR: Ages vary – see specific event WHEN: See specific event for date Getting Crafty Throughout the week, the needlecrafty folk at Let’s Learn in Finchley are hosting morning sewing workshops for all ability levels, with machine classes for over-9s and hand-sewing sessions for 6-8s. Down south in Wimbeldon Park, Sew Pretty lets kids seven years old and over tackle practical sewing projects such as tote bags, cushions and pencil cases in its weekday morning classes, while bijou Blackheath children’s shop Ottie and the Bea invites anyone over 3 to a morning of bead jewellery making. VENUE: Various venues, see event PERFECT FOR: Ages vary – see specific event WHEN: See specific event for date Tots and Tiddlers Parents become sandwich ingredients at Pip Jones and Laura Hugh’s author’s event at the South Bank Centre where they bring their picture book Daddy’s Sandwich to life. In Olympic Park, the folks at Olive Loves Alfie East are gearing up for Valentine’s Day on Friday 12th with a card-making workshop for preschoolers and drop-in Cupid’s arrow craft sessions. If karaoke floats your boat, Lucky Voice Islington hosts BYO-Baby sing-a-longs the final Thursday every month. VENUE: Various venues, see event PERFECT FOR: Ages vary – see specific event WHEN: See specific event for date Lights, Camera, Action Bring your instruments to the Royal Academy of Music on Saturday 20th for a musical tour of the solar system, courtesy of a family workshop inspired by Holst’s The Planets. This weekend, visit Soho Theatre’s Comedy Club 4 Kids which promises to deliver giggles with a hour of family-friendly stand-up. The Museum of Childhood marks Play-Doh’s 60th this half-term with a week of modelling and animation workshops, and the Young Actors Theatre in Islington hosts a weeklong glee club for 6-11-year-olds, culminating in a poptastic Friday show. VENUE: Various venues, see event PERFECT FOR: Ages vary – see specific event WHEN: See specific event for date Science and Technology This weekend, the Festival of Imagination takes over Chat’s Palace in Hackney, introducing over-5s to the wonders of tech, from coding and electronics to and stop-motion animation and neuroscience. The Royal Institution is catering to firework fans and wannabe astronauts with a behind-the-scenes insight into the science of pyrotechnics and a drop-in family fun day exploring how we survive in space. For aspiring architects, RIBA’s half-term Design Quest sessions challenge 6-10s to conceive floating buildings and construct and destroy their own cities, while its Design Day for 11-15s tasks them with 3D modelling and building tree houses from balsa wood. The fab Stemettes are having a techy birthday party yippee. 🎂🎉 VENUE: Various venues, see event PERFECT FOR: Ages vary – see specific event WHEN: See specific event for date For more awesome things to do this weekend, check out UrbanExplorer.com!