Free events for kids in London

Enjoy Krafty Kids art sessions at Pop Brixton

Calling all south Londoners: artist Julia Nieto runs weekly FREE arts and crafts classes for kids on Saturday mornings in the greenhouse at Pop Brixton. Each week, children will get creative with paper art, colouring, modelling and more.

Get hands on with armour at the Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection is a real gem for kids: get them excited with the armour and then treat them to masterpieces like Hals' Laughing Cavalier or Fragonard's The Swing. On Saturdays, kids get the chance to get up close and personal with the extensive armour collection, trying and handling real and replica pieces, with volunteers on hand for questions.

Steve McQueen, Year Three, Tate Britain

A must for all schoolchildren who will love looking at snapshots of other kids across London, acclaimed director Steve McQueen has turned his lens to London's Year 3 students to capture portraits of the next generation. In addition to the Tate exhibition, kids will enjoy spotting billboards around the city.

Easter at Southbank Centre 2020: What's on

Easter at Southbank Centre is a mix of workshops, music sessions, crafts, theatre, eco fun and much, much more. Many events are ticketed but there's loads of good free stuff to pop into, from folk music sessions in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer to pedal power discos - a cycling disco where the music stops when the cycling does.

Hone your computer skills with Apple's free courses for kids

As parents, we're torn between embracing technology for our kids... and fearing it. Apple is making it easier than ever to empower the next generation; not only do they have a free summer camp for the 8-12 crowd across their stores (sign up here to register your interest), but there are also workshops and sessions for kids at Apple locations throughout the year.

After-school and on Saturdays, kids can pick up all kinds of amazing new computer skills, from creating their own emojis to making film trailers to coding their own Sphero robots. Feeling a bit jealous? There are adult courses you can sign up for, too.

Photo: Wesson Wang

Marvellous and Mischievous: Literature's Young Rebels, British Library

The British Library's latest kid-centric exhibition, Marvellous and Michievous: Literature's Young Rebels, looks at some of children's literature's most famous rebels from over the years, like Clarice Bean, Tracy Beaker, Zog and others.

WOW: City Lights and Woodland Shade, Japan House

Take the kids to Japan House's digital arts exhibition featuring visual design studio WOW, which includes everything from Japanese wooden kokeshi dolls to a journey on Tokyo's Yamanote Line, exploring skyscrapers and the night sky along the way. The interactive exhibition gets kids stuck in, whether it's creating trees on a wall out of magnets to entice birds or projecting their own faces onto kokeshi dolls.

Water - From Source to Tap exhibition at the ICE

Learn all about water engineering, sanitation, fatbergs and flooding at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Featuring different zones to introduce kids to water-related projects around the world - and hopefully encourage budding activists - this exhibition also features hands-on displays and virtual reality. Plus, what better way to illustrate STEM in action than with a Fatberg Monster and Captain Sanitation superhero?

Emmanuelle Moureaux, Slices of Time, NOW Gallery

NOW Gallery in Greenwich Peninsula is a constant source of exciting, inspiring and provocative art exhibitions free for the public to enjoy.

They're particularly good at doing immersive works, too - see Kinska's My Opera House, which saw the space transformed into a colourful ceramic house. Currently, the space is awash in a rainbow of paper cutout colours for Emmanuelle Moureaux's Slices of Time exhibition, which is just gorgeous. NOW Gallery is a brilliant space for introducing your mini-mes to immersive art, that you'll actually enjoy yourself.

Get wet in London's glorious fountains

Forget about queuing up for the pool at the local leisure centre: the best way to enjoy London in the summer is to dip a toe into the amazing public fountains that double as paddling pools for our youngsters. You'll find them from Somerset House to Granary Square - bring a change of clothes.

Check out London's city farms

Animals never fail to delight and excite children, both young and older. The city's local farms allow kids a mini-escape from the urban jungle - and you don't need to pay to get in.

Explore London's playground scene

London's playgrounds are where you'll spend 90% of your early parenting years - and they're not all created equal. It's worth a trip outside of your postcode to see these exciting playgrounds around the city - and discover what magic they hold in store.

Maths on Toast, Pancras Square Library

Families with children between the ages of five and 12 are invited to Pancras Square Library to learn some maths at the weekends. Each month, a different mathematical theme is explored through arts and crafts, be it bridges, stars, or hexagons. This summer's events are linked to the Summer Reading Challenge, so kids can enjoy maths AND literature, and parents - for once - can feel smug.

Hang out at The Kids' Table

For once, The Kids' Table is where you want to be: a pop-up service that offers supervised crafts and play areas for kids while adults lunch and work out, the service is launching in two new locations in June 2019, Market Hall Fulham and Market Hall Victoria. The kids play, they craft, they get their faces painted - all free of charge. It's suitable for kids aged 3-10.

Stemettes events in London

The Stemettes want to help increase interest and opportunity for girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Currently, a measly 21% of women make up the UK's STEM workforce, a statistic the Stemettes are actively working to change with their free coding workshops for girls of all ages.