As families leave the country en masse for summer breaks and with temperatures being inconducive to doing anything more than nothing, you’d be ill-advised to open an exhibition in the month of August. For parents, though, the month represents a challenge: how do you keep the little ones busy and entertained for four weeks? Well, look no further than our round-up of the best alternative summer holiday activities for children in the UK.

Under Fives Explore the Gallery, Tate Britain, London
Ever tried to get around a gallery with a toddler? It’s not pleasant, take it from us. The Tate Britain is offering an alternative, with a session in which children are left to discover their own path around the galleries. Choreographer and artist Aya Kobayashi developed the event, which aims to be an interactive journey through the collection.

August Family Saturday, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset
Hauser and Wirth’s Somerset outpost invites families for free art sessions on the first Saturday of every month. August’s slot is dedicated to the exhibition ‘Alexander Calder: From the Stony River to the Sky’, showing at the gallery until September. Book in advanced to explore the construction, materials and space concomitant with Calder’s signature sculptural form: the mobile.

Sounds of the City, Design Museum, London
The Design Museum’s ‘Get into Design’ programme offers families and young people a way into the world of design through a series of workshops and courses. Our pick in August is ‘Sounds of the City’, led by maker and educator Sophie Greenstreet, who will be leading a workshop for children aged 8-11 years to make their own instruments, just in time for Notting Hill carnival.

Skill Up: Mobile Studio Architect’s Five-Day Summer School for Young People, RIBA, London
Budding young architects aged 15 to 18 years old will find an elucidating workshop series at this ‘Skill Up’ programme at the RIBA. Lead by Chee-Kit Lai, director of Mobile Studio Architects, the five-day summer school will introduce skills like sketching and planning, using Sam Jacob’s exhibition on perspective (currently at the RIBA) as inspiration.

Dream Worlds, The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire
This multiple-date event will see the learning studios of The Hepworth Wakefield given over to children aged 2 to 12 years old so that they can create colourful artworks inspired by ‘Viviane Sassen: Hot Mirror’, currently on in the gallery. Sassen’s dreamy, vivid and immersive works are sure to prompt some creative responses.

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