The best arts and culture to entertain children this February half-term
1. Screen-time with a difference
Telling Tales
Shakespeare’s Globe’s virtual festival provides workshops and storytelling based on the plays. The interactive sessions are run by Globe actors, directors and teachers, and arranged by age. For example, children aged nine to 12 can take The Tempest workshop on Feb 16, which uses activities to engage with the Bard’s language, characters and themes.
Until February 21, from £20 per household. Info: shakespearesglobe.com
Preserving Egypt
Step into Egyptian history with Google Arts & Culture, which has partnered with the American Research Centre in Egypt to provide virtual tours of a marble-lined 14th-century mosque (follow the stairs up the minaret to see a view of Cairo’s rooftops); an early Roman “Villa of the Birds” in Alexandria (complete with bath house, gymnasium, theatre and a gorgeous mosaic depicting a parrots, teal ducks and partridge); Cairo’s oldest Jewish cemetery and – naturally – the spooky tomb of an 18th-dynasty scribe in the Theban Necropolis.
Info: artsandculture.google.com/
Virtual planetarium shows
The Royal Observatory Greenwich may be closed, but you can still do your stargazing online. Solar System Discovery is a virtual planetarium show that delves into our celestial neighbourhood, touring planets, moons and asteroids, while Stellar Encounters ventures beyond our solar system. Both suitable for ages 7+. You also get a free ticket to a workshop, where you can create your own solar system model, or to a space Q&A session.
Various dates, £5 per device. Info: rmg.co.uk
Getty Museum website
Ever wondered why there are so many snails in medieval manuscripts? Or whether people kept fish as pets during the Middle Ages? How about why cats are associated with witches, or what medieval people believed crocodiles did after eating a human? The answers to these delightful questions and more can be found on the Getty Museum’s website, supplied by curators who’ve scoured art from the years 500–1500 to ensure we never look at animals in the same light again.
Info: blogs.getty.edu
2. Music to transport you
Noye’s Fludde
There are several great operas for children (Menotti’s magical Christmas work, Amahl and the Night Visitors, for example), but Noye’s Fludde, one of Benjamin Britten’s many works for youngsters, is the best. Based on one of the Chester Mystery Plays, it tells the story of Noah’s Ark. It’s incredibly moving, and the music acts as a brilliant launchpad for getting kids interested in opera.
Order the CD via amazon.co.uk
Peter and the Wolf
Similarly, over time, many kids have been inspired by Prokofiev’s symphonic fairy tale in which the orchestra illustrates the timeless story by playing the characters. The wolf is a French horn, the grandfather a bassoon and the duck is perfectly represented by a reedy oboe. There are many versions, but the 1960 version with Peter Ustinov as the narrator is the nonpareil.
Order the CD via amazon.co.uk
Kaleidoscope Concert
The Southbank Centre offers an online musical experience tailored for infants aged 3–18 months. This 30-minute concert, run by a member of Filskit Theatre, is based on research into how a baby’s sense of sight develops and how they begin to categorise colour. It features a combination of twinkling lights, different hues and interesting sounds, including backing from live musicians. It may well prove soothing for parents and carers too.
February 20, £5 per device. Info: southbankcentre.co.uk
3. Arts and crafts at home
Matisse cut-outs
Fancy introducing your children to modern art? The final decade of Matisse’s career is a great place to start. That’s when the French master started “drawing with scissors”, and pioneered a technique known as the paper cut-out. The pictures he produced are glorious and, crucially, easy for kids to copy. Find spellbinding footage on YouTube of a bed-bound Matisse nimbly employing his tailor’s shears to produce his cut-outs. Then have a go at replicating Icarus, one of the most famous of the lot, for yourself.
Treasure hunt
A few years ago, Phaidon published Map: Exploring the World, a lovely, lavishly illustrated volume exploring the history of cartography. Leaf through the book to marvel at the ingenuity of map makers over the centuries – the stick charts used by navigators of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific are especially memorable – then encourage your children to design a detailed map of the largest room at home, which can be used as a prop for an impromptu treasure hunt. Each budding cartographer hides some “treasure” and marks the spot on their map with an “X”, before handing the chart to a sibling who must then work out where it’s “buried”. If you still have chocolate coins from Christmas in the back of a cupboard, now is the time to use them up.
‘Publishing’ a book
If your printer at home doubles up as a photocopier, then you’re ready to set up your own bijou publishing house. Having listened to an audio book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland while drifting off to sleep for several months, our four-year-old became so obsessed with Lewis Carroll’s novel that – tearing our hair out trying to think of ways to pass the time – we encouraged her to sit down and “write” (i.e., draw) her own version of the whole thing. She took the task surprisingly seriously, sketching out various key scenes and even producing a title-page, which we then photocopied and stapled into a “book”.
Stop Motion Studio
This brilliant app allows you to shoot your own animated movie using toys and objects lying around the house. We decided to produce a silent short, starring a much-loved feline cuddly toy playing a “cat burglar” making her getaway by scaling a string of lights before disappearing out of the window. It’s surprisingly easy to get the hang of the creative process – and, with various filters and settings to play around with, very absorbing once you do. By the end of a tough morning on set, this dad was embarrassingly proud of his newfound skills as an auteur.
Info: apps.apple.com
GarageBand
Unleash your child’s inner pop star, and you might just discover your own in the process. Making music together has become ridiculously easy in the computer age. GarageBand is the simplest and most intuitive digital audio interface, enabling anyone with even limited musical ability to make high quality home studio recordings, with built-in loops, samples and instrumental effects that do most of the technical work for you. You need a microphone and, ideally, a small midi keyboard, and after that it is really all about imagination, application and fun. Your kids probably already know how to use it, so let them take the lead. It is only available to Mac and iPhone users, but there are lots of PC alternatives, including Magix Musikmaker, Cakewalk and Audiotool.
Info: apple.com/uk/mac/garageband/
Gruffalo crumble
World Book Day (which takes place on March 4) has put together a juicy library of online resources to make reading more appetising. The family section of the website offers a wealth of ideas, from puzzle-filled activity sheets, to child-friendly recipes inspired by classic stories. When energy levels run high, set them to work with a mixing bowl. The Gruffalo Crumble Cookbook includes Purple Prickle Pancakes and Toadstool Pizza. Delicious.
Info: worldbookday.com
Design a monster
What child isn’t thrilled by monsters? Art history is full of them, from the hybrid demons of Hieronymus Bosch to the snake-like flying dragons often represented in oriental art.
Flicking through Christopher Dell’s Monsters: A Bestiary of the Bizarre (Thames & Hudson) will easily occupy a morning. And, having analysed the common characteristics that make a monster so, well, monstrous – scales, bat-like wings, sharp fangs and the like – your child will be well placed to design a fearsome creature of their own. If they’re still bereft of inspiration, though, invite them to copy a powerful – and stunning – double-page spread depicting cavorting monsters in one of the greatest children’s books of all time: Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
4. Film and TV club
Studio Ghibli
Nestling on Netflix are 21 animated features from Japan’s Studio Ghibli – all U or PG rated, but brimming with the kind of beauty, eeriness and wonder that will keep viewers of all ages glued. Start your journey with My Neighbour Totoro, a soul-swelling parable of childhood imagination and resilience, or the fantasy epics Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, if more action and spectacle is desired. Worlds you can lose yourself in are a speciality, while their range – folklore, war, teenage self-discovery and much more – is unparalleled.
Info: netflix.com
Alex Rider
This stylish thriller series, adapted from Anthony Horowitz’s teen spy novels, is essentially James Bond with Clearasil, a smartphone and a gaming habit – and far superior to the flop 2006 film adaptation. Otto Farrant kicks baddies’ backsides as the eponymous hero, and Alex’s best mate Tom (Brenock O’Connor) is a comic scene-stealer, while the classy grown-up cast (Vicky McClure, Andrew Buchan, Stephen Dillane) will keep parents entertained. A second season is currently in production.
Info: amazon.co.uk/amazonprime
Junior Bake Off
The sweet-toothed contest’s pint-size spin-off is currently better than its parent programme. Apron-clad cuties aged nine to 15 enter the fabled Bake Off marquee to whip up imaginative, child-friendly bakes. When things go wrong, this lot don’t cry like the silly adults – they laugh it off and bounce back. Host Harry Hill and judge Liam Charles are almost as hilarious as the cheeky scamps themselves. The latest series, the sixth, is sheer joy to watch, with a heartwarmingly worthy winner.
Info: channel4.com
Cover your eyes! 5 films NOT to watch with your kids
You might already have some film-watching ideas in mind, but beware: here are five popular choices that are far from child-friendly...
1. Love, Actually
Aww: doesn’t this mega-hit comedy offer a nice panorama of the world of L-O-V-E? Well, maybe, but it’s not all Martine McCutcheon simpering at Hugh Grant: there’s also a strand set on a porno film, featuring Martin Freeman and Joanna Page, who obligingly shares her breasts. Bedtime, actually, kids!
2. Ghostbusters
This 1984 sci-fi comedy may be a family favourite, but who can forget the infamous dream sequence where Dan Aykroyd gets, erm, rather more than he bargained for from an amorous ghost? The results will leave you spooked.
3. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Nominally about pets, Ace Ventura features an awful lot of sex, which you possibly forgot because you were so distracted by Jim Carrey’s goofing. At least the sex is between humans, but it’s vigorous and unrestrained, and there’s also a rather painful sequence that hasn’t dated well, where Carrey a) first expresses intense disgust at having kissed a trans person, and then pulls their skirt down for a “big reveal”. This movie is not a “safe space”.
4. Watership Down
The first film adaptation of Richard Adams’s novel, from 1978, was notoriously bloody, with no fewer than 63 rabbits dying in 90 minutes, which is some kind of feat. Seventies parents should have got wind of the horror when they saw the poster – a rabbit being garrotted.
5. Bambi
The slaughter of the doe’s mother, halfway through, is one of the great film deaths of the 20th century. It’s built up ruthlessly, and is guaranteed to leave you blubbing within 60 seconds, at any age. “We made it, we made it, mother!” cries little Bambi, thinking they both escaped the hunters. No you didn’t, dear.
(And one book to avoid at bedtime...)
The Adventures of Pinocchio
A small boy is beaten, tricked, mercilessly remoulded by an old man and even has his legs burned on a stove. This is the original tale of Pinocchio, as written by the Tuscan Carlo Collodi in the late 19th century. Don’t say “poor Pinocchio”, though: the wooden boy kind of has it coming. In one episode, he kills the future Jiminy Cricket with a hammer.
Contributors: Robbie Collin, Lucy Davies, Michael Hogan, Ben Lawrence, Alastair Sooke, Marianka Swain, Louis Wise and Susannah Goldsbrough
See this Saturday’s Telegraph for Nick Harding’s ‘100 Things to Do This Half Term’
