What can you get for £1?

Not much, these days. Two creme eggs, as if you needed any more? We headed to Cupar today to meet up with old friends, and the kids went for a swim in the local pool. Somehow I seemed to have missed the fact that all Fife pools are back doing their Quid A Kid in the school holidays. Today ours enjoyed an inflatable session (bouncy castle thing on the water) - suitable for kids aged 8 and over unaccompanied. Mine had never experienced this before and declared it to be "really slippy but amazing!"

http://www.fifeleisure.org.uk/Spring/index.html

Go Nuts and Taste

Now that I am a childminder, I'll be adding more to this blog and including some great places to take preschoolers in Scotland.

A new soft play cafe in Auchtermuchty, Go Nuts and Taste is ideal for under 5s, with a small soft play frame which means you can't lose them even if you wanted to. With added chalk wall and drawing table, there is plenty to keep little ones amused here while you enjoy the v good homebaking and coffee. Good menu with lots of little people options means this is going to be a hit with the locals, and probably with some others who are looking for a quieter option than some of the bigger play centres.

It's also nice and clean and your feet don't stick to the floor. Long may that continue!!

Auchingarroch Wildlife Park, Comrie

One of our favourite places to hang out with the animals in Scotland is Auchingarroch in Comrie, mainly because of all the baby animals (baby chicks! baby chicks! I want to squash em and squeeze em and hug em and love em!...) Lots of animals to see from the coatimundi to the racoons, wildcats, lemurs, pigs, rabbits, ponies, yaks and various other cute and fluffy things. The hatchery indoors has animals that can be handled like rabbits as well as all the baby chicks (baby chicks! .... here we go again...)

A hike up the hill to see the otters leads on to the deer and beyond there is a great viewpoint, worth a trip up here for the view alone, and a chance to see the famous tartan sheep on the way down.

Pony riding was £2.50 for a trip twice round a pretty small field wasn't nearly as great as it could have been, given the amount of space in the unused field next door, so we were a bit disappointed with that. But nice to see it offered and kids enjoyed it.

Also missing were all the prairie dogs which used to burrow everywhere and steal your picnic - wasn't quite the same without them, sadly.

Lots of outdoor stuff in the park and crazy golf, and lots of space for picnics, and a new soft play area for the under 7s in a covered barn. The barn for the over 7s is a bit neglected with hardly any play equipment so this could do with a makeover.

All in all a good day out, but over priced without a voucher to soften the blow!

Loch Leven's Larder, Channel Farm, Kinross

So, not exactly with the kids today, as they are all back at school. More of a grown up coffee and scone, (nice selection - date & walnut, cherry, cheese or fruit!) After a recent revamp the shop is looking fantastic, filled with lovely goodies that I wish I could afford, but it's always nice to browse. Great selection in the food larder with lovely condiments, preserves, and fab selection of kitchen gadgets, posh stationery, fresh veg and great gifty items like toiletries, scarves and candles - it's very easy to find a birthday present or two here!

Good breakfast menu between 9.30 and 11.30 - eggs benedict looked particularly fab this morning, but I was restrained and only had a scone. There are two new "pods" outside the cafe for private booking for parties, I am thinking a birthday afternoon tea would be perfect in one of these.

I've never been delighted with the waitress service at Loch Leven's Larder - it seems immensely hard to other three hot drinks and three scones and receive the right order without having it triple checked, and children are not a high priority here, have often had them served last rather than first, which doesn't take much effort or common sense, but it does seem sadly lacking most of the time.

And the children's play equipment (slide and a wooden train) is still around, but no improvements on that scene. Considering children must make up a good chunk of their customer base, there's still some work to do on that front - a box of toys in good working order, some colouring sheets, and some investment in the playpark would be well worth it, but that doesn't seem to be high on the agenda. Shame - until then, it will be strictly mums for coffee while kids at school and no weekend visits with the family.

Loch Leven Leisure Pool at Kinross

Swimming this morning at Kinross - we love the pool on a Sunday morning, as it's not too busy with plenty of space for swimming as well as the one-to-one lessons going on. Instructors here and all staff in general should be commended for how friendly they are.

There is a raised floor at one end of the pool from 10-12ish, which creates a shallow water area for non-swimmers, with a wee slide and lots of squeezy toys and foam bricks etc thrown in the pool to make it fun.

The pool is always freezing, and the showers are old and dodgy, but if you want to do some "proper" swimming rather than trying to squeeze between people at Perth Leisure Pool, it's a good place to be. Don't tell too many people though  - I like it quiet!!!

The Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh

I can't call it The Botanics, as my grandmother would turn in her grave. She lived next door to The Royal Botanical Garden and so from an early age I have been well trained in getting the name right! My daughter and her friends look on a trip here as their favourite thing to do in Edinburgh. We take a bus from Hanover Street (23 or 27) down Dundas street and through Canonmills, to Inverleith Row, where we can access the garden by its east gate. It's an easy 10 minute bus ride, and for those little ones who don't get to go on buses all that often, sometimes the trip on the double decker is one of the funnest (sorry, most fun) parts.

Our favourite parts are the Rock Garden (also known to us as the Fairy Garden) where lots of little paths take you around the waterfall and pools, and the Glasshouses (which ask for an entry donation, about £10 for two adults and up to four children). The glasshouses have two large ponds with fish and amazing lily pads, as well as tropical houses and other amazing botanical stuff.

We like the child-friendly cafe and terrace, and we also like exploring around the Chinese Garden as well as outdoor pond with ducks, and various interesting trees for hiding underneath. In fact, every time we go, we find something new that we haven't seen before, from the exhibition centre at the West Gate with it's colourful wigwam decorated with children's drawings to a new path we haven't explored yet!

Most of all we like that our kids go off and play imaginative games among the flowers (sorry botanists). It's great to see them playing outside with nothing more than their imaginations, hunting for fairies. Oh, and it's pretty too!

Aberdour Silver Sands beach, Fife

"What is that bright thing in the sky?" The children were amazed. Being Scottish, they had never seen it before. "It's the sun" I explained. "And when it shines, we go to the beach....."

Aberdour Silver Sands is one of my favourite child-friendly beaches, with great views on a clear day across to Edinburgh. It's a smallish beach so can get pretty busy on a sunny day as everyone takes advantage of the weather. Not too far to go from sand to water for paddling, swimming is harder as the water is very shallow with shifting sand banks, creating islands that you can paddle out to. Care should be exercised with the "sinking sands" even though they cause much excitement and screaming from children!

There is a handy beach front cafe (although it couldn't be less beach friendly if it tried - no beach wear, no bare feet, no using the loo unless you buy something- the rules go on and on. Surely they should just put an outside tap in for feet washing and try to smile, it would make a huge difference!) There is a public loo outside for 20p which is modern and clean if you want to steer clear of the cafe with your flip flops...

There is a bouncy castle and kiosk selling candy floss and icecream on the grass at the top of the beach, which could be seen as advantageous if you don't mind shelling out (ha ha no pun intended) but the kids came back a bit disgruntled after the bouncy castle. For £1.50 each for 10 minutes they said they weren't allowed to touch the sides, and they couldn't bounce properly as there were too many tiny people on it. Bah!

Plenty of car parking for £1.50 for a day, and an easy 2 minute walk to the beach from the car park. We took the train and it was a 10 minute walk from the station, fine on the way there, but would have been arduous on the way back lugging our beach gear and sore feet (thanks to A for our lift back!)