Wyevale Garden Centres have some great little activities for children for key events throughout the year, I know my children love having tea with Santa at Christmas, so when I was asked to try out an activity for Wildlife Week during half term, I knew my children would be up for a trip out.
With a different activity on offer each day from decorating a bird box to creating a pine cone feeder and the Little Bug Bakery, I knew the bakery would be appealing to my two who love a spot of baking.
The Little Bug Bakery was a 90 minute session costing £5 per child which I thought was quite good value. We arrived at Endsleigh, our local Wyevale Garden Centre and were handed disposable aprons and the children stood behind a table. I hadn’t told the children what they were going to be doing and thought it’d be a nice surprise.
The children enjoyed mixing up some ingredients to make biscuits and then were given some red and black fondant icing to decorate a pre-prepared cupcake. It was suggested we could make a ladybird or anything else we fancied. Mister B decided on a random design while Miss M attempted a ladybird.
We were then given an activity sheet to complete while the member of staff in charge went to put the biscuits in the oven. After doing some puzzles and colouring we were milling around for a bit wondering what we would be doing next, when the staff member came back and offered us a wristband for a 30 minute play in the soft play area. As expected my two children couldn’t get in there fast enough.
We were now 45 minutes into the 90 minute activity, the kids had lots of fun in the soft play and we returned after 30 minutes to the activity tables but it was just a case of grabbing our freshly baked biscuits and leaving.
As you can see my children were rather pleased with their finished products and couldn’t wait to take them home to show daddy and of course eat them!
For an extra £4 you can include a lunch box with each activity which we did, so we then headed off to the main restaurant to sit down and enjoy a spot of lunch. The children love eating out so this went down well and they enjoy picking the items to go in their lunch bag. I’ve always found Wyevale Garden Centre’s to have a good choice for kids and also a wide selection of food available for adults too. The children then popped outside to the outdoor playground for a final run around before heading home.
Overall we had a good morning out and the children definitely loved being there. I did feel though that the Little Bug Bakery lacked a little something, enthusiasm, excitement perhaps?!?
A youngish member of staff was in charge of the activity, and although she was pleasant and told us what to do, I didn’t feel she interacted with the children or engaged with the group as a whole in any way. She just walked past the tables telling each of us which ingredients to mix together. I wasn’t even aware until I got home and looked at the website that the biscuits we were making were “squashed fly biscuits”. How excited would the children have been if they thought the raisins they were adding were squashed flies?!!
I just feel that if she had addressed the group as a whole by maybe having a table in front of us and getting all the kids to copy each step she did, it may have been a bit more fun and interactive. It probably would have filled the time better too. I don’t blame her in any way, but maybe a little more training/guidance is required.
I also noted on the website that unlimited squash was included but we weren’t offered any or didn’t see any around.
I would visit Endsleigh Garden Centre again and we do go there quite regularly as I think it’s a great place and does offer some different and fun things for the children.
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received entry costs to the event in order to write an honest review.
Sounds like a great idea, shame about the staff member taking the group but it sounds like these are new so hopefully they will improve! We loved the Christmas event we attended at our local Wyevale Garden Centre so will definitely look for things like this coming up.