Although Scunthorpe is not on our doorstep, we find ourselves going fairly often. As well as visiting a few shops, we love Vue Cinema here and it’s so convenient with multistorey parking which comes straight out to where the cinema is (level 2) and parking is free if you are visiting Vue.

Scunthorpe Central Library

The library in the centre is brilliant, with the children’s library on the ground floor. We’ve been to many events here too, including ‘breakfast and books’ and special events in the school holidays like drawing and art workshops (all for free). It often gets involved with community events too like at the Christmas lights turning on event it had craft activities, face painting, and singing, again all free. Even on a regular day they have some games in the adult library upstairs so you can have a browse while the kids have a play with giant chess, giant connect 4, or the interactive tables.

The Visual Arts Centre

We love the Visual Arts Centre and used to go to the toddler sessions, Stick and Splodge. As well as this, they have various other sessions in the week for children such as ARTivity Table 10am to 4pm Tue to Sat (correct at time of writing!) and Art Club one Saturday a month 1-3pm, both free. They also have one off free events like family funday events. Keep an eye on their website or sign up to their newsletter. They also got involved with the Christmas lights turning on event and offered various free craft sessions which my younger two really enjoyed. They have a nice cafe with a variety of options. Art exhibitions are on show in the building. You can see what the current exhibitions are on their website. Here are some recent exhibits:

North Lincolnshire Museum

We’ve been here a few times and it’s a lovely child friendly museum with things the kids can touch and interact with. There’s no cafe here but they will let you eat a picnic in the courtyard garden. They have different exhibitions at different times (the above pictures are from a viking exhibition), so worth making repeat visits. See full blog post here.

Normanby Hall Country Park

This is a favourite of ours and well worth signing up for the membership – we have done this for multiple years. It has a big play park, as well as lots of grounds to explore. You can look around the hall too, feed the ducks, look around the gardens, and sometimes ride the land train. Go Ape hold sessions here and Normanby Hall hold other events such as ‘Party in the park’, ‘No limits’ literature festival, and ‘Spooktacular’ Halloween event. They have a ‘splash pad’ open in the summer holidays. Check out my other blog posts on Normanby Hall here and here. Since then, we have been back and had a good look around the Rural Life Museum. It’s not huge but another thing to do to give you some variety on visits if you’ve signed up for a membership. It had some great areas that the kids could play in so kept everyone happy!

Twigmoor Woods

Lovely woods – beautiful lake and nice circular walk. The best time to visit is the end of spring to see the rhododendrons. Free parking but no toilets or cafe. See blog post here.

Pink Pig Farm

Another favourite in the area. Typical of a farm park Pink Pig has a soft play area, cafe, outdoor play things including a sandy area and somewhere to play football, and animals to visit. I also like the indoor role play area which is good in poorer weather although better for younger children. They have a ‘Christmas experience’ in the winter, you can read about our visit for this here.

Play Avenue, Messingham

Such a lovely role play centre, I was really impressed with the quality of the toys at Play Avenue and how clean the place was, although the 1.5 hour slot feels a bit short. See full blog post here.

Finally, on the list to visit as we’ve only been once when we first moved up here and then forgot all about it, is Central Park. My friend went recently and said it was beautiful and good for scooters. They do ‘parkrun’ here on Saturday mornings. Other places we haven’t yet tried are the swimming pool (The Pods), Arcade Warehouse (a gaming family entertainment place), Airkings Trampoline Park, and Messingham Zoo, so still have some places to explore! Where are your favourite places in Scunthorpe?