For those families struggling to get kids off screens and out of the house, it's a great chance to look at upcoming events to engage children.
For growing minds there are some wonderful regular events to take the little ones to where learning and fun are the priorities. It is also proven that heading out as a family can have benefits for all including mental health, physical activity, and better communication.
Over the next few months there are some great family focussed events to explore together.
Foster learning for little ones at the library
There are plenty of learning opportunities at the library where the under fives can attend a fun weekly session of different story times. Rock and Rhyme Time is held at City Library and Wallsend Library and introduces children under three to songs, nursery rhymes, dancing, music, stories.
Introduce your baby to the wonderful world of books at Baby Book Time. Baby Book Time will provide you with the tools and resources to nurture your child's love of reading.
Stomp your way through a weekly fun themed session of stories, songs, games and craft developed to stimulate, engage and grow the minds of 3–5 year old's at Story Stomp at both City Library and Wallsend Library.
Introduce your under five to the wonderful world of Spanish at Spanish Rock n Rhyme Time. Don't miss fun, stories, rhymes, songs, and music in "Español"!
For something a little different, enjoy a special glitter filled storytime extravaganza with Newcastle's own Timberlina at Rainbow Families Storytime.
At Wapaya Toddler Time toddlers will enjoy familiar games with an Indigenous twist, including Serpents and Songlines, Can You? and Bush Tucker Snap. Each week the games played will be linked to different areas of our jarjums physical and social development.
Get hands on at a fun workshop
Share your skills, master cool builds, and make new friends at the City Library's Lego Club. Each week you will be tasked with a different challenge to increase your master building skills.
Join The Nature Space for a Nature Immersion Session at the beautiful Jesmond Park. Activities include nature play, eco-craft, connection, messy sensory play, belonging practices, whittling with peelers and fire striking to make a small laboratory fire.
It's National Science Week and a great opportunity to learn all about everything science. Head to the Newcastle Museum on the 21 August to build and race a solar car with Hunter Valley Electric Vehicles, make "poo" with world-class HMRI gut researchers and find out how food is turned into poo, climb into a council garbage truck and talk to the driver, win prizes at fun family science trivia competitions, and explore interactive science tables from all the Hunter Science Hub members! Check out the Biomes and Brains exhibition between 13 August - 28 August.
Be entertained at a family friendly show or concert
Join Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Lord Farquaad and a gang of fairy-tale misfits in Shrek the Musical at Civic Theatre, until 20 August for an irresistible mix of adventure, laughter and romance, guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages.
Dive into Civic Theatre this September as St Phillips Christian College presents The Little Mermaid. Featuring 36 students selected from Newcastle, Port Stephens, Cessnock and Gosford campuses of St Philip’s Christian College, this incredible production is part of their 40-year anniversary celebrations. With BIG production, a sumptuous live orchestra, and a story we have all come to know and love, this musical will be something for the whole family.
She Kills Monsters performing at The Playhouse tells the story of Agnes Evans, a young woman grieving for her deceased sister. The Evans sisters never were especially close, but after Tilly’s death, Agnes discovers a notebook containing a game scenario created by her sister. Chock-full of supermodel elves, fierce warrior women and nasty ogres, She Kills Monsters is a surprisingly sweet tale of friendship, loss, and acceptance.
The Quokkas are heading to Wallsend Library for two performances on Sat 28 August. The Quokkas is a musical mash-up unlike any other. They formed to make music to expose Aussie children to a diversity of voices and promote a message of inclusivity. This five-piece band of professional musicians, made up of different cultural backgrounds and physical abilities, are focused on helping the next generation of Aussie children explore the world.
Celebrate the re-opening of Wallsend Library
You're invited to a Family Fun Day at Wallsend Library on Sat 20 August where you will enjoy morning tea, story times, Lego challenges, maker tech workshops, bees wax wrap workshops, magic table demonstrations, refreshments, and live music.
Check out the New Annual Family Friendly Program
Build, code, play, imagine and experiment with a range of technologies and musical tools, including drumming robots, robotic textiles, midi-triggering, and more at Robotics and Music Workshop or program a robot to dance, play instruments, and learn about simple visual coding at the Robot Dance Party.
From the 23-25 Sept, children are invited to be part of an immersive narrative fairytale at The Playhouse. Well will see children enter an imaginative world through an immersive set where they encounter puppets, characters and riddles.
Wheeler Place will be re-imagined as a landscape that recalls what lies beneath its paved colonial grid – a landscape of sand – once moved by wind, floods and tides. Sand will be returned to the heart of the city as structure, ballast, shelter and seating for a pavilion that celebrates and centres Awabakal and Worrimi Culture for New Annual Festival 2022. The Pavilion of Sand will be home to a program of dance, native food workshops, language workshops and performance throughout the festival.
Menagerie is a new, interactive community performance from Curious Legends.
Throughout the festival, participants are invited to help Curious Legends create Menagerie.
Across 4 making workshops, festival-goers of all ages are invited to help create our Gentle Giant - a towering, illuminated puppet with a pulsating heart. Participants from the Well performance will also work on a cumulative artwork that will form part of the giant.
Part dance. Part ballet. Part outdoor spectacle. TROLLEYS is a twenty minute outdoor dance theatre work utilising five supermarket trolleys and five exceptional dance and physical theatre artists.
Keep checking back for more family friendly events at What's ON.