Hainault Forest Country Park is the perfect place to take the kids when the weather is fine! There's a little farm where they can see the animals, there are goats, donkeys, pigs, cows, rabbits, ferrets - to name but a few. My 2 year old daughter especially loved the goats, you're not allowed to feed the animals but she pulled up some grass and followed one particular goat along the fence saying "here you go, dinner". The goat in question eventually took pity on her and ate her frugal offering!
Once you've visited the farm, you then have loads and loads of space in which to have family fun - although if you're planning on a game of football, it's best not to do so too near the lake! My 4 year old boy was distraught when his Thomas The Tank Engine ball ended up in the middle of it. I did ask a passing swan to head it back, but it stuck it's beak up in the air and blatantly ignored me!
It's also the perfect place to fly a kite! What memories it bought back, running down the hill trying to get the kite airborne! I think I had more fun than the kids - in fact my eldest looked at me a bit like that kid does on that advert - you know the one, where the mum's been on the yoghurt drink and rollerskates up to the school! If you don't have a kite, I bought a great stunt one online, I'll add a picture below so you can see - come to that I'll add a link to where I got it from in case you want to relive your childhood too!
Before we went, I made a visit to Toys'R'Us and found a terrific "Mega Games Backpack" - it was even on special offer at £9.99. This was great value for money, it was packed with great stuff for us all to play with, including the one shown in the picture below which I hadn't seen since I was a kid myself - needless to say I think I had more fun than the kids with this one too...
All in all we had a great time - it didn't cost anything to get into either the park or the farm, we took a picnic with us and there was a kiosk there, which conveniently opened at lunchtime and where we could buy tea/coffee and ice lollies - who could ask for more!
For more details about the park, please visit their website directly at:
http://www.hainaultforest.co.uk