40 ways to entertain your kids: Part 6

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26. Go bowling

Get your fancy shoes on and try and score a strike. There are loads of bowling alleys all round the country and, if your young ones find it a little too tough, they can put bumpers down the gutters to make it easier.
- Find your nearest bowling alley
Best for: Girls and boys
Age: 6+

27. Get them to make a map

You draw the squares on a large sheet of paper and see how easy they find it to draw the local neighbourhood. Get them to imagine they're a bird in the sky looking down. Not as easy as it sounds.
Best for: Boys
Age: 9+

28. Have a karaoke competition

If you have a games console, then something like SingStar is fantastic.

Alternatively, karaoke CDs cost very little from music stores. Make sure you sing along to some of the songs as well. There's nothing like embarrassing yourself to entertain your kids!
Best for: Girls
Age: 8+

29. Put a play on

Encourage your child's creative side, by finding a box of dressing-up clothes and get them to come up with a story for a play. You might need to help them with some ideas (princess trapped in a castle; stranded on a desert island are two). Don't forget you'll also have to sit through the performance.
Best for: Girls
Age: 6+

30. Get into painting
In the same way that museums are far cooler now than they used to be, art galleries have woken up to making painting fun. Many of them have workshops that kids can take part in and quizzes they can answer as they go round.
Better still, government-sponsored places are free, so even if your child gets bored after 30 minutes, it won't have cost you anything.
- Falmouth Art Gallery in Cornwall has won a family-friendly award for its noisy workshops
- Tate Britain and Modern in London are both great fun for kids. There's also one in Liverpool!
- Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is showing 50 winning entries to the National Galleries Of Scotland Art Competition for Schools until the end of February 2008.
- Manchester Art Gallery has stacks of things to do for families, many of which are interactive.
- To find more places near you, search at Ideas for the kids
Best for: Girls and boys
Age: 7+