Museums

Get the kids into politics at the People’s History Museum, Manchester. Children can create their own mini election campaign and play election-themed dressing up (the mind boggles), guess-who games and other activities (free, 14-22 Feb, phm.org.uk). The Lego exhibition at the Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland includes scale models of the world’s wonders, such as the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China and Niagara Falls. It also features local landmarks like the Angel of the North, and kids can have a go at making their own (£4.50 adults/£3.50 children, 14 Feb to 22 Mar and 1 Apr to 31 May, bit.ly/1vsjNLH).

Arts

Forget finger-painting – at surrealist arts and crafts workshops at the Maidstone Museum, kids can make Salvador Dalí-inspired dripping canvases, optical illusion toys or melting clocks. Funny moustaches optional (£3.50, 16-20 Feb, museum.maidstone.gov.uk). Up in Scotland, the Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh will let youngsters aged four to 12 turn detective as they follow arty clues to solve a mystery (Portrait Detectives, free, 8 Feb, nationalgalleries.org). Over at the Turner Contemporary, Margate, budding artists can turn their hands to self portraits and masks in an exploration of self image and identity (£3.50, 15, 18, 19, 22 Feb, turnercontemporary.org). There is more of a community vibe at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, where children can help make a town out of cardboard or try an urban art (AKA graffiti) workshop (free, 16-21 Feb, wmc.org.uk).

Activities

Let them play at being Captain Planet during Novotel’s Super Heroes day at 33 hotels around the UK. The family fun sessions are centred around the environment, healthy eating, craft and cooking (free but booking required, 21 Feb, novotelheroes.co.uk). Ahoy there! Would-be sailors will be whipped into (ship)shape on the deck of HMS Gannet in the Sailors’ Academy at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham. The nautical skills session includes tying knots, whistle commands, flag signals and sea speak (£19/£11.50, 14-22 Feb, thedockyard.co.uk). You’ll be transported back to the 1840s at the grave-robbing-themed Dig Up the Dead show at The London Dungeon. Scratch your donor card – and just hope you’re not due for dissection (from £16.50/£20.50, 14-22 Feb, thedungeons.com).

Nature

Lobsters might not be fluffy and cute, but they are fascinating – learn all about them at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall. As part of the Incredible Crustaceans Supersized weekend, kids can produce their own Wallace & Gromit-style “claymation” film, and make willow sea creatures and lobster pots (£11.50/£8, 14-15 Feb, nmmc-co.com). The Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek is home to some adorable residents: stray, sick and injured seals. Meet the pups and make a mess during Mud Fest, a week of mud pies, puddle paths, welly-wanging and building dens (from £10.46/£8.75, 15-23 Feb, visitsealife.com). Or get in a flutter at London Zoo’s revamped Butterfly Paradise, now with a puparium. Kids can collect nectar from a secret garden using their own human-sized proboscis (from £22.50/£16.65, 14-22 Feb, zsl.org).

Science

Watch Pero’s Bridge on Bristol harbourside disappear behind fog conjured by weather whizz Fujiko Nakaya, walk through the thick clouds, then have an educational chat about climate change – one of many exciting events at the Bristol International festival (free, 12-15 Feb, ibt15.co.uk). The over-fives can find out about volcanoes on Mars and why Saturn floats at hands-on workshops on the solar system at the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Macclesfield (free with admission, £7/£4.95, 16-20 Feb, jodrellbank.net). There are more eco adventures at Trebah Garden, Cornwall, where kids can make a recycled robot out of bits and bobs that would otherwise be thrown away (£2 plus normal garden entry rates: £4.50/£1.50, 17 and 19 Feb, trebahgarden.co.uk).

Film and theatre

The National Railway Museum in York has loads of Paddington Bear-themed activities, from storytelling to science shows. Don’t forget to pack the marmalade sandwiches (free, 14-22 Feb, nrm.org.uk). If they like the new Aardman movie, take them to the Shaun the Sheep Experience at Land’s End, where Mossy Bottom Farm is brought to life. Baa-rilliant (£10.80/£8.10, opens 14 Feb, landsend-landmark.co.uk). At the King’s Cross Theatre in London, a stage version of The Railway Children is built around a real train track and features a 60-tonne vintage steam locomotive (from £25/£18.75, booking until September, railwaychildrenlondon.com). Britain’s favourite detective will take on a new dimension at Paultons Park in the New Forest as a Sherlock Holmes movie screens at the park’s state-of-the art cinema. Follow him and Dr Watson on a chase through the misty streets of Victorian London in 3D with 4D effects, from moving chairs to blasts of air and lightning (park entrance from £24.25; family ticket for four, £93, opens 15 Feb, paultonspark.co.uk). Older kids with a penchant for history might be interested in visiting one of the six National Trust properties that current BBC hit Tudor drama Wolf Hall was filmed at, including Montacute House in Somerset, which stars as Greenwich Palace (see nationaltrust.org.uk).

Outdoors

At Electric Woods on the Isle of Wight – a sound-and-light spectacle in five acres of woodland – the half term theme is Spirit of the Orient. This means a dragon procession, a lion dance, a tea ceremony and lots of tasty Chinese food (£9.95, 14-22 Feb, electricwoods.co.uk). Leeds Castle in Kent already looks like something out of a children’s story, and this half-term there is a fairytale trail around the grounds, with clues and fun objects to find. In a heated marquee, you can listen to stories and write your own (£1 plus entry rate £25/£17, 14-22 Feb, leeds-castle.com).