Family interpretation and activities

Looking for a bespoke, customised activity pack or story sack?  Let us help you create something totally unique.

NB: If you would prefer to pay for items by invoice at a later stage please choose 'Cheque Payment' or 'Direct Bank Transfer' option at checkout.

More details

Need to develop an activity for families but don’t have time? Have you run out of ideas and are looking for some fresh inspiration? We can work with you and your team to create an exciting and totally customised activity pack or story sack – unique to your site, your collection and your visitors. 

We will combine our professional experience in developing resources and best practice across the sector, with your site-specific knowledge and passion. Working together we can create something totally unique for your site.

We are passionate about making family visits to heritage sites memorable and magical, and that make families want to recommend your site to their friends and family.  We can help you to get your family offer on target with fun, creative and educational products.

Who is this for?

If you are interested in developing an activity then we can work with you to create a story line that is bespoke and relevant to your site. We work with you and a wide range of British artisans, craftspeople and artists to develop the other elements, picking the right materials and craft it to suit your story, ensuring that it meets all the requirements for the age range, wear and tear, indoor or outdoor use.

What’s included?

Generally, we will provide you with:

  • Two copies of each bespoke, tested story sack or backpack. This will include ideas for how parents could use them; a bespoke illustrated story book; imaginative elements such as knitted characters, story spoons or costume items, all branded for your organisation.
  • A supply of creative comments cards to help you with ongoing evaluation of the story sacks.
  • Full hand-over, care notes and details of suppliers.
  • High resolution copies plus copyright of all illustration and copy.
  • Spares of key elements such as toys and anything needed for care e.g. supply of sensitive detergent.
  • 2-hour training session staff and volunteers to introduce the story sacks.

Some of our more recent product development:

We were commissioned to create two bespoke, immersive story sacks for the NT property, Knole. We worked with the National Trust to develop, test, design, write the literature and produce the story sacks.

The first was a story quilt, ‘Never trust a magpie’ and is for 0-2 year olds.  It has been made from soft fabrics to reflect the ages of the children it is aimed at.

We also created ‘How to be the host with the most’. This is a story for 2.5 – 5 year olds that utilises wooden spoons, painted to resemble the previous owners of the house.  It comes with an illustrated book, all housed in a specially made fabric quilted roll, themed to the story.

 

We have developed three activity backpacks for Oldknow’s legacy project on the High Peak Canal, one of which is ‘Stella and the midnight sky’ (pictured). It includes a story roll and an illustrated book, along with a cuddly Stella the bat toy.  The story is focussed around the Aqueduct on the site (pictured).

 

We developed a story sack for Sacrewell Mill, working with the team at the Mill to identify key story lines. The result was a brand-new story aimed at 2 – 5 year olds based on the workings of the Mill.  ‘The day the bread ran out’ tells the tale of Milly the Mouse and her partner in crime Mr Kittles the cat.  The pair became unlikely friends when faced with a big challenge; getting the mill working.

 

Tenby Tudor Merchant’s House wanted a fun, imaginative activity aimed at the whole family, that was also bilingual. The resource needed to be portable and unobtrusive without any additional equipment that would interrupt the visitor flow and experience for others.  Based on research on life in Tudor Tenby, we created Tudor Family Fortunes which involves 13 characters, ranging from Master Merchant, to Jak the Water Carrier. Each visitor is given a character when they enter and they explore the house as though they were that character. This is a site with a lot of damp, so paper wasn’t the ideal media to use, we used Tyvek, a synthetic material instead.

This is a fun activity aimed at the whole family, made more enjoyable as staff give the cards out randomly so the adults could be children’s characters and vice versa.

‘The feedback from visitors to the changes we’ve made have been overwhelmingly positive. People love being able to sit on the furniture and take in the atmosphere and because everything in the house can be touched and used, we’ve also been able to expand our work with schools.’

Project Manager, the National Trust.

 

Like what you see, but not quite sure yet? Get in touch with us to discuss your needs.

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