days out, tried and tested
Somewhere between school ending and dinner there is an hour that a knutselclub or a workshop fills better than a screen does. Ten places are listed here: Artiance, the arts centre in Alkmaar, ARTWISE's creative workshops in Haarlem, a youth theatre collective and drama at CREA in Amsterdam, the Children's Cooking Café where a six-year-old genuinely cooks, a kids' kitchen for baking in Volendam and the Science Camps' hands-on sessions. Seven are in Amsterdam. Two are tagged for four to six year olds, five are wheelchair accessible, and three have high chairs for whichever sibling came along.
16 creative clubs in the Netherlands
Every town with something in this category has its own page. The number is what is listed there today.
It varies by venue, and the making-led ones cope best — an art or baking workshop carries itself without much language. Drama and storytelling are usually Dutch. Several of the ten here, particularly in Amsterdam, run with international families in mind; the listing links through to the organiser's own page, which is where the language is stated.
Both. The art centres and the theatre collectives run term-length courses you sign up to for a block of weeks, which is how most Dutch naschoolse activiteiten work. The cooking café, the baking kitchen in Volendam and the science sessions are single bookable workshops, and several of the ten also run birthday parties on the same format.
Most start at around four. Two of the ten are tagged specifically for four to six year olds and one is open to all ages; drama and the science workshops generally want six and up, and the art centres run separate groups by age. Each listing states the range the organiser publishes.
