– and Treesurfers, which offers fun on tree-top walkways in the Tamar Valley. The educational Eden Project is also just a short distance away and the beach is close at hand. The hotel itself offers lots of free activities, including body boarding and tennis

* This wipe-clean children’s 123 Work Board is great for learning number skills, as well as a fantastic way to brighten any home. An ABC version is available, too. £43 each from Lily & Lime. * Bodie And Fou’s black and white prints are both playful

, indoor pool, tennis courts, adventure playground, treasure hunts and nature hunts on offer, the resort is also home to FlowRider – an ingenious self-contained wave machine that hosts surf and body boarding lessons from £15 per person (for children age

1. Body painting  Buy a selection of bathtime body paints, then hop in the tub to paint designs on each body part, naming the body parts and the things you are drawing as you go... bees on their knees, a sweet on their feet and so on. 2. Put on a

, this childcare service (available on all wide-bodied aircraft flying long-haul routes) now provides a range of on-the-ground services to complement the much heralded on-board service where your nanny will arrange convenient dining times for your child, set up

1. Chalk drawings  Draw a large ‘frame’ on the driveway, give your child some coloured chalk and set them the task of making a mural. Suggest a few objects they can use as ‘stencil shapes’ – boards, plastic containers – for their Cubist masterpiece

, flat side down, on a large plate. Take the smaller one of these and place it, cut side down, on a board then trim a little off two sides to make a muzzle shape. Arrange the head on top of the body, flat side down, and tilt it slightly forwards. Secure

. Further afield, Lanzarote’s Eco Yurts at Arrieta come complete with hard-wood Mongolian fittings, marble flooring and a solar-heated pool. The site has a children’s play area, sand football pitch, trampoline and games room as well as mountain bikes, body boards

s, all children took the 11 Plus. It is no longer a compulsory test but it continues to be used by grammar and selective schools.The 11 Plus exam differs throughout the country in terms of the subjects taken and also the examining board used

this and leaping off filled an entire afternoon. By the end of the week, we’d all begun to master the art of body-boarding in the gentle surf. On the last day, Virgin’s genius ‘Check in and chill out’ service dispensed completely with airport misery. The Virgin