'Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside...'

'...I do like to be beside the sea.' So goes the popular music hall ditty by John A. Glover-Kind.

But if you don't like it, or can't easily get there, here are five ways to recreate a bit of British seaside magic in your own backyard.

1) Fill a bag ready for your beach trip.

I prepared one for my Under Fives group at the Geffrye Museum and we began the session by unpacking it together to establish our theme. At home I simply handed over the huge bag of goodies to very a excited Buddy and Daisy.

In our beach bag they found:

• beach towels
• sun-cream
• sunglasses
• sun-hats
• buckets and spades
• a fishing net
• toy binoculars (for spotting ships)
• a magnifying glass (for rock pool investigation)
• pots of seashells and pebbles
• a toy bristle worm and anenome
• bath-time toys; fishes, sea creatures and boats
• a mini home-made kite

When they announced 'Let's play seasides' I knew Buddy and Daisy would be occupied for a while. Using the paddling pool, already out in the garden, they became happily involved in creating their own imaginary world; they sunbathed, 'applied' sun-cream, and filled the pool with pebbles, sea creatures and fish - scooping them up with their nets and plopping them back in the water over and over again.

2) Make your own rock pool - a physical and musical activity.

At the museum, with about 15 children, we made our own huge imaginary rock pool. Sitting in a circle we threw in invisible pebbles, and pretended to be seaweed - waving our arms when underwater, and making crunchy, rigid shapes when exposed to the air. Then the children entered the rock pool like sea creatures; we had crabs, starfish, anenomes, jelly fish, bristle worms and there was even a shark in there - I told you it was a big rock pool. I played them Saint-Saens' Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals and responding to the music they danced, swam, crawled and shimmied around. The water was provided by the grown-ups in attendance - they wafted a large piece of turquoise chiffon about a metre above the children. We also played a fun variation of Sleeping Bunnies (Sleeping Sea Creatures) - altering the lyrics slightly; all under the undulating blue fabric. It was all very under-the-sea; beautiful and magical.

[No photos of this, I was too busy playing...]

3) Read a story about a rock pool adventure.

We had the wonderful Julia Donaldson's Sharing A Shell - such a fun story starring a hermit crab, a bristle worm and a sea anenome. It has great glittery and shimmery rock pool pictures and plenty opportunities for counting and joining in.

'Three friends sharing a shell

happy as house-mates can be,

rocketing all round the rock pool

in their wonderful home for three.'

4) Make your own seaside souvenir; a paper plate rock pool.

We used:

• paper plates - we had blue plates, but of course watery paint colours could be added to create the background
• shredded paper seaweed - or use shredded leaves from your garden or local park
• pebble-printed paper - or use gravel mixed with PVA glue
• neoprene shells and sea creature pictures or stickers - or draw onto plain sticky labels
• pipe-cleaner bristle worms
• lots of silver glitter mixed with PVA glue to stick everything down and make your rock pool shimmer in the seaside sunlight

And after all that exertion...

5. Share some good old-fashioned Fish & Chips for tea.

Zero to hero

Today, I took my youngest (age 3) to the V and A Museum of Childhood's Wondertots. Its Superheroes session was full of great activities and all the children seemed to enjoy it. And yet it left me cold. I suspect my feelings towards it were influenced by my post-election state of mind. But while I came away feeling flat and uninspired; Daisy came away with a rather nice superhero cape (as photographed above).

After nursery, Daisy proudly showed Buddy her cape and persuaded him to play. It was then that the creative seeds sown in the Wondertots session began to germinate, as my two favourite superheroes swooped in, truly saving the day. First, Superboy and Supergirl sourced their power gadgets; toy cameras caught baddies and sucked them in until they'd learnt their lesson. And they used their torches to hunt out the baddies from under the chairs and sofa.

Daisy became Superflick - the girl who could fly to Mars (using her cape) and make flick books work. She became Superclimb Girl with a special rope (a scarf) attached to her dress to lift her up to the tops of mountains. Buddy remained the amazing Superboy, with incredible strength and the ability to fly using his (invisible) cape. They showed off their super-jumping, super-stealth and super-gadgets until dinner time.

After this we watched The Incredibles on DVD and during the credits Elastigirl (mummy), Dash (Buddy), and Violet (Daisy) showed off amazing super powers in expressive movement and dance.

So, maybe I was unmoved by the powers of the V and A today, maybe I did have the post-election blues, but happily I was completely saved by my children's creativity and enthusiasm. They helped me find the escapism I needed, cheering me up no end. I doubt they know it, but they really have performed some great superhero work here today.