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People on waterslide at Raging Waters Waterpark
Photograph: Supplied

How to keep the kids cool in Sydney this summer

Fill the school holidays and sunny season with family-friendly fun that’ll help you and your brood of little’uns really chill out

Olivia Gee
Written by
Olivia Gee
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Have you got an army of sweaty bubs and youth galavanting around your living room? Would you like the cries of "I'm hot" and "I'm bored" to cease as soon as possible? Well, we've scoured the family-friendly summer activity diary and found a few fabulous cool-down events and venues offering a wealth of kid-focused summer fun. Need more ideas to fill school break? Check out our guide to the school holidays in Sydney.

If you find a free moment without the kid crew, take a load off and treat yourself at Sydney's best spas, or give yourself a gift from the coolest antique stores around the Sydney.

RECOMMENDED: Sydney swimming pools for families.

Keep the kids cool with fun around the city

  • Sport and fitness
  • Prospect

It gets hot in Prospect: often three or four degrees hotter than the coastal areas of Sydney. That makes the newly rebadged Raging Waters Sydney (formerly Wet ‘N’ Wild), with its giant, Curaçao blue, sand-lined wave pool and curving canopy of rainbow waterslides a pretty attractive summer family adventure. The kids can freak out trying the new 206-metre slide made up of tunnels, open spirals and zippy drops that’ll have them flying up to 25km per hour.

  • Sport and fitness
  • Botany

A kid-friendly outdoor swimming pool gem like the Botany Aquatic Centre is to be truly cherished. There are three pools spread across lush green lawns peppered with trees, for plenty of shade. You can choose from a shaded, shallow baby pool, a waist-deep pool for bigger children and an olympic pool for the more adventurous.

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Make a weather watching kit at Terrific Scientific
  • Shopping
  • Gifts
  • Annandale

Spend a too-hot afternoon safely ensconced in this adorable Annandale toy shop. Trawling the shelves for super strength silly putty, coding projects and magic collections will be fun for big and little kids, and you can even assess the Mars-level heat outside by purchasing a weather watching kit. These include experiment equipment and an info booklet that’ll teach kids all about rain, lightning, rainbows, temperature, the water cycle and more for $29.95.

  • Things to do
  • Penrith

Kids will be high-as-a-kite with excitement after hearing about this place. Children from as young as three can learn how to skydive at this indoor facility – and it’s fun for adults too. After a safety briefing and training from instructors, kids can experience being lifted into the air by a powerful wind generator. For keen flyers looking for a cool breeze this summer, there are also special holiday courses for kids aged 6-16 years.

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  • Attractions
  • Beaches
  • Manly

While still a popular school holidays haunt, this small stretch of sand is a little quieter than its big brother Manly Beach, and the calm waters make for perfect lazy family beach days. The cool salty soup here is part of a nature reserve, so it’s a top snorkelling spot for paddlers of all swimming abilities. Whack some goggles on your little nippers and get them searching for Blue Gropers under the water, plus water dragons skimming along its surface and brush turkeys plodding along the sand.

Eat as a family with ease

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