Can anyone advise me on child friendly plants/shrubs?

Hello 3xMum and welcome to GOY.

I would say that alpine strawberries are great because they spread themselves gradually around the garden, and even grow in nooks and crannies. They are not demanding like the other strawbs, and also not difficult to dig out later if you need space for something else! Your kids will have a great time looking for the red "treasures" - and fruit season seems to last quite a long time. Also, grape hyacinths are lovely for small kids bcos of the squeaking flower thing! Show them they can kind of squidge the flowers when they are new and get this brilliant squeaky noise. However beware they do spread fast and are more difficult to get rid of. Better to plant them in a pot! Peas are fantastic (plant seeds now) becos again, yr kids can help harvest them and eat them then & there, they probably will never make it to the kitchen, lol.
And all kids enjoy watching sunflowers grow. They just need canes or sth else to support them when they grow taller/when the flower and seedheads become heavy.
What else... lady's mantle, alchemilla mollis is very popular and easy to grow. Looks great with raindrops on it. Finding a friend or neighbour gardener who could give you a plant would be even cheaper - you can buy them anywhere, but in some garden centres the size of plant is very stingey and takes a year or 2 to turn into a decent sized plant.
That's more than enuf from me I'm sure, and others will make suggestions too. Have fun with that.

I have a plant which has flowers that look like little mice! My grandson loves it. It's called Arisarum proboscideum.

Snapdragons are always fun for children. I would also plant flowers that attract butterflies - Verbena bonariensis, Thyme and Marjoram all do this. Children would love fragrant flowers too - and some that grow quickly from seed that they could sow and look after themselves, like Virginian Stock, Candytuft and Cornflowers, Poppies are fun, because you can make 'ladies' out of their petals!

Hope that helps. :-)

With relation to plants, please type "poisonous plants" in the search box at top right of this page, to find a great deal of info here on GOY.

If you haven't grown a pet TickleMe Plant yet you are in for a fun treat. The TickleMe Plant will fold its leaves and sort of "Plays Dead" when you Tickle It! It was easy to grow indoors in the TickleMe Plant Greenhouse
See video.
http://www.ticklemeplant.com