Saint Petersburg Travel Forum

We are takig our 8 year old grandson with us for a 2 day stay in St. Petersburg in August and would like to take him to some place there where he could have fun...any help you could give me would be great...thank you.

I think it would be interesting for the boy to visit Artillery museum:
Address: Alexandrovsky Park, 7
Directions: Metro "Gorkovskaya"
http://www.artillery-museum.spb.ru/rus/general_information.html - only in Russian

This museum is opposite Peter and Paul fortress - worth to visi also.

Well!
Piter is a real place for kids:
1 the artillery museum right in the centre just behind the Peter&Poul Fortress - there are old cannons and tanks on which he can climb and touch and do whatever he wants - a tip - it's for free (even in the yard of the museum - you can go there without tickets, tickets are for the indoor museum)
2 the Zoo - well quite poor, but the beasts are very close to the spectators because they are put into very small cages - thus your kid can look at a lion or Giraffe from 3 m distance.
3 a Railroad museum (open air) - amazing - it includes old and modern steam and electrical locomotives , a huge 503mm cannonfron=m the WW2 and lot's of other interesting objects (metro station Baltiiskaya but you'd better take a taxi).
4 Aurora cruiser (a battle ship of 1898? - I'm not sure) - right in the centre.
5 the Krasin Icebreaker - a real Icebreaker form 1910s standing close to the centre near Gornii institute.
6 Old submarine - in the Basil Island close to Pribaltiiskaya Park Inn hotel
7 Peter & Poul Fortress
8 St Isaak Cathedral (the3rd biggest cupola in the world) with observation platform on top of its colonnade.
9 there are two water amusement parks .
10 Dolphins show (not so great as in Spain or even Turkey, but there is one)

and many many other places - I have two kids 11 & 6 so I know about such places.

Another activity he might really enjoy besides the good prior suggestions is just to go to a park where there are lots of other kids the same age. Many children his age will have already studied English and 8 year olds are sponges anyway for languages. He will likely make some friends within minutes because Russian children tend to be social and curious while being confident enough to not be intimidated by strangers.
One park with a lot of children is the amusement park on Krestovsky Island, just outside the Krestovsky Ostrov Metro station.
There are two water parks but one was just cited for clorine poisoning dozens of swimmers so I am not going to recommend either of them.

Andyglad had a lot of nice ideas. Another is to take the canal boat tours around the city in the daytime. Also krestovksy ostrov metro has a them park, divo ostrov with rides and amusements russian style and across the bridge to Yelagin island there are rowboats to rent.
There is also a hydrofoil boat to Peterhof that leaves near the Hermitage on teh Neva River. Peterhof is a beautiful lace to walk and in teh gardens are several secretly controlled jumping water fountains that children are amused by on a hot day.