Woodlands just outside of Totnes is a good family fun day out or there is Crealy just outside of Exeter too.
Decoy park is a free good day out if the weather is fine.
There are stacks depending on what you want As afamily we have sometimes had abus tripper and gone and visited Torquay and Teignmouth ,you can visit Brixham from both Torquay and Dawlish .Areally nice day out is the steam run from Paignton to KINGSWEAR where you get the ferry to Dartmouth which is a really pretty town.You can stay on this ferry for a cruise down the river Dart .The comentator was very entertaining.This day trip can be found on www.paignton-steamrailway.co.uk Its not overpriced for a really good day out i promise you Also if you pop in any of the pubs or holiday parks in and around Dawlish theres normally plenty of leaflets with stacks of ideas I hope ive given you some good ideas any way ,have a good time