A screen free afternoon · Story
A screen free afternoon in Brentwood: an hour, start to finish
Not a review - a description. Here is roughly how an hour goes.
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
Families searching from Brentwood are usually weighing one thing: whether it is worth the trip for an hour of something the children have not done before. The honest answer is that it depends on the child, and the rest of this page is about telling which.
Walking in
What replaces a screen has to be more interesting than a screen, which rules out most of the obvious answers. A machine a child actually controls is one of the few that works.
Check the day of the week against the closing time before you leave. Sunday finishes earlier than the rest of the week and catches people out.
The middle of the visit
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
The feedback loop is the same one games use - do a thing, see a result, adjust - except it happens with hands, in a room, with other people watching.
The last ten minutes
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
What sticks
What replaces a screen has to be more interesting than a screen, which rules out most of the obvious answers. A machine a child actually controls is one of the few that works.
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
Questions parents ask
Is there screen time involved?
The machines are levers and cables. The ice is ice.
What are the opening hours?
10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday, and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.
Where is New Life Entertainment?
Two centres: 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214, and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027.
Planning your visit in Brentwood
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Brentwood. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
Tell a nervous child what is going to happen in the order it will happen. Surprise is the thing they mind, not the activity.
Two shorter visits teach a child more than one long one. The second time they already know what they want to try, and that is when the good part starts.
For a Brentwood family the trip works best folded into something else - the shopping that was happening anyway, a birthday that needed a venue, a Saturday that needed a plan.
The practical details
- XCAV ZONE — 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214: four child-operated machines over a ball pit.
- ICE PARK — 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027: a real rink with bumper cars on the ice.
- Opening hours — 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.
- Phone — +1 (424) 387-6232 · +1 (615) 968-4925
- E-mail — info@newlife-entertainment.com
The two centres are at 433 Opry Mills Drive in Nashville and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd in Concord, open 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM most days and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.