A screen free afternoon · Guide
A screen free afternoon in Green Hills: a parent guide
Everything below is the sort of thing you would want to know before the drive rather than after it.
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
Families around Green Hills who have done it once tend to plan the second visit differently: shorter, earlier in the day, and with the machine the child liked in mind.
What it actually is
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.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
Who it suits
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
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.
What to expect
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
If two adults are coming, split up rather than shadowing the same child. One at the rail, one free, and everybody has a better hour.
Before you go
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.
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
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.
How do I get in touch?
By phone on +1 (424) 387-6232 or +1 (615) 968-4925, or by e-mail at info@newlife-entertainment.com.
Planning your visit in Green Hills
Families searching from Green Hills 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.
Do not schedule anything immediately afterwards. An hour of concentrated play is tiring in a way that shows up in the car park, not in the room.
Let the child lead the order of things. Adults optimise; children choose the thing that looks best, and they are right more often than they are wrong.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Green Hills. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
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
Anything time critical is worth a phone call first: hours are 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.