A screen free afternoon · Faq
A screen free afternoon in Green Hills: asked and answered
Short answers to the things worth knowing in advance.
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.
Parents from Green Hills tend to ask the same first question: how long will this hold their attention. Long enough to be worth the drive, and short enough to leave while they still want more.
The short answers
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.
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.
The longer answers
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
Still worth asking on the day
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.
Bring a snack for afterwards rather than during. Hungry children leave early and full children want to stay.
Questions parents ask
Is there screen time involved?
The machines are levers and cables. The ice is ice.
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.
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 Green Hills
The drive back to Green Hills is where you find out what they actually thought. Children review an outing about twenty minutes after leaving it, never during.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
From Green Hills the practical question is timing rather than distance. Arriving in the first hour after opening is worth more than shaving minutes off the drive.
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
If a visit needs planning around a date, a group or a long drive, the centre is easiest to reach by phone: +1 (424) 387-6232 or +1 (615) 968-4925.