A screen free afternoon · First time
A screen free afternoon in Hermitage: what happens the first time
Nobody arrives knowing how it works. That is fine - here is how the first half hour tends to go.
Screen free is easy to say on a Saturday morning and hard to do by two in the afternoon.
If you are coming from Hermitage, treat it as a cross-town outing rather than a day trip. Go with a return time in mind and the day stays easy.
The first ten minutes
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.
What children do first
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 birthday group runs better with a rough plan of who goes where first, even if you abandon it in the first five minutes.
What usually goes wrong
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.
Making the second visit better
Nobody has to ban anything. Children put the phone down on their own when the alternative is better.
Bring a spare layer even in summer. Malls are air conditioned, rinks are colder than that, and a cold child is a child who wants to go home.
Questions parents ask
Is there screen time involved?
The machines are levers and cables. The ice is ice.
Where is New Life Entertainment?
Two centres: 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214, and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027.
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.
Planning your visit in Hermitage
The drive back to Hermitage is where you find out what they actually thought. Children review an outing about twenty minutes after leaving it, never during.
Bring less than you think. Coats and bags are the part of the visit nobody enjoys managing.
Agree the leaving time before you walk in, out loud, to the child. Announcing it later sounds like a punishment; agreeing it first sounds like a plan.
From Hermitage 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
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.