A screen free afternoon · First time
A screen free afternoon in Smyrna: what happens the first time
A first visit has a shape to it, and knowing the shape takes most of the guesswork out.
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.
Families around Smyrna 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.
The first ten minutes
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 children do first
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.
What usually goes wrong
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.
Making the second visit better
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.
Feed them first. Every attraction in the world is improved by not being hungry in it.
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 Smyrna
Families searching from Smyrna 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.
Let the child choose what to do first even when it is the thing you would have chosen last. The order matters less than the choosing.
If it is the first time, do not also make it a birthday. Learning a place and celebrating in it are two different visits.
A Smyrna school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
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.