Group visit · Occasion
Group visit in Antioch: planning a playdate around it
Here is how the day tends to run and what is worth arranging in advance.
It works as a reward trip, an end of term outing, or the indoor half of a day that has an outdoor half somewhere else.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Antioch. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
Why it fits the occasion
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
Teachers get an activity where children take turns without being told to, because the machines and the cars enforce turns by existing in limited numbers.
How the day runs
For a class group the appeal is that the activity explains itself. No briefing, no equipment to hand out, no rules that take ten minutes to teach.
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.
What to arrange first
It works as a reward trip, an end of term outing, or the indoor half of a day that has an outdoor half somewhere else.
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
Small things that help
Teachers get an activity where children take turns without being told to, because the machines and the cars enforce turns by existing in limited numbers.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
Questions parents ask
Can school groups visit?
Call ahead and arrange it: +1 (615) 968-4925 or info@newlife-entertainment.com.
Is it educational?
Working an arm on levers is hand eye coordination, cause and effect and patience, whatever you call it on the form.
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.
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 Antioch
For a Antioch 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.
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.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
If Antioch is home, this is the sort of place you end up returning to rather than ticking off. That changes what a first visit is worth planning around.
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
Questions about a specific day, a group or a party are best asked directly - info@newlife-entertainment.com, or either of the numbers on the contacts page.