Group visit · Tips
Group visit in Brentwood: practical tips
None of this is complicated. All of it is the difference between a good hour and a difficult one.
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.
A Brentwood school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
Before you leave the house
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.
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
When you arrive
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.
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.
While you are there
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.
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.
On the way home
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
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.
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.
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 Brentwood
If you are coming from Brentwood, treat it as a cross-town outing rather than a day trip. Go with a return time in mind and the day stays easy.
Tell a nervous child what is going to happen in the order it will happen. Surprise is the thing they mind, not the activity.
Take the phone out of your pocket before they start rather than after. The moment worth filming is usually the first one.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Brentwood. 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
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.