What the centre is for · Local
What the centre is for around Matthews: worth the drive?
Written for families in and around Matthews, who mostly want to know whether it is worth the drive.
The centre describes its aim in four parts: inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational games and activities, and creating lasting memories.
The nearest of the two centres to Matthews is the one to aim at - Concord Mills in Concord - and the drive is the ordinary sort rather than an expedition.
Getting there
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
Those are ordinary words until you watch a child work out a bucket for the first time, and then they are just a description of what happened.
What you will find
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
How long to allow
The centre describes its aim in four parts: inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational games and activities, and creating lasting memories.
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
Worth the trip?
Those are ordinary words until you watch a child work out a bucket for the first time, and then they are just a description of what happened.
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.
Questions parents ask
What is the centre aiming for?
Inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational play, and days children remember.
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 Matthews
A Matthews school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
Tell a nervous child what is going to happen in the order it will happen. Surprise is the thing they mind, not the activity.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
Parents from Matthews 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 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.