Children's Play Centre - Your ideas please....

[ronnie104]

My husband and I are looking into opening a children's play centre in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

We would be grateful for anyone's thoughts on this idea including what you would like to see offered at such a centre (play equipment for toddlers and older age groups, cafe, crafts, party rooms, toddler sessions etc).

Your ideas and thoughts would be a great help to us.

Thank you

A good idea for keeping customers coming through the holidays is to have areas for older kids to do stuff too. Many where I live are under 5's or Under 6's which means in the holidays those with older and younger kids can't & don't go! On the other hand those with only little ones can be put off when in the holidays it's full of older kids so split areas work best.

Cafes with good hot drinks at reasonable prices make a difference from what I hear & can see too. Parties seem to be big business but flexibility on that is paying off for those with younger ones - some have allowed us to just have a 'party table' and pay for the group to come in for an hour rather than having to hire the place out!

Events, sales & special offers and passes work too to bring in more people.

Wendy Ager

No trampaline. Our local soft play has a trampaline with a notice saying '1 child at a time' which obviously doesn't work and the kids are constantly banging heads.

Room between the tables to 'chase' a child as she runs of with something.

Lockers for bags and shoes - the ones that give your pound back.

I agree with a seperate toddler area - much less scary!

good luck with your venture.

make sure the gate at the entrance can't be opened by a child. Sounds obvious but one near us has no kind of lock or anything and DS was able to push it open and run through while I was paying.
Also, a good one near us has lots of toys out on the floor amongst the tables until 3pm when the school kids come in. They are toys for suitable for 6m - 2yrs, balls, walkers, wire maze things with beads etc My DS isn't that keen on the actual toddler areas but will play with a ball forever.

Google imagination street-it's the best one I've been to (been to a LOT). It has role play rooms as well as normal soft play stuff that ds loves. It's also kept clean,which to me makes a big difference....I'd definitely visit as many as you can and chat to people to get a general idea of what they like/dislike

I thought Underwater Street, Liverpool, was good. Wish there was something like that around my way (West Cambs, maybe there is and I don't know about it).

I'd like:

• convenience for mums of mixed ages - so toddler, and school age and babies such that there's a good chance of being able to supervise all your children adequately
• secure buggy parking and space for buggies to come in with one, for those with sleeping babies
• a mix of activities for those who like to run, those who like to sit and do, those who like to pretend and for both long and short attention spans
• coveralls in a range of sizes for the messy / wet bits, in case mum didn't realise to bring her own
• good toilet, nappy and potty facilities
• good security for entry / exit
• cleanliness, and renewal of equipment so it isn't all tattered
• enthusiastic, helpful staff
• being open and available for use when other things are often shut (our Sure Start centres are all shut Friday afternoons and Sunday, for example)

A really good decent coffee machine for mum :) and lots of soft play is good for me.

One centre I visited had a large climbing frame that children played in. What made this one stand out was that it was designed so that the smaller children couldn't get onto the next level and therefore couldn't progress to the top and get stuck! I thought this was great as I was pregnant at the time and was constantly have to climb up the things myself to rescue my not quite 2 year old. Also during term time, set aside a couple of mornings a week for parent & toddler times, when the child pays admission and both child and mum get a free drink. It's nice to have a safe environment to let your kids play whilst you get a bit of adult social time...

I'd like to see:

loyalty card for coffee (get a stamp per cup purchased, get 6 stamps get 7th coffee free etc...)

Good Kids food not all chip and nuggets ie offer veg sticks instead of chips, peas or sweetcorn instead of baked bean or sandwich boxes that offer carrot and cucumber sticks, piece of fruit etc...

Meal deal and entrance fee deal - ie entrance £4.00 or £5.50 with kids meal

An area for colouring...when kids get a bit fed up with soft play but Mums still want to natter

Clean, Clean Clean tables, toilets a must!!! also nappy bins emptied regularly as well

Our local one makes it pay in the evenings by encouraging older kids in with laser guns and dry ice smoke of some sort.

They also offer a "babysit" service so parents can go off for a meal at the local pub and they will watch your dcs in the play frame.

Something for the older children while younger ones play - I don't go now as my older dd wouldn't be into it, even though my ds still loves it.
This could be a football room away from younger kids. A ping pong table. A basket ball hoop. etc if there is enough space.

A cafe for the parents to sit in, with magazines and books for mums who are there by themselves.

Internet access would mean mums on their own could mumsnet and facebook while their kids play.

Outdoor play so that you still get business when it is sunny - if possible.

Healthy food options and healthier treat options

Jugs of juice or water for tables.

I will keep thinking.

clean would be novel ime

Clean is a really really big thing.

Emptying nappy bins very regularly helps I imagine too as there must be quite a "build up" in such places.

Loyalty cards of some description and/or season passes - with a season pass people might pop in for half an hour for a coffee whereas they wouldn't if they had to pay the entrance fee - one more coffee sold than you might have otherwise!

Parties where you don't have to hire the whole venue but can just reserve a table.

Parties where you do cake, food, party bags, invites etc. so all the parent has to do is book, write invited guests names on invites and collect responses.

Feedback forms so that visitors can let you know what they think and help you improve.

Ive stopped going because of the noise - always get a headache and not from my own dd. Dont know what you could do about it though

There's a super small soft play area near me - for under 7's. Nice cafe with decent food and good coffee, magazines for parents/carers, clean toilet, separate small area for tots. Not huge and not catering for all ages but done really well.

Oooh that's quite near me so I'm very interested in what you're going to do!

As earlier poster said, things for older children to do too would be good, to accommodate families with children across the age-range. Have you been to GoKidsGo in Leicester? - that is fab - spacious with fun stuff that bigger kids can do

The others have come up with excellent ideas, not sure I have much to add. I currently avoid soft-play areas like the plague with my 3 and 5 year olds because they're such a headache due to dirty tables and play equipment, totally unsupervised older children squashing the younger ones, nasty-tasting overpriced food, etc etc.

Good homemade cakes and decent coffee would be fab.

And, as an anachronism to that thought, I always thought a Slumming Club would be great one morning a week - toddlers could play and moms could have a weekly weigh-in, guaranteeing repeat business and being very convenient to those moms who would otherwise find it tricky to fit in a meeting.

Oh and discounts for siblings.

Stewards to wander round and supervise. I get totally fed up of having to tell off over-boisterous boys who definitely over 3 and are causing a danger in the under 3s area.

Expecting parents to supervise is fine, but IME a lot don't bother.

Our local one has linked up with Jo Jingles and they do two sessions a week at the centre. You just pay the normal fee to get in. I'm not quite sure how the finances work out between the centre and JJ. But I know that me and my friend go there more often because of Jo Jingles and I know a lot of the other mums go specifically for that as well. Then of course everyone has coffee and cake and the kids have something to eat. So, the soft play centre get lots of money that way.

Hi all

Thank you so much for your ideas, am pleased to say that they fit with the ideas that we had for our proposed play centre. We also have 2 children (7 & 4) and have experienced the problems that you seem to have with the toddler sections in play centres, the cleanliness (or lack of it) and the same old food offered.

We feel that mums and dads need to know that the children will have fun in a clean and stimulating environment and we need good coffee, wholesome food for all the family to make the whole experience something we would want to do again..

We are hoping to be able to include a sensory area too as we feel this is very important for children to use alongside a colouring/craft and reading corner for the little ones who don't always want to be in a ball pit...

It is just as important to ensure that the older children have an area that they can use too, we are considering a sports area where older children can play ball games out of the way of the younger ones.

Your thoughts on the various price structures are a great help too as if this is priced wrongly everyone will be missing out and yes the toddler sessions during the week will be a definite feature along with mags, daily newspapers for mums and dads to browse through.

Please keep any more ideas coming as they are a huge help for us.

I will keep you all up to date on our progress....

Thanks again

A " ball sports cage" ,a little court with football goals and basket ball hoops and a ball or two. good for slightly older ones to Hang out and toddlers when its quieter.

Open on Sundays!