Our Playspace
In today’s post I wanted to share about the plans for our play area! Unfortunately, this post won’t include pictures of our actual space as it is just now in the early stages of construction and all of the items mentioned here are either boxed up in storage or have not yet been purchased. Please be aware that once open, the play space in our cafe may be slightly different than described here as we adjust to the space and the needs of the community.
Gross-motor Play
We will have a beautiful play structure with climbing ramps, a steering wheel, telescope, ladders, and a slide. We will also have foot-to-floor push cars children can ride around the play area that look like actual cars you may see around the neighborhood (think… as UPS truck!). These types of toys help your child flex their muscles and put some of that bigger-movement energy to good use, despite the small footprint of our cafe.
Imaginative Play
One thing I am most excited about is our custom-built “L” train blue line passenger train car. I cannot wait to have some photos to share with you. We will also have a traditional play house in which we will likely rotate imaginative play props including child-size furniture. Some other props include baby dolls, food, and shopping carts as well as beautiful play silks that can be used as anything the children’s beautiful minds can come up with! If we are able to find room and the funding, we would also love to have a Waldorf-style play house included in our space.
Book Nook
This space is fairly straightforward. Along with a shelf of rotating books, we will have comfortable seating for both children and adults. We hope to eventually host story-times centered around this space as well!
STEM and Fine-motor
To help your child strengthen their hands as well as other parts of their brain we will provide STEM-related yet age-appropriate materials for them to engage with. For example, we will have a “Construction Zone” with rotating materials used for building and creating. Some of these materials will include unit blocks, Magna Tiles, and foam/cardboard blocks. We will have a magnetic wall that will also have rotating materials. Some of our more STEM-geared magnetic wall materials will be science-subject-matter puzzles and a ball run. The ball run is basically a bunch of different parts that can be put on the wall, like a ramp, a tube, etc that makes a path for a ball to go down.
We will also have a wooden train table with the train tracks glued or screwed to the table. This will help prevent pieces from getting lost or moved somewhere across the play area. Using the trains and moving them up and down and all around the table is a great way for children to increase their concentration as well as fine-motor skills.
Quiet, Calming Space
Our special Quiet Room will serve two important purposes. The first is for caregivers to have a quiet, private place to feed nursing or bottle-feeding babies. This space will include comfortable seating, a table, and even a sink and small counter space. We also hope to include a bottle-warmer here. The second purpose is a space where children or children and their caregivers can come when they are feeling overstimulated and need a quiet space to reset.
Accessible Materials
Another important aspect of our space is that we will have all-ability-friendly materials available as well. This will include several wall panels that can be easily accessed. We will have a couple of interactive HABA wood panels that we will be able to occasionally rotate to keep things interesting. The magnetic wall mentioned earlier in the STEM section will also be an easily accessible space with engaging materials for all children.
Baby Garden
This is a special, gated-off space for our littlest members of the community. This area will include toys and furniture geared towards not-yet-mobile, crawling, and barely toddling little ones. We will have mirrors, furniture to practice pulling-up on, as well as age-appropriate and engaging toys.
I also want to note some things our play space will NOT have. We will not have any electronic or noise-making toys. This is to help your child truly engage with our materials and space as well as to lessen the noise in our space. We will not have TVs playing shows or movies or even the news. We will have light, beautiful, NOT-annoying (looking at you Coco Melon) music playing in the background except for on weekly sensory-friendly days when there will be no music at all.
If you are interested in helping us make sure we have everything we need to go the whole nine yards and be ready for you and your families on opening day, please consider checking out our Fundraising Shop. We will (still working on getting everything up) have stickers, t-shirts, and some pre-sale specials for private play-dates, birthday parties, 10-packs of passes, and year-long memberships. There will only be a limited number of these specials so if you’re interested, be sure to act fast! I am in the middle of posting everything, but I’ll post updates on my Instagram and through my emails.
If you are a business interested in sponsoring a part of our playspace and advertising in our cafe, please reach out directly to us at info@sunnyvillagecafe.com. Areas available for sponsorship include each of our playhouses, including our custom-built L train, our climbing structure, train table, Baby Garden, Quiet Room, Book Nook, and Construction Zone.
