Indoor Play Spaces

This week, Jessica over at A Parent in Silver Spring is running past and present profiles of indoor play spaces around town. Once upon a time, there were just few of these: Gymboree, Port Discovery in Baltimore (which I only recommend to older kids given how easy it can be to lose a little one in the 3-story climbing treehouse), PlayWiseKids in Columbia and Ikea (yes, yes, I know that's not an official indoor play space).

But the world of indoor play spaces has blossomed into a flourishing garden. The new Be With Me Playseum in Bethesda offers a cool indoor space for kids ages 9 months to 14 years old and it looks like TONS of fun (Just look at Jessica's photos!). If you want someplace to exercise along with your kids, FunFit in Rockville and Germantown focuses squarely on the childhood obesity epidemic by providing a place for kids AND parents to exercise. Interactions Learn and Play in Kensington, meanwhile, is all about kids ages 4 and under.

Folks in D.C. also recommend Jonah's Treehouse in Glover Park, D.C. (also for the 4 and unders). Of course, there's the overpriced Kidville in Rockville, which has gotten a couple of good reviews on DC Urban Mom; mostly, though, everyone agrees, it's just too expensive.

And the latest, just in from the Silver Spring Moms Yahoo Listserv:

PlayWise Kids' new manager wrote to a parent that PlayWise is hoping to sign a lease in downtown Silver Spring. This is far from a done deal, folks. Andrew Ross tells the parent that his meetings have dragged a bit. He's hoping to open in January, but doesn't yet know if that will be realistic. Here's some extra info from Ross's e-mail exchanges:

"We look forward to having great events on site, including the Great Zucchini at least every other week. It will be smaller than our Columbia location,
but lots of fun still. We'll also have classes and are exploring with the
childcare licensing dept whether we can operate a drop-in daycare there
(part of the discussion tomorrow). If that happens, we'll have drop-in
daycare at all times -- if it isn't appropriate for licensing, we'll still
offer drop-off classes, clubs, and parent nights out on a scheduled basis. ...

We'll essentially have 4 stations (a store & kitchen, a toddler area, a room with a train, playhouse, sand table and few other things, and then a TBD
room (which could possibly rotate and was originally the sand room). We'll
then have a stage with puppet theater, dress-up and occasional karaoke, and
a centerpiece (likely a trampoline or possibly a moonbounce of some kind).
We'll have a small toystore setup and some tables for projects/eating. At
first, we won't be making our own food there, but we will have a
relationship with Fractured Prune and likely a few other places to bring
food in."

RIP: Once upon a time, Mayorga in Silver Spring was a favorite gathering spot of moms and kids. But Mayorga soon will be no more. South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association's Evan Glass confirms a rumor on SoCoEats that Mayorga is closing at the end of the year.