https://www.boxhillcentral.com.au/whats-on/box-hill-central-launch-brand-new-childrens-playground/
1 Main St,
Box Hill VIC
This week I spoke to mum of two, Katie, who writes the blog Coffee with Katie; “stories about motherhood and coffee conversations”. With two under two she is a busy mum, but still enjoys a little me time to write, with her cuppa in hand. She heard I was off visiting shopping centre play spaces, and wanted to share her local one with us. Looks awesome, and I can’t wait to take Missy Moo for a play.
The Box Hill Central Space Zone opened in December last year and is a great free activity for the littlies on a rainy day. It pays to know it is there as you could easily visit Box Hill Central and miss it.. You’ll find the play space located on level 4 of the North Precinct of Box Hill Central, right next to the food court, so you can grab a coffee and watch the kids play.
Space Zone is an indoor play space with the central attraction being a rocket ship, which little astronauts can climb into (via a bridge) and exit via a slide. The rocket ship lights up when someone steps on the entry bridge. It is surrounded by a soft floor with climbing boulders and stars and there are plenty of beanbags lying around. Whenever we’ve been there there have been plenty of pre-schoolers running up around, and up and down the bridge and slide.
They’ve done well with the theming – making the walls, floor and windows all space themed. My daughter was curious about the images she saw drawn on the walls – stars, planets, clouds, rockets etc.
I’d seen online that there was a reading section, and there was a cozy place for kids to sit and chill and bookshelves, but we couldn’t see any books.
There’s a group of touch screens with educational games for kids on them, which seemed popular with the kids. My almost two year old loved playing with the screens, but didn’t understand the games, so I’d say they were aimed at kids a few years older.
There are also movement controlled screens which sense movements – kids can chose to be an astronaut (or other character) by waving their hand. Once selected the child’s face gets photographed into the astronaut and they can play different games with their characters. It sounds really cool. But both times we visited no one was playing with these giant screens. I don’t think most kids knew what to do with them. I saw one boy who had the game going well, but every time a child ran between him and screen the sensor got confused and it messed up.
The area is fenced, so you wont have to chase any runaway toddlers. Always a win.
Outside the fenced area is a long child-height table, which is also space themed, with more screens with games.
On the other side of the food court there is a very nice space themed family room with change area, family toilet, breastfeeding cubicles, screens with games and cubby holes. They also had children’s songs playing, so I could sit and feed my newborn in peace while my toddler danced her little heart out.
Overall I was quite impressed by this unique play space and the upgrade it has brought to the centre. It would be a fun little break from shopping or a nice adventure for Whitehorse locals.
Thanks for sharing your adventure Katie. To read more from Katie jump over to Coffee with Katie to read more about her mum life and family adventures.
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