Our Trip to Little Street

Little Street is an indoor play centre with a twist:

“Responding to children’s love of role play, we have created a realistic street designed with little people in mind. Featuring a supermarket, construction site, cafe, beauty salon, fire service, medical centre and more; our Little Street is a scaled down version of a typical town, inspiring children to explore life in the world around them”

Little Street Website

After I featured it in my post 10 Activities To Do With Your Kids In The Winter I felt that it was only right that I visited Little Street and found out exactly how good it was for myself… we were not disappointed.

We booked our slot and paid online the night before. They have a choice of time slots which each run for an hour and a half. The venue closes for half an hour between to allow them to tidy up the chaos mess that is inflicted in the previous play slot!

Upon arrival, we were greeted and our names ticked off on their sign-in sheet. The centre was clearly well organised and very clean. We were instructed to remove our shoes and to leave our coats and bags (at our own risk) in the seating area. This area is always accessible during the play session and even had a baby play zone in the middle, which I thought was a really nice touch. Another nice touch is the cafe- plenty of hot and cold drinks plus snacks on offer.

Down Little Street you will find Belle and Beau Hairdressers, Mini-meds Medical Centre, Little Savers Supermarket, Starlets dressing up and stage area, a large wooden fire engine, toy cars, Post Box, Klein Construction and Chicco’s Cafe. During play, children can freely use all of these mini-shops, with adult supervision.

As soon as we got in there Jake made a bee-line for Klein Construction with their building blocks and sit on diggers!

 He spent quite a while building up walls to knock them down, even roping Daddy in!

The fire engine was a huge hit too. He is now into Fireman Sam so to be able to dress up as the man himself was a real treat. Hats, fireman coats, a megaphone, fire extinguisher and hoses are all provided.

Inside Starlet’s you can choose from a large selection of dressing up clothes and hop up on the stage to sing your heart out. Musical instruments are also available to play with and Jake fancied himself as a superstar guitar hero!

We spent a little while pretending we were Postman Pat (I think my son may watch too much TV!) by collecting the letters from the red postbox and matching the coloured envelopes up with the coloured boxes outside of each shop. Problem-solving, colour recognition and fine motor skills are all used here.

The medical centre was great fun because Jake got to use a pretend tap-tap (computer) and telephone. The centre provided a medical kit and a toy child to do a check-up on. I loved the way it was all set-up with most things you would find inside a medical centre – it really does have all the finishing touches.

The supermarket was a very popular place for all the children. With child-sized trollies, baskets and the shelves stocked with all sorts of items they were all very involved in there. Shopping lists are available to use to help your child make the right selections from around the supermarket. A great way for them to explore their surroundings, recognise items and practise counting.

 Jake ringing up somebody’s basket of coffee (clearly one of the parent’s shopping!)

We didn’t manage to get inside the hairdresser’s as it was a very popular shop with all the little girls! They seemed to have some serious role-playing going on in there, so Jake cut his losses and popped into Chicco’s Cafe instead.

In here he could use equipment such as a toy microwave, kettle and toaster. There is plenty of toy food, plates, cutlery and even a table to serve the waiting customers (usually a parent!)

The fire engine was far too much fun the first time around so he made sure he had one last play on there and then in the construction area – boys will be boys!

The staff were so friendly and chatty which is always a plus with me as poor customer service is a huge bugbear. They were very efficient in the cafe and chatted to everybody they served. Which did make me feel very guilty leaving them to clean and tidy up… must be a Mum thing.

When we left we asked Jake if he had enjoyed his day and he replied with ‘yes, I want to come back lots and lots’. I think that says it all.

A centre that uses Early Year’s foundations to provide educational play which is fun for both adults and children, plus wears them out, I would say that’s five stars all round!

We will most definitely be returning.

 

Little Street is based in Frimley, Surrey. For more information please visit their website.

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