5 best indoor play spaces for small children in the Triangle
While some days may be great for a trip to the playground, on yucky days those littles still need somewhere to get their energy out! I’ve picked my top five local places to take your mini-mes for some indoor fun.
1. Little Doodles Play Cafe in Raleigh
Little Doodles has become my go-to spot to bring my toddler, both on days when the weather isn’t cooperating and when I just need somewhere for my daughter to play where she is contained and can’t run away from me.
Little Doodles has two Raleigh locations
There's one off Glenwood Avenue and one off of Falls of Neuse as well as a third Wendell location. I love that the toys here stimulate imaginative play, with play features like a mini-pirate ship, a doctor’s office, a fire truck, a house and a grocery store complete with small shopping cart. There are even some dress-up clothes. The Glenwood Avenue location features a STEM room with science and math-oriented activities like a felt solar system, a scale with things to weigh and Magna-Tile shapes.
Perhaps the greatest feature of Little Doodles however, is their messy art room.
While not always as fully stocked as I would like, they have virtually everything your child needs to create their own mini-masterpiece, from smocks to paints and brushes to stickers and easels. As a parent who loves the IDEA of messy art projects but despises the mess that they make in my home, this is an ideal scenario. My child can create to her heart’s content and I don’t have to worry about paint all over my house or all the clean-up. They handle the bulk of that for you.
Keep the kids cool at these indoor playgrounds in the Triangle
I have a friend who actually brings Pinterest craft ideas and has her children do them while at Little Doodles to avoid the mess at home! Brilliant! While the art room is generally a self-directed space, on certain days of the week (location dependent) Little Doodles has a more organized, though simple, staff-led art projects.This makes for a nice little balance of structured and unstructured play.
Indoor playgrounds, trampoline parks in Raleigh
It can get crowded.
My only reservations about Little Doodles is that due to the size of the space it can get extremely crowded, especially on school holidays.
The toys often wind up littering the playspace floor from so many littles enjoying them. However, as a friend of mine says, going to Little Doodles feels homey, like meeting up for a playdate at your friend’s house. She hit the nail on the head for me -- it isn’t fancy, but not every outing needs to be. What Little Doodles is, is comfortable and easy.
The Raleigh locations of Little Doodles even offer outreach to moms by offering a meetup on select afternoons.
The meetups feature either a project, discussion, or guest speaker for moms to enjoy and socialize while their children play. Little Doodles has been hosting special events, such as character meet and greets, themed activities and holiday parties.
On Dec. 31, I took my daughter to their “Noon Year’s Eve” event that culminated in an adorable balloon drop that absolutely delighted the little revelers. February featured a stuffed pet adoption event that sounded adorable as well. We recently attended our first birthday party at Little Doodles for a newly minted three-year-old. The kids all seemed to have a great time and the parents were happy that they were able to actually socialize with one another. We may do our daughter’s birthday party there this year as well, since the rain threatened us last year, but party dates book up well in advance.
Little Doodles is open weekdays from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. depending on the day and the location, and on weekends for birthday parties and special events. You can show up and just buy a play pass for the day, purchase a monthly pass for each child, or an annual pass for the whole family.
To keep the prices affordable, Little Doodles asks that you purchase your snacks and beverages from their cafe. They offer numerous coffee options, although no espresso drinks, and have great muffins from a local bakery among their many and various kid-friendly snacks.
2. Piney Town Playhouse in Fuquay-Varina
Fuquay-Varina’s former Playhouse Children’s Museum just launched its grand reopening as Piney Town Playhouse. The newly renovated space features refreshed attractions, a new layout, new toys, a party room, and a cafe for parents complete with espresso drinks.
The Playhouse focuses on imaginative play with an entire “downtown” of adorable playhouses situated along a main street.
The child-sized but impeccably recreated playhouses include a doctor’s office, a police station, a fire truck, an ice cream stand, a service station with a gas pump and car to work on, a construction area, a garden, a house, a tree-house with slide and a theater complete with performance stage and costumes.
There is a soft kiddy corral in the middle of the space for children under the age of 2 to toddle around and play with age appropriate toys.
Other than the baby corral, the rest of the space is best suited for ages 2 to 5 years old.
My two-and-a half year old was the perfect audience and thoroughly enjoyed running back and forth between the various playhouses. Her favorite had to be the market where she loaded up her shopping basket with groceries and packed them into bags. She also enjoyed checking the mailboxes throughout the town for letters.
Many of the kids present for the grand reopening enjoyed putting one another in the police station’s jail cell, building on the construction site with the soft foam bricks, cooking in the kitchen and running around in costumes dressed as police officers, firefighters, doctors or construction workers.
I saw more than one child stage a mini-performance on the playhouse stage.
Piney Town hosts a full calendar of special events from holiday celebrations, to SuperHero meet and greets and princess tea parties.
Overall, Piney Town Playhouse is an amazing place for kids to use their imaginations while learning about the world around them.
The space is big enough to offer kids plenty to do and room to roam independently while being small enough not to be overwhelming and to allow parents to see their children from nearly every vantage point.
Play times are by reservation only.
Hours vary by day to include both reserved open play and times designated for field trips, group events and private parties. The space is closed on Wednesdays, but has coveted morning hours available on Saturdays and Sundays so that weekday working parents have an opportunity to bring their kids.
3. Notasium in Cary and Durham
Durham and Cary both host branches of Notasium, a music school and playspace.
While your child can take music lessons here, they are not required for you to purchase an open play day pass for their musically-themed play space.
I love that the play area is completely enclosed, even utilizing toddler door handle guards, to avoid any unwanted escapes.
As the parent of an escape artist I found this feature to be invaluable. Parents can set up shop at any of the numerous workstations looking out over the playroom floor and feel confident that there is only so much trouble that their little one can get into.
While there is a very large musical slide that might be a bit precarious for younger kids, Notasium has thought of almost everything by providing sock-wearing parents with a basket of slip on rescue sandals should they need to climb the mega-sized guitar frets (ouch!) to rescue their hesitant child from the top of the slide. Talk about some forethought!
Notasium is entirely uncluttered, with all of their structures and instruments affixed to the floor or walls; unlike many play-places which quickly have their toys littering the space. This shouldn’t by any means indicate that there isn’t enough to play with however.
There is a giant light up floor piano.
There is also organ foot pedals to play, giant guitar frets to strum, interactive musical walls, a light up giant musical peg board, a play house with all kinds of things for kids to bang on to their heart’s content, a stage for recitals complete with miniature piano and giant drums, and two musically-themed bounce houses.
The kids didn't want to leave.
While this may not seem like as many activities as some other play spaces, I can assure you that both my 2-year-old, as well as my friend’s 1-year-old and 3-year-old, were all entertained for over two hours and didn’t want to leave.
Tickets for open-play can be purchased in advance on their website or in-person when you arrive. Memberships are also available.
4. Over the Moon Play Space in Cary
Cary’s Over the Moon Play Space features a huge indoor area for kids to run around, climb, slide and otherwise let all their pent-up energy out.
This space-themed play area focuses on STEM activities and lots of movement.
The play zone features a pint-sized ropes course, a kid's climbing wall, a rocket ship play structure, various types of large building blocks, balancing toys, a magnetic Magna-Tile wall, astronaut dress up and a baby and toddler play area.
The slides are very slick and there are plenty of opportunities for falls off of the ropes course and climbing equipment, but fortunately the floors in these areas are very spongy.
The climbing wall has a large mat beneath it to prevent boo boos. For parents there is the wonderful feature of work stations, complete with WiFi and charging ports, all facing out at the play area for fairly unobstructed views of your children.
There is a self-serve cafe with a coffee station selling drinks and a variety of snacks for kids.
While Over-the-Moon bills its age range as catering to crawlers to ages 9 to 10ish, the large number of smaller, but still mobile children afoot seem to make it most appropriate for walking toddlers through age 7 or so. Crawlers should stick to the baby and toddler space to avoid getting run over.
In addition to open play, Over-the-Moon offers track-out programs, summer camps and birthday party options. Monthly memberships are available as gift certificates.
5. Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh
Downtown Raleigh’s destination-worthy interactive children’s museum cannot be beat for a day of indoor play.
The museum is massive with lots of different themed play areas appropriate for a variety of ages.
My 2-year old’s favorite play space was probably the large “Around Town” exhibit. With a tot-sized ambulance, fire truck, car, farm, vet office, large train set and much more, she was entertained for what equates to ages in toddler time.
The ultimate guide to the best museums in Raleigh
The first floor also hosts a water-themed playspace with a submarine, boat, pirate ship, ocean simulation room, and an area for hands-on waterplay that thoughtfully provides smocks and hand dryers.
Another small exhibit allows small children to test their green thumb by building and “planting” flowers.
The first floor’s “Toddler Hollow”provides a playspace exclusively for the three and under set to pull-up, climb and explore.
Despite its downtown location, Marbles has some outdoor exhibit spaces as well. One is focused on gardening and solar power, the other on music.
Even the stairs at Marbles aren’t boring.
One set of stairs form a giant set of musical piano keys, while another allows kids to take a breather and slide down instead. The second floor is full of even more fun exhibits to explore. A maker’s lab is fully stocked with everything that kids need to bring out their inner artist, from a self-serve paint dispenser to a large plexiglass “canvas” to paint on to woodworking stations with real functional tools great for older children.
The “Moneypalooza” exhibit teaches about earning through jobs like selling lemonade, delivering pizza or pet care as well as saving and spending through the use of green balls representing currency.
A large piggy bank on the ceiling dominates the space and erupts green balls when enough “money” has been saved. The STEM-osphere predictably focuses on STEM-based activities like engineering, technology and brain teasers. The Kid-Grid exhibit teaches about different forms of energy and how kids can help to conserve it.
The Power2Play exhibit encourages exercise and healthy living.
There are cooking areas and lots of hands-on sports like basketball (with hoops of varying heights,) surfboards to balance on, and a miniature indoor hockey rink where kids can slip and slide their way on socks to goals using pucks and hockey sticks.
With everything from a tot area to an Imax theater, there is something for virtually every age of child to love here. There is easily more packed into the museum than can be done in a day, all of it fun and educational, but also a bit overwhelming.
Tickets must be purchased in advance of your visit, and be forewarned that tickets sell out quickly for weekends and school holidays.
These five indoor play spaces cater best to children in the younger age bracket, but there are plenty of great indoor options in the Triangle for older kids as well! Don’t let those crummy weather days keep you stuck inside.
