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November 2006
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Imaginations
Soar at INK
Interactive Neighborhood for Kids
by Mary Abreu
Not
far from downtown Gainesville in Hall County sits a
nondescript brick building housing an avenue to
imagination that will entertain your kids for hours
on end.
The Interactive Neighborhood for
Kids (INK) is a children’s museum set up like a
neighborhood street, with different "businesses"
lining each side and a small playground in the
middle. Kids can explore each area of the
neighborhood to their hearts’ delight. Anything you
might find in a typical neighborhood, you’ll find at
INK: doctor’s and dentist’s offices, post office,
hair salon, school, library, grocery store,
restaurant, train depot – it’s all there and more.
There’s even a play area specifically geared for
kids ages 4 and younger.
On a recent fall morning, a
friend and I took our daughters, ages 23 months and
3 years, to explore INK. We thought the girls would
play for an hour or so, and then we’d head home for
lunch.
Wrong. Instead, we had to drag our girls
out of there after two hours, promising to return
for another play date in the future. We let the
girls dictate where we went, so there was a little
bit of popping in here and there until they decided
that they wanted to play in the restaurant.
Three-year-old Sydney insisted that her mom and I
sit at the counter so she could serve us a lunch of
faux muffins, burgers and imaginary Diet Coke from
the soda fountain. She carried plates of food to her
customers, a colorful apron tied around her waist.
In the meantime, my toddler rang up our meals on the
cash register near the front door.
Also a big hit was the grocery
store on the other side of the "street." The girls
filled kid-sized carts with plastic produce,
packages of food (all empty) and milk jugs (again,
empty). They took their groceries to the checkout
and scanned each item on the real, working scanner,
then the "cashier" (aka my friend, Kim) gave the
girls their total (a whopping $4,000).
INK was not crowded during our
visit, but the staff said they frequently host field
trips and other large-group outings. If you have
smaller kids and are worried about losing them in a
crowd, you might call ahead to see if there’s a
group scheduled on the day you plan to visit.
Imaginative play rules at INK. I foresee a return
trip to Gainesville so we can explore the
Neighborhood again.
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