Around Town

Roundup · Posted Oct 8, 2026

“Play is not frivolous.”

From a clinical report in Pediatrics, written for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Cream cover with the WeSouthlake wordmark, reading "“Play is not frivolous.”", then "From a clinical report in Pediatrics, written for the American Academy of Pediatrics.", and "Save this for the next rainy Saturday.".
"Play builds the skills to pursue goals and ignore distractions." It calls play with parents and other kids a singular opportunity to build them, and warns that early childhood programs are pressured into more instruction and less play.
Group ONE, "Little ones, at their own pace" (Make-believe spaces, toddler zones and parent-and-child classes), with each place's logo, town and ages: Gymboree Play And Music Southlake; Play Street Museum Southlake; Cheeky Monkeys; PeeknPlay Grapevine; Kids Empire Euless.
Group TWO, "Climb, bounce, slide" (Ninja courses, trampolines and giant slides), with each place's logo, town and ages: Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park; Ninja Kidz; Slick City.
Group THREE, "Where older kids still want to go" (Games to play with other kids, and with you), with each place's logo, town and ages: Pinstacks; Hooky Entertainment Southlake; Activate Games; Crush It! Grapevine; Red Door Escape Room Southlake.
Navy closing slide: "The report is about play. Not play centers." What matters is playing together, kids with their parents and kids with other kids. Compare every play space by age at wesouthlake.com/play-spaces

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"Play is not frivolous."

That's a direct quote from a 2018 clinical report in Pediatrics, written for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The full sentence: "Play is not frivolous: it enhances brain structure and function and promotes executive function (ie, the process of learning, rather than the content), which allow us to pursue goals and ignore distractions."

The report calls play with parents and other kids "a singular opportunity" to build those skills. It also says early childhood programs are "pressured to add more didactic components and less playful learning."

The report is about play with parents and other kids, not about any particular place to do it. What counts is playing together, wherever that happens.

So if your family is short on unstructured time this month, here are thirteen places nearby to do just that, sorted by age.

In this post (11)

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