Venue Suggestions for future Slingmeets

[ailean]

The purpose of this thread is for everyone to come up with suggestions for venues for future Kent Slingmeets. Please feel free to suggest all u like, but put in details of where the venue is and think about points eg. food/drink and baby facilities, appropriate space, etc.

We've had our very first Kent Slingmeet in Bluewater - the venue was great and here are some pros and cons of Bluewater:

Pros:
1. Central, quite accessible (but by car)
2. Good facilities - baby changing/feeding areas
3. Food/drink available.
4. Enough space to play with our numerous slings
5. Meeting area was private yet public (ie. we had our own space but it was in a public area so people could approach us if they wanted to ask re: slings)

Cons:
1. No mirrors (for checking our positioning and safety with the slings/babies)
2. No play area or clean floor space for babies to crawl about freely
3. No comfy sofa-type area...if you know what i mean!
4. Shops were a slight distraction for some (ie. me!!)

OK that's all i can think of for now.

[Denie]

Hiya,

Just thought I'd suggest any of the sencio leisure centres. I went to one in Sevenoaks yesterday and it had a cafe, baby changing, and a small ball/slide play area. There's one in Swanley too, which has a cafe but I haven't checked it out to see if there's a baby play area too. But if it's a chain, they might all be similar.

Pros:
1. Baby changing
2. Food/drink available.
3. Enough space to play with our numerous slings
4. Mirror in the bathroom
5. Play area for babies/toddlers
6. Knole Park is nearby for a walk afterwards

Cons:
1. No comfy sofa-type area...if you know what i mean!
2. Not sure how they'd feel about us having our slingmeet there, but if we're eating too I'm sure it'd be okay.

[GreenPlover]

That sounds like a great venue, do you think you can find out if they would mind the Slingmeet possee invading them?

Julie

[beal_cain]

ok, so the last post on this thread was almost a year ago, so i thought i'd try and think of some more venues.

1. Jungle Jims - Birchington

- the train station is not far, with a bus service running to the site, or mummies with cars could pick up!
- there's a big play net type thingy for older kids and quite a big space for little ones to crawl and do what they in
- there's a huge amount of floor space to practise aswell as big mirror in the toilet (i think...memory not that great)
- the food isn't that bad
- there's a far shop attached to it that does have lovely food
- there's an big outside expanse outside, wehere you can see horses and a few other animals, with a load of toy tractors to sit on and play to your hearts content. There's also an outside climbing thing that looks like a boat for older ones
- it's not very expensive to get in!!

2. farming World - nr faversham

- it's central to the majority of peoples locations
- it's big enough to hold everyone and more!
- its good for older kids and dads (so poss for big saturday meet)
- it would make it a one big happy family day out, maybe talking about slings on the way roun and trying out at lunch time or something.
- it might be better as a summer meet though due to everything bveing outside.


hope they're ok!!

[GreenPlover]

Jungle Jims ROCKS!!!

Great location for the far Easters, is this a venue most feel comfortable with??

[Peaches]

As a newbie and a far Easter Jungle Jims gets my vote!

[PIKMIN]

shame its nearly an hours drive for me ;( and if i have to pick up older children from school doesn't look like i could make this venue

[Peaches]

Where are you near Pikmin?

[Sally]

Kids Kingdom (soft play type place) on the A28 (Ashford Road) is really good, amd usually not busy at all.
But I am biased as its 2 minutes away from me :D

[lisaisata]

Hi all
I would really like to come, i have a little girl aged 6 months and we love our sling we live in the medway towns.
lisa

[kittb]

Hi Lisa

We're in Whitstable, I don't think we've got anything planned for August yet tho we really should do! My little one is not so little now, he's 21 months and huge! He still loves to be carried though :)

Would you be able to make a trip to the seaside if the weather is good? Or recommend anywhere near you that we could head to on public transport if needs be?

Kit

[puddock]

There is a brand new children's centre in Tonbridge, some of the local netmums met there last week and say it's lovely. They're keen to host groups - I could find out more if there's any interest from people living in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge area (and further away)?

[BeaAndJennaMay]

theres a new childrens xcentre in herne bay! :)

[naomij]

How about Canterbury Wholefoods in Canterbury? They have a very reasonably priced cafe upstairs with lots of healthy food/drinks, comfy sofa area (last time I was there about a year ago there was anyway) and I'm pretty sure would be happy to support a babywearing group.

[mitzi]

How about Canterbury Wholefoods in Canterbury? They have a very reasonably priced cafe upstairs with lots of healthy food/drinks, comfy sofa area (last time I was there about a year ago there was anyway) and I'm pretty sure would be happy to support a babywearing group.

Yum, I love it there, and I think that would be fabulous for a group meet with only babies ... but a nightmare unfortunately for those of us with toddlers who take off down the stairs at any opportunity. :rolleyes:

[naomij]

Thats true, could be tricky. Maybe everyone could bring a toy to slingmeets so that there would be an interesting collection to pool for the purposes of distracting energetic toddlers!

[deliakate]

Hey, am a newbie, so hope you don't mind me suggesting - the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks has a great cafe, which is very big and sparsely populated. Good changing facilities and mirrors on the landing, and the food/drink is pretty well priced. Wonder if it would work....

[ranger]

I am going through the process of officialy becoming a volunteer at the children centre in Sevenoaks as I help at the breastfeeding clinic there and am occasionally also at the children centre in Edenbridge, if there are other mums interested in sling meet in these areas, I could possibly enquire about having a group meet at one of these venues once a month or forthnightly? I must say I quite like the Edenbridge children centre as the set up makes it very safe for older kids. It would be very difficult for one to make it out of the building even if they get out of sight. The set up is not as good in Sevenoaks but it's still a lovely venue. Let me know.