La La Land play space for kids opens in Babylon
La La Land owner Christina Sciuto with her daughter, Mila, age 3, of Babylon on May 25. Credit: Drew Singh
Christina Sciuto’s search for an open play venue she liked that was closer than 30 minutes from her home spurred her to open La La Land on Main Street in Babylon — it offers 90-minute open play sessions in addition to caregiver-and-me classes, birthday parties and more.
La La Land has open play five times a week for $25 per session for kids who are beyond the crawling stage ($17.50 for a sibling) and $15 for crawlers. A crawlers’ corner features toys and colors geared toward babies who aren’t on the move just yet. For walkers and older, there’s a rock wall, monkey bars, two slides, tunnels, a play kitchen, a vet center, a cafe, a grocery store, a train table and a car table. Each admission comes with a snack and a drink for the kids, and a self-serve espresso bar for adults.
La La Land also has caregiver-and-me music classes and art classes, and Sciuto plans to introduce a little chefs program and a beginner gymnastics class. Weekends typically are filled with birthday parties, she says. The venue is geared to ages 9 months to 5 years, with the sweet spot being ages 1 to 3, Sciuto says.
Sciuto’s daughter, Mila, now 3, was born in March 2020. “For the first four months, we were trapped indoors,” says Sciuto, 39. When Sciuto was finally comfortable taking Mila out to explore new places, she found many places were a half an hour drive away.
“When you are trying to arrange everything around a child’s nap schedule, it’s pretty difficult,” she says of making the drive there and back and fitting in the play time. She was also working full time, which made finding a chunk of time to fit in classes with her daughter even more of a challenge.
La La Land, 158 Main St., Babylon, 631-482-1619, playatlalaland.com. Check the website for open play session times, as the venue is not open when an event is not scheduled.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
