“Multi-sensory experience” is sort of a fancy way to say “playing with slime”. No matter how you say it, there is something decidedly delightful about digging your hands into the clammy, jiggly, mushy green (or yellow or pink — slime comes in many colors) stuff. “It’s made of polymers, or plastics,” explains Melissa Wright, owner of The Lab at Lake Highlands. Plastic happens to be the theme of The Lab’s most popular party, “Fun with Polymers”, where kids enjoy “demonstrations on making and breaking polymer chains.” If Wright has her way, they will learn something and, even better, they will develop the desire to learn. But don’t tell them that. “I always wanted learning to be fun,” she says. “Eventually you get sick of bounce houses and Main Event. This is the type of party I would have wanted for myself,” Wright says with a smile. She calls herself a nerd who loves science. Sure — the attractive, stylishly dressed, friendly and energetic mother of two boys has the nerd-chic thing down pat. Before opening The Lab on Shoreview, she looked into similarly themed franchises, but none of them really matched her restriction-free vision. “You can run a science program out of your garage, or make it mobile and take it to classrooms and things like that, but I wanted to be able to make a mess without getting in trouble.” The idea has proved so popular to date that she is considering opening a second location in Lakewood, says Wright, who also leads an eight-member Boy Scout troop. “People always say ‘Thank you’ after the parties, even if they didn’t seem too sure at first,” she says. “We are growing slowly, but I think we are going to grow.”
The Lab at Lake Highlands
About the Author: Christina Hughes Babb
CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB is editor at large at Advocate Magazines. Email her at chughes@advocatemag.com or follow twitter.com/chughesbabb.