120 Center St Ste 109, Auburn, ME 04210

The Little Play Space is easy to find and has plenty of parking! The parking lot to the entrance is a rocks throw away (but please don’t test this). The cost is $12 for one child and $6 more for each additional sibling/child. Parents and non-crawlers are free! You don’t have to pre-register to play but if you do it makes getting inside to play faster! The Little Play Space is a must visit and there are many pros and very few cons.

Upon entering, there is a small desk, where you can check in, pay, meet the owner, etc. Once you’ve paid and signed the waiver, remove your shoes, jackets, bags and put them on the mats and hooks directly in front of you. Behind the small desk, you will find tables and chairs where you are asked to consume your snacks and drinks. You enter a small brown gate and you’re in the play space. It is fully padded with those foam tile mats but much more heavy duty.

For those with non-crawlers or children under two, there is a space dedicated to them on the immediate right after entering the play space. This area is filled with all things babies and toddlers love. There is a mirror with fidget spinners stuck on it. My 6m old loved this. You can find a small slide and foam climbing blocks in this area. Some of the smaller toys you can find in baskets and around this area: shape matching eggs (you know the one), a ball run; put a specific ball on and watch it twist through from the top to bottom, some soft building blocks, an activity table, two big exercise balls and a couple wooden walkers. This isn’t all there is in this area but these are the ones I saw my toddler and baby play with. It has a little extra padded mat on top of the already matted floor, which made falling over for my newly sitting up baby not so dramatic.

Outside of the baby area or the area immediately within the brown gate is where the walkers-preschool can find fun. Starting at the left just inside the gate, is the pretend play kitchen. This kitchen set has three separate pieces, the stove/oven, the sink/dishwasher and a fridge/freezer. In the same area is a little table and chairs for a pretend meal. Kids can pretend to shop for the pretend food at the little market stand also in the same area. My daughter, 4.5y, liked to scan the groceries then take them “home” to put the groceries away in the previously mentioned fridge/freezer. Lastly, she took the groceries out and cooked a Thanksgiving meal for everyone! There are carts for the big shoppers or baskets for the shoppers who just need a few things.

Moving along, there’s an area with blocks, Legos and a barn complete with animals and fencing. I found this area to be pretty popular just as much as the kitchen/food area. Both my almost 2y and 4.5y love pretend play so I watched them rebuild their farm over and over again. Right next to this is a giant train table. My toddler is a hug car kid so he spent the majority of his time here. There’s trains and different cars to pull along the already made track. If they want to build their own track there is a drawer full underneath the table with endless possibilities of building a really big track! In this same area is a wooden toolbench set. Along with the wooden tools, there is also some battery powered tools with real lights and sounds.

There are three different size climbing structures. All wooden and all with different ways of climbing and playing. One of the structures has colorful climbing bars on one side, a colorful climbing ramp and a net cargo net. My two walking kids, kept coming back to this one with different games and imaginative play. It was at one point a pirate ship, a restaurant and a place for hid and seek using some toys around the space. The medium size structure had some bars for climbing up, some paw print cutout holes, a cargo net, a pair of triangular gymnastic swinging bars in the center a round swing. The biggest sturcture here has stairs to climb up or a holey wall for climbing up. Keep ascending only to descending to a very slipper (but fun) slide. There’s some spots underneath to climb in and crawl through for those not ready to climb it. Again it’s the biggest structure here but it is in no way “too big”. It’s perfect for any age kid.

That’s pretty much it for “the big things” or the “big areas”, however there are a ton of stand alone activities and toys. There’s two small tables and chairs along the wall. On one table, is magnet blocks and there’s even a metal sheet board on the wall to build some 3-D castles, mazes, whatever your mind can imagine up. On the other table are these things, I wouldn’t even know what to call them, but they suction to whatever you stick them too. I think I’ve seen people mostly use them in bath tubs but we found plenty of ways to play with them. I think my daughter played with them for 30-40m. She built castles with the magnet blocks and used the suction things as people and they lived happily ever after in the ginormous palace she built for them. Another stand alone thing to do is a fabric play house. Although I didn’t see many kids inside, mine checked it out a few times but ultimately didn’t stay inside long. There are a ton of ride on cars, which were being used by someone at all times. You’ll find a basket full of hard plastic little people cars and trucks. There is a foam rainbow climbing set in muted colors. My ~2y separated the three pieces and walked across them, realized he could crawl and push things under the biggest one and then he turned them over and used them as a means of rocking side to side and as a hammock. There’s a set of balancing stones, again muted colors and they have different textures on them.

Towards the back of play space is a room with a door, used for nursing. It has two couches and some boppys. There’s also a sink in there too. The bathrooms are also in the back of the play space. One has a changing table and both are equipped with adult toilets but also the flip down toddler seats.

We spent two and a half hours here but easily could have stayed longer. My kids were so captivated by everything there was to play with and never got bored of anything. If they did get bored it was only for a little while and then they came back again. They played with everything multiple times during our visit. The owner was an absolute sweetheart. She apparently is a pediatric OT and she encourages questions about your little ones (I didn’t know this until after I got home, otherwise I would have had a million). She was not over bearing, she only intervened two or three times to reset some of the spaces, that kids had scattered toys throughout. I even saw her sanitizing toys from the “yuck buckets” well placed throughout all the areas. I tried to make my kids clean up after themselves but I didn’t feel a NEED to..or pressure if they didn’t. Overall, I give this place a double thumbs up and a must go. We definitely will be back and not only are my kids looking forward to it, I the mom can’t wait to go back either. With all the positive things I’ve said, you’re probably thinking there’s GOT to be some cons. And yes, I do have one but it is just a personal one. As much as there is to do, I wish it was still a little more filled out, especially towards the back. The outside wall of the nursing room could use something, maybe some touch and feels, a wall busy board, something just to fill the emptiness of it. Theres a few spaces like this that could easily home a few more open-ended play areas. With that said, this play space has only been open for three weeks and I for one am looking forward to watching the space grow and change as time goes on, again reiterating that I loved the space as it was today when we were there! Do yourself and your child(ren) a favor and go play at The Little Play Space in Aurburn, Maine. It’s very laid-back, very much child-led playing and it’s cost is inexpensive. It’s advertised for ages 0-6 and while agree a six year old can find fun here, I think there is more for toddlers to do, unless your prek-k child has a colorful imagination (as mine does).