Mother-daughter duo debuts Discovering Dreams hands-on play in Boardman
An idea two years in the making has come to fruition for one new family business in Mahoning County.
On May 7, Debra Haseley alongside her daughter Sara Beilstein joined forces as business owners to open the indoor play space called Discovering Dreams Learn & Play in Boardman.
Before starting the new business, Haseley taught piano and voice lessons, and Beilstein taught dance and home-schooled her three kids.
“My son also has three children, so I have six grandchildren,” Haseley said.
While homeschooling, Beilstein said she realized there aren’t many options for engaging kid-friendly learning activity centers in the area during Mahoning Valley winters.
After talking with her mom, Beilstein and Haseley came up with the idea for Discovering Dreams Learn & Play.
“We have life size play structures,” Haseley said. “We didn’t want to do just another bounce, another jump around, so that’s why we call ourselves a learn and play. We have an educational portion in it, because kids learn through pretend play.”
Discovering Dreams is full of life-size play structures that are nine feet tall.
The miniature town play area creates opportunities for young children to explore, learn through play and discover new interests and hobbies under parent supervision.
“We have a vet center, a firehouse, a grocery, a cafe, a gas station, a salon and a construction zone that kids can go in,” Haseley said. “They’re fully stocked with everything that you would find in a regular grocery store, for example, and they can just pretend play.”
Inside, parents can take a break on benches and tables while maintaining supervision of their kids through an elevated 360-degree view.
“That was one thing my daughter and I talked about because if you have to constantly chase your child in an environment, it’s not a relaxing situation for you,” Haseley said. “It’s also a gated entry so they can’t get out.”
Haseley said pretend play is essential to development and later learning for children, which is why she wanted to bring the indoor play space to the Mahoning Valley area.
“As they’re interacting with the other children in the facility, it’s about fine motor and large motor skills, as well as social skills,” she said. “It’s also problem solving and sharing. There’s a lot of aspects of it.”
Parents can also host parties at Discovering Dreams, located at 945 Boardman-Canfield Road in Boardman.
“We talked to a lot of moms, asked them what would you want?” she said. “So we also have a party room - we have a big party room. And you basically get the whole facility to yourself. And we also have memberships. It’s unlimited play for an entire month.
In the fall, parents can enroll in the space’s educational hands-on classes
“They’ll all be geared toward learning about the environment, nature and animals, tiny science experiments and things like that,” Haseley said. “We really put an emphasis on the learning portion of it, even though it’s play.”
For Independence Day, they’re hosting a celebration called Boom, Pop, Play.
Follow Discovering Dreams on Facebook to check out early reviews from customers.
