Play Days at Learning Express

Summer Tuesday evenings mean for Westfielders, and for families with young children they also mean Play Days at . For three years, Learning Express has been holding free sessions for young kids to come into the store and play with toys.

“We try to tack it on to jazz night, so the people can come into town for jazz night and their kids have something to do,” Learning Express owner Elaine Jordan said. “Maybe the parents want to go down the street for yogurt with the kids after.”

Play Days are themed based on the products they have in the store, said Shannon Reilly, who coordinates the Play Days. Sometimes companies send the store, located on Quimby Street, freebie products or demos for the store to build a theme around.

Themes are mixed up and often target different genders. “We’ll have a theme for girls one day, and then boys the next, and then one for both,” Jordan said.

Reilly said Play Days are often accompanied by store discounts and deals for the products being featured. “I’d really like to think Play Days bring people into the store, get our names out there, and it really gets the kids to want to come into the store,” she said.

In addition to the 7 p.m. Tuesday sessions during the summer, Play Days are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesdays during the summer as well. Generally, Jordan said, sessions last about a half hour.

Learning Express advertises its themes through their email lists and also lists them with the Downtown Westfield Corporation. 

Here is a list of upcoming Play Day themes:

August 21^st: Building Play Day

August 22^nd: Wiki Stix Play Day

August 28^th: Birdhouse making Play Day

August 29^th: American Girl McKenna Play Day