Notasium

I didn’t quite know what to expect of this place, and we live about 40 mins away, but had another reason to be in Durham so decided to check it out with our 2 year old. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like it’s much, but it’s all what you and your kid make of it. My son took a few minutes to observe, check it out, and jumped right in– he climbed the giant «guitar» and went down the steep slide, loved the bounce house, and we couldn’t peel him away from the drum set! The karaōke rooms are a nice touch that parents can have fun with too! Bonus was that I checked in on Unilocal and got a free coffee! It’s definitely worth trying out — you’ll only be out a few bucks if your kid doesn’t take to it (parents are free), but I think everyone could spend at least an hour there.

Updating a few months later: it is no longer so ridiculously crowded, so I guess that’s a good thing. The hours are pretty inconvenient because they do a lot of private parties, so we have not been in a while.
Went recently and noticed that many of the features are in need of a little TLC, whether that means maintenance or replacement. The six string guitar is now a three string guitar. The other guitar that required batteries didn’t work at all, not sure why. Some of the drums that the kids climb on to make noise were not working.
My child is pretty young, so I was a little concerned when two adult men got into the bouncy house with him. They were bouncing and flipping and I made my kid get out. The outside of the bounce house says that no one over 150 pounds for taller than 5 feet should be inside, and that flipping was not permitted. It also said no mixing of ages /​sizes. I was getting ready to say something to the front desk attendant when I heard him signing in an arriving family. He told the mom and dad that they were «more than welcome» to use the slide and bounce house. So I guess it is within the rules, but I still didn’t feel good about having a small toddler in there with adults being rambunctious.
This review might be a little unfair overall because I think their core business might be music lessons or camps. They also heavily advertise parents’ night out where you are supposed to drop your kid off and leave him unsupervised. My experience is with the open play and that is what I am reviewing. Take it for what it is worth.

Pretty cute little place — I like that it’s really unique and allows kids to be creative in different ways and get out some energy. I took our 9 month old and she loved it. I can see this being a rainy day staple for parents and kids alike. It was our first time and we didn’t really understand how it worked — I can’t say the employees went out of their way to show us but we just checked it out on our own. It’d be nice to have an employee in the mix helping kids learn how to use the stations as well.
I like that there are a wide variety of things for different ages and it’s relatively inexpensive but a lot of the stations are pretty basic — like pots and pans. I’d imagine as they grow they may change out some things but I like the mix of different activities and just open space to run/​play. Certainly worth another visit!
PS = that slide is pretty intense… #brokensandal

Parents, be very careful with your child on the slide. It appears to be harmless, but my daughter broke her arm sliding down. There is no support on either side when a child is sliding down and easy to fall over. Often kids go down in pairs and can accidentally knock each other over. I heard from the doctor at pediatric orthopedics that this happened to another child one month earlier. Staff, when hearing about this were ok but not sure if they have done anything about the slide.

I was a bit concerned when I first walked in because it seemed small but the kids had a blast. Brought my son with 3 of his friends all around 5yrs old. They had a blast and played for about an hour and a half. We did not get to try the karaōke booths as they were full. I asked the kids what they thought and they said they had fun and want to come back. There is one entrance into the play area so it’s easy to keep track of the kids. The staff is also very nice and welcoming. Definitely going again, I might even try signing my son up for music lessons.

My four year old loved the light xylophone in the back room. She danced and danced while giggling as you made music by her movement. She also really liked the drum bounce house. She was a bit hesitant on the guitar slide after she got a bit of a friction burn/​hot spot trying to slow herself down. The karaōke room was fun for about 10 minutes with a stirring rendition of Let It Go! My only complaint is that there are not enough things to keep the children’s attention for more than about an hour. We will definitely go back!

Very nice play area for kids to experiment with music. Places to run and bounce and a stage for kids to rock out together. Much better than most other indoor play places. We certainly will be back on cold and rainy days.

This is a great place for toddlers and young kids. There’s tons of different play spaces for them to run off energy and at the same time create music (everything produces sound). The best thing is that the speakers are directional and not too loud so really only the kid hears the music (i.e., no headaches from too much noise).
Other perks: parents are free; you can bring your own snacks; food that they sell is very reasonably priced.
We will definitely be back.

Notasium is the perfect spot for the working parent. The small, but full, musical «play» space is full of sounds and hands-​on tools to keep any young person entertained. And if need be, the parent can get some work done using free wifi, outlets and seating that faces the play space, so your eyes can bounce between work and child. Children can play in the space for $ 8/​day (each additional sibling is $ 6) and parents are free. The price might be steep at first, but I think Notasium is competing with the idea that «parents are free». Almost all the other kid gymnasiums in the area also charge parents (example: Marbles, Kidzu, Museum of Life & Science), so it does, in fact, equal out in the end, even with the kid pricing a little higher.
Notasium offers music classes as well as their play space, however, this review is only for the play space. The three and five year old that go with me absolutely love it! If given the choice, Notasium is always the winning option for outings currently, it’s a perfect rainy day spot too! With free Bean Trader’s coffee when you check in on Unilocal,and boasting of the tallest slide in the Triangle, your young adult will love this joint. Everything inside the play space has music involved: musical slide and bounce house, floor keyboards, a mini pipe organ, the «beat kitchen» where household items take on a whole new sound [literally], a stage to get over that stage freight, and my personal favorite: karaōke. It’s F.U.N. for the whole family. And while the space seems small, I can say from experience that it will add up to hours of entertainment. And don’t be afraid to take off your shoes (SOCKS required!) and try out that slide for yourself, you’ll feel like a child again, and your children will love you for it! Kids have cubbies for their shoes but where are the cubbies for parents when they want to stash their laptops to jump in the bounce house? That might be a convenient addition! Definitely check out Notasium if you’re looking for a kid-​tiring, working parent friendly option.

My toddler loves music and we’ve tried to encourage her with age-​proper activities and toys. We tried two other music classes in the area, and was very disappointed with them, one was good but the toys and instruments were really dirty, and the other one was an older lady (very sweet though) but couldn’t keep the kids engaged. After finding out about Notasium, we tried our first class and we both loved it! We’ve been going each week ever since, and couldn’t be happier with the staff and the structure of the class. They focus in rhythms and some fine motor skills development and games. We both really enjoy it… we travel to a new place each week and discover new songs and activities accordingly.
Also, what’s great about the place is that they have a music-​focused playground. It’s fun for the kids and also very didactic. My daughter loves the Beat Kitchen as well as the karaōke rooms, and always finds new fun toys to play at the stage. It’s a great concept and I am grateful we found it. I just wish it keeps expanding in activities and equipment, although it’s already great!

«Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want…»
When the kind young man at the front suggested we try out the karaōke rooms, I said «Great, thanks!» but as an introvert who would literally rather die than do karaōke, I was thinking to myself «Not a chance in hell, kid.» My husband wanted to check it out so I braved it thinking that I would just watch him and my daughter sing. I was happily surprised to see so many kids songs. I’m not sure why I was surprised since it is a kids place but I just didn’t expect all of her current favorites like The Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, etc. I sing these songs to my daughter everyday but being able to sing them with a microphone (which she loves) and the other cool equipment was such a cool experience for us. I’m so glad that I didn’t pass up this opportunity to make this special memory. Watching her face light up as she heard herself on the mic was awesome!
Thank you Notasium for creating a space for me to get silly with my kid! And for the Spice Girls song that is now stuck in my head. We will be adding Notasium to our weekly lineup and we can’t wait to start music lessons when our daughter is old enough!

This place is awesome! My 2 year old is very active, and the usual playgrounds are getting a little boring to us, so I was glad to stumble upon this.
For only $ 8, he was able to fiddle around with musical instruments, climb a music themed structure with a slide (over and over), bang on pots and pans galore, play on a floor keyboard, and more. The best part is, he finally got over his fear of bounce houses here.
I thought for sure we’d only be there for a half hour or so, but he made it an hour and 20 minutes before he was getting tired. They have a small café area, with things like juice and goldfish, so we took a break there then after he started to crash a bit, we left.
We will definitely be back — he hasn’t had that much fun in a long time.