Local businesses are finding innovative ways to adapt to our new normal. House of Playful Soul, located at 5 Station Square in Forest Hills, NYC is one of those businesses that is not only adapting, but doing incredible things to help the community.
I chatted with Thuy of House of Playful Soul to find out more about her business that’s helping children learn and grow through play, with a focus on giving back too.
1. Could you please tell our readers when House of Playful Soul started and why you chose Forest Hills?
House of Playful Soul opened in March 2020, a week and a half before the pandemic lockdown.
I’m a local mom of three kids in the neighborhood. I realized we didn’t have enough programs that were accessible for young children. As kids get older, there’s way more available to them in terms of classes. But when you talk about babies and toddlers, there’s just not as much.
Combine that with the fact that I realized there weren’t enough opportunities for young children to give back. Children are born altruistic. They want to help. They want to serve. I was trying to nurture that for my children. I wanted to build a business that could offer families a meaningful way to give back together that’s age appropriate.
For example, the first event we did before we opened was called Capes for Kids. We got a table at the Forest Hills street fair, purchased materials and let kids come and decorate superhero capes to send to a homeless shelter.
Kids were immediately so giving and generous. Children are amazing. We just have to give them a chance to be amazing.
2. I love the mission on your website: “Helping Children Grow Personally, While Creating Impact As A Community.” What kind of programs do you offer to help children grow personally?
Anything related to play for kids is an opportunity to learn. There’s always an opportunity to learn and develop socially, emotionally and developmentally. Our classes are structured to help guide kids using a play based method.
We use games, songs and storytelling as a way to help introduce concepts and principles and engage the kids. Our classes are small so we can be somewhat adaptive depending on the children.
We have a small team and offer play school classes five days a week for babies and toddlers, a preschool class and a nature class where the kids are outside exploring nature as a way to inspire projects and experiments. Our classes are centered around a theme every week, which makes it really fun and engaging for the children.
We also spend a lot of time nurturing parents. As a parent, I know how important it is to have a parent community with resources because we don’t know what we don’t know. We held a parenting workshop with a sleep trainer before we opened for tips and advice on how to get kids sleeping through the night.
We’ve also done a bunch of live sessions since the pandemic for parents. We keep a pulse on what’s going on in the community, then we find partners to help facilitate these sessions.
We brought in a child psychologist to talk about how to talk to your kids about COVID and help them emotionally through it. We also brought in a professional home organizer right as school was starting because I found as a parent, I was having to work at home plus home school my child so my house was a disaster.
3. And for the other half of the mission, what are you doing to create impact as a community?
We have spent a lot of time focusing on giving back to our community. For example, we donated 100 Easter bags to healthcare workers at Elmhurst hospital.
I’ll never forget when I was talking to the person I was coordinating with stopped and started crying because she forgot that Easter was coming. She hadn’t thought about what to do for her family and her children, because she was so busy working. It’s a small thing, but that small thing helped to humanize the fact that they also have families and people they have to care for.
4. How do you choose where to donate or who to collaborate with?
We try to be tuned in to what’s going on and where the needs are. Now we’re focused on supporting the Asian American community. We’re looking at coordinating a self defense class for parents.
Parents also told me they want help to figure out how to talk to their children about it. So I have a child psychologist coming to do a workshop with parents so that we can talk through our concerns or fears.
Recently there was a huge fire in Jackson Heights. It got me thinking about families not having a home and having to start over. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through.
So I reached out and we adopted 5 families. They sent us a list of things needed and we’re organizing, collecting and finding volunteers to deliver items to these families.
5. How has the pandemic changed the way you operate business?
Before the pandemic, I envisioned our business would equally cover general play, classes and parties. But since the pandemic, I found almost 60% of our business is classes.
With the isolation during the pandemic, parents grew more fearful, anxious and concerned about the well being of their child. One of those things was how could their children get their social needs met?
So when we rolled out classes, the response was immediate because parents were looking for it. We started by doing outdoor classes and started slow to see how many kids we would have.
Parents wanted to come to our program because they could be there. They could support their children, they could make sure that their kids were keeping their masks on and being safe. And just having that reassurance that safety was there.
6. What would you suggest to make the Forest Hills community even better?
Parents are looking for more parks programs right now. I see parents saying, what outdoor activities can I do for my kids?
Also I think Forest Hills needs more support groups. During this time, everyone’s struggles are unique in their own way. A lot of people don’t have the ability or capacity to actually manage it. They’re just trying to push through.
I think it’s going to have to be businesses like ours, that help to coordinate it. I wish more businesses would focus more on supporting not just children, but also parents.
I worry about the well being of everybody. I would love to see more support for adults and really the whole community.
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Check out House of Playful Soul’s website for more information about classes, learn about their Clean & Safe Policy and the latest community projects.
Photo Credit: House Of Playful Soul
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