Wise Adventures is different things to different people. For parents, it's a place to safely leave kids and shop in the mall or go off on a date night, checking in occasionally via Wise Adventures' video-over-the-Internet feature. For kids, though, Wise Adventures becomes a zone of discovery. Thousands of loose Lego blocks sit ready to become helicopters, spaceships, used-vacuum-cleaner stores, or anything else out of the wildest imagination. Wise Adventures' instructors teach older kids computer skills in more structured sessions, including keyboarding and Microsoft Office. They also help kids with school work during private or group tutoring programs.

Wise Adventures doesn't exclude adults from its fantastic confines, however. They can attend birthday parties, which take on more than a dozen themes, including "Princess Tea Party" and "Hands on with Animals," which expands the guest list to include a corn snake and leopard geckos. Pottery painting, meanwhile, welcomes both kids and adults, and "social artworking" events let grown-ups chat and eat while they paint works of art.