Our business has been so well received that our second location (in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood) should be open by the end of 2022. We continued to roll out others, including glitter and candy tiles, slime kits, and dreidel kits, to appeal to a broader audience. Soon after opening, we launched our first product, Robot Tracks. Initially, we thought we’d open in the city, but after we moved to West Orange, we recalibrated the idea to work for New Jersey and opened our Millburn space in 2018. Marc had this dream of a business related to magnetic tiles, and with my educational background, we brainstormed and came up with the idea of a hybrid of a magnetic tiles wonderland mixed with STEM. Magnetic tiles always made the list because the boys (and my husband!) loved them and could “play”‘ with them for hours. We also knew we had to be very selective in what we brought in so our house wouldn’t be too cluttered. Why did you launch Genius Gems? As a young family living in an NYC apartment with two very active boys, we were always searching for things to do that focused on play and intellect. It has a diverse community, a beautiful natural setting, and is close to the city-all things important to us. We moved from Manhattan to Llewellyn Park in West Orange in 2015. My husband, Marc, and I have been married for 12 years and have three children, ages 11, 9, and 4. Tell us a little bit about your family and background. We caught up with this West Orange mom of three to find out how she and her husband work together, the homemade activities you can do to get your kids excited about STEM, and the Montclair-based vegan restaurant her family calls their “go-to.” ( featured image: Melissa Spector Photography) And it’s become such a success that Jennifer created Genius Gems products and will open a second location in NYC by the end of the year. Fast forward, and that idea morphed into Genius Gems, an indoor play space in Millburn that blends play and intellect with magnetic tiles in all shapes and sizes where no two experiences are alike, and kids come back again and again for things like 3-D printing, coding, Robot World, and much more. Little did this former teacher know then how life-changing those tiles would be when she had an idea to use them to create a jewel-toned wonderland incorporating STEM principles so kids (and adults) could experience learning and fun with each visit. My son has been asking to go again and to bring his baby sister (who luckily is under 2 so free!!)Ĭan’t say enough about this place.When Jennifer Romanoff, our NJ Mompreneur of the Week, was looking for an activity for her two boys that combined play and learning but didn’t take up much space, she introduced her kids to magnetic tiles-those vibrant geometric shapes that cling to each other magnetically using the imagination as a guide. (They sometimes to run promotions with no adult charge.) However you CAN stay over two hours if it’s not crowded, there is an amazing cafe for snacks (and Most importantly- coffee!!), you can bring outside food for lunch, no shoes in play space so everything is clean and plenty of parking. The only thing to note about open play is they charge for child AND adult. Can’t say enough of what a great place to have our 6yr olds birthday there. What amazed me the most was that Jennifer (the owner) herself lead all the party activities while she had only just had a new baby a couple months before. The party space was big and everything was so organized and clean. Everyone had so much fun and there was even the option to have our guests (small extra cost) to extend their time for open play after our allotted party time. He totally did! We had the most amazing birthday party in the fall! Jennifer and her team was on top of everything- from responding quickly to emails prior to setting up and moving the flow of the party as it was going. We had tried Genius Gems out over the summer for open play to see if my son would want his birthday party there.
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