Nearly all of the world's most creative writers, traffic controllers, and impressionist house painters were once children. Encourage youthful discovery with today's Groupon: for $29, you get 10 walk-in playground sessions (an $8 value each) and one ceramic painting session (a $5 value) with ceramic piece (a $7 value) and glazing (a $1 value) included at Mess for Fun in North York (a $93 total value). The 10 walk-in playground sessions can be used for multiple children.

Mess for Fun combines a paint-your-own ceramics studio with an eclectic indoor arena of children's toys and play structures. Up to 75 children can occupy the playground for two-hour play sessions, pursuing friends into the ball pit and staging coup d'états within the walls of an inflated jumping castle. Tiny adventurers climb to the peaks of wooden play forts, navigate their way down massive plastic slides, and engage painted murals of children's characters in staring contests. Adults may relax ringside in a fenced-off table area, or play with their kids—though the playground is designed for children under 8.

In the brightly coloured painting studio, wee artists choose a ceramic subject (worth no more than $7) from floor to ceiling shelves of sculpted turtles and whales, mugs, plates, and hubcaps masquerading as plates. Children create their earthenware masterpieces using a palette of non-toxic, dinnerware-safe paints, all provided by the studio. When finished, the studio's ceramics handlers coat each masterpiece in clear glaze and fire it in the studio kiln—readying pieces for pickup in a week's time.

Mess for Fun will be closed from August 8 to August 12.