The Little Gym

After watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight, I wanted to try a little Gymboree on my Peter. Searched around online for awhile, and discovered that the closest Gymboree to us in Utah County is way up in the Salt Lake are. Looked around some more, and found the Little Gym in Orem. From the description, I'm guessing they are very similar, although I'm not totally sure.

I signed up for a free class, and got a call right away to schedule when I could come in with the little dude. We went to the class (which was in fact, free) and received little pressure to actually join the club, which was nice! They also gave us a free t-shirt, which is very cute.

When we first got there, the woman at the desk was on the phone, and my boy was pounding on the door to the gym area which was made of glass. I told him no-no, and tried to pull him away, which made him scream. Seeing as the receptionist was on the phone, I took him out to the car to sit until our class started. Noticed his nose was running, tried to wipe it, which made him scream bloody murder. Next thing I know I hear a small woman's voice behind me saying "Oh! Are you leaving?" Turn around and see the receptionist standing right behind me! She looked frightened, and I believe she thought I was beating my poor kid or something. Tried to explain I was just wiping his nose, to no avail. The rest of the time waiting for the class to start was spent with this lady explaining that it's ok if Peter doesn't want to play with the other kids, we want to encourage them to do whatever they want, it's ok if Peter bangs on the glass door, it's ok if Peter wants to play with my printer and pound on my keyboard. *sigh*

Obviously, those of you considering taking your kids to the Little Gym probably don't have as bad of luck as I do, so this won't happen to you, and the receptionist will probably not assume that you're a terrible parent who abuses their child.

In the class, we sang a song (which was just London Bridge with different words thrown in), and all the parents and the teacher said Hello to each child by name. That was very interesting, I think that the kids liked hearing their name called by so many adults. Peter was definitely intrigued. Then they tried to have all the toddlers do a little run around in a circle game. All of this Peter was not interested in, in the least. All he wanted to do was go look at the bars that the older, real gymnastics-taking kids use. The whole class period.

They had a big blow up, mat thing, that they used as a trampoline, and the other kids seemed to enjoy that too. Peter was instead interested in the large machine being used to inflate the mat. While the other kids were playing on the balance beams and running around the place, Peter wanted to play with the air conditioning unit. The only thing Peter did have real interest in, was when the teacher helped the kids do a real somersault (which he has been practicing at home for awhile now), and the playing with balls. The bubbles were over too quickly for him to realize what was happening.

Basically, he ran around doing everything except what the other kids were doing.

To sum it up, I think the Little Gym is a great idea for an older toddler, one who can join in group activities, and follow simple directions. But it is incredibly expensive (that's from my perspective, and we are on the low end of the income spectrum, so it may not be expensive for you), and my 17 month old dude was not interested enough to warrant me paying that much. It would also be a good place if you are wanting your child to be involved in gymnastics, because they can come here when they're very young, and by the time they're ready to do the more complex gymnastics moves, they are already very familiar with all the equipment and the staff.

Here is the website if you want to check them out: http://www.thelittlegym.com