My Gym vs. The Little Gym

[kjezierski]

Summer's coming and a lot of DS's usual activities will be over. While I don't like to over schedule him, I do like to have some options. My Gym and The Little Gym are about the same distance from our house. We went to a trial session at The Little Gym when DS was about 1.5 yo, but he's three now, so I assume the sessions are quite different. Does anyone know anything about these two and have a preference?

Kathleen
Mommy to Alex
04/29/04

[kjezierski]

Summer's coming and a lot of DS's usual activities will be over. While I don't like to over schedule him, I do like to have some options. My Gym and The Little Gym are about the same distance from our house. We went to a trial session at The Little Gym when DS was about 1.5 yo, but he's three now, so I assume the sessions are quite different. Does anyone know anything about these two and have a preference?

Kathleen
Mommy to Alex
04/29/04

[maestramommy]

I don't know if this is a local thing, but I've observed both places. There was a My Gym class going on next door from the music class. I didn't like it much because they played the music SO LOUDLY, and for some reason it was all 80's and 90's pop instead of kids music! Then the instructors were always shouting. I mean, I know you're supposed to be upbeat, but it was just really shrill. Overall I got the impression of noise, noise, noise. The Little Gym class I saw was pretty cool. They had stations with gymnastics equipment, and the kids could go on whatever they wanted, with the parent helping. They also started and ended with a large group activity, like parachute, bubbles, skipping and singing while moving in a circle. The music was more appropriate too. Like I said, this may be just the style of the local class rather than a franchise thing. Both classes were for toddlers, about 3 yo.

[maestramommy]

I don't know if this is a local thing, but I've observed both places. There was a My Gym class going on next door from the music class. I didn't like it much because they played the music SO LOUDLY, and for some reason it was all 80's and 90's pop instead of kids music! Then the instructors were always shouting. I mean, I know you're supposed to be upbeat, but it was just really shrill. Overall I got the impression of noise, noise, noise. The Little Gym class I saw was pretty cool. They had stations with gymnastics equipment, and the kids could go on whatever they wanted, with the parent helping. They also started and ended with a large group activity, like parachute, bubbles, skipping and singing while moving in a circle. The music was more appropriate too. Like I said, this may be just the style of the local class rather than a franchise thing. Both classes were for toddlers, about 3 yo.

[LarsMal]

I don't know much about My Gym, but DS has been going to The Little Gym since he was five months. He still loves it. As he's gotten older the classes have changed (more challenging, etc.) but the routine is still the same, and he knows exactly what to expect throughout the class. I give The Little Gym thumbs up!

[LarsMal]

I don't know much about My Gym, but DS has been going to The Little Gym since he was five months. He still loves it. As he's gotten older the classes have changed (more challenging, etc.) but the routine is still the same, and he knows exactly what to expect throughout the class. I give The Little Gym thumbs up!

[madelinesmom]

We went to a Birthday party at a My Gym in The Woodlands, Texas and I have to agree with this post about the music. It was loud... so loud that you could even hold a conversation, I also didn't find the music choice age appropriate, I was expecting to hear "Baby Got Back" at any moment. I was really not that impressed with their equipment either, everything was stacked against the walls and we weren't sure what was avaliable to play with. This may have been because it was a birthday party, but I just didn't think it was that wonderful.

Jane
Madeline 1/20/03
Emily 11/29/05
http://b4.lilypie.com/l3-em6/.png
http://b1.lilypie.com/-FG1m6/.png

[madelinesmom]

We went to a Birthday party at a My Gym in The Woodlands, Texas and I have to agree with this post about the music. It was loud... so loud that you could even hold a conversation, I also didn't find the music choice age appropriate, I was expecting to hear "Baby Got Back" at any moment. I was really not that impressed with their equipment either, everything was stacked against the walls and we weren't sure what was avaliable to play with. This may have been because it was a birthday party, but I just didn't think it was that wonderful.

Jane
Madeline 1/20/03
Emily 11/29/05
http://b4.lilypie.com/l3-em6/.png
http://b1.lilypie.com/-FG1m6/.png

[jenmcadams]

While all I've ever done at Little Gym was a trial session when my DS was about 14 months old, I didn't like it that much. It is much more gymnastics focused (which may be what you're looking for with a 3 year old, but for the toddler set, I thought they went a little overboard). I also didn't particularly care for the instrctors -- they were all extremely young and didn't seem to get the kiddos.

Having said all that, I love love love our My Gym. My DS has been going for about 6 months and I like the structure of the class. Luke is in a Gymsters Class (18 mo - 2 1/2). I like the consistent structure of the class:

1. Circle Time: Starts with circle time/warm-up which is the same week to week except for the songs and practice skill time (some sort of gymnastics or large motor skill activity)

2. Free Play/Gymnastics: The gym is set up differently each week...slides, bars, balance beams are in different places/configurations...they also normally have some large motor skill fun activity in the middle of the room (beach balls hanging from elastic string, stuff to climb on, rings to hang from); during the Free Play they also have each of the intructors (2-3 depending on the class size) doing some sort of Gymnastics/Skill Building (e.g. walking backwards on balance beam, forward roll, hanging from a bar)

3. Free Play/Swings: They bring out a ton of swings and hang those in the middle; kids can swing, play on the equipment or parttake in whatever the special ride/activity is for that week (sometimes it's a ride in an airplane swing attached to the zipline, or a dump truck ride down a ramp into the ballpit or a ride on a little choo choo -- one of those peg perego ones)

4. Separation Time: Most weeks they bring out 5-6 huge rubbermaid totes of interesting toys and musical instruments and ask the parents to stand in the lobby (on the other side of the 1/2 wall) while the kiddos play. They're not anal about this, so you can stay in if your child doesn't separate well, but for us, Luke has gotten better and better at this and this is an important part of the class for us

5. Props/Parent Time: Every week, there's a different prop (e.g. scarf, slinky, squishy ball) and each child takes one and tries (with parent help) to follow the directions the instructor gives (e.g. put the ball under one arm, stand on it with one foot)

6. Story/Game: Most weeks the instructor ends with a puppet story or a game/relay. Even the kids who have a hard time for separation time run up to sit as close as they can to the teacher for this.

7. Goodbye: Class ends with typical cheesy goodbye song

Sorry for the extremely long post, but a friend has been asking me to describe the class so I needed to write this anyways. I do think our My Gym is a particularly good franchise -- we've gone to others for birthday parties and I used to do Gymboree with my DD and I've never been at a location with instructors this good before (in fact the owner works at most classes and he's amazing with the kids). The most important thing is to check out the particular class and location of both companies that you think you'd want to go too and see which one is better. I think the variation between franchises is so huge, it's hard to make generalizations. As far as specifics on older classes, my DD has just started one of classes for 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 year olds and she seems to love it -- it does have more of a gymnastics focus too. As far as some of the PPs concerns, the music is contemporary pop (but never seems inappropriate to me) with some kids songs mixed in and it can be loud, but I've never thought it was too loud.

[jenmcadams]

While all I've ever done at Little Gym was a trial session when my DS was about 14 months old, I didn't like it that much. It is much more gymnastics focused (which may be what you're looking for with a 3 year old, but for the toddler set, I thought they went a little overboard). I also didn't particularly care for the instrctors -- they were all extremely young and didn't seem to get the kiddos.

Having said all that, I love love love our My Gym. My DS has been going for about 6 months and I like the structure of the class. Luke is in a Gymsters Class (18 mo - 2 1/2). I like the consistent structure of the class:

1. Circle Time: Starts with circle time/warm-up which is the same week to week except for the songs and practice skill time (some sort of gymnastics or large motor skill activity)

2. Free Play/Gymnastics: The gym is set up differently each week...slides, bars, balance beams are in different places/configurations...they also normally have some large motor skill fun activity in the middle of the room (beach balls hanging from elastic string, stuff to climb on, rings to hang from); during the Free Play they also have each of the intructors (2-3 depending on the class size) doing some sort of Gymnastics/Skill Building (e.g. walking backwards on balance beam, forward roll, hanging from a bar)

3. Free Play/Swings: They bring out a ton of swings and hang those in the middle; kids can swing, play on the equipment or parttake in whatever the special ride/activity is for that week (sometimes it's a ride in an airplane swing attached to the zipline, or a dump truck ride down a ramp into the ballpit or a ride on a little choo choo -- one of those peg perego ones)

4. Separation Time: Most weeks they bring out 5-6 huge rubbermaid totes of interesting toys and musical instruments and ask the parents to stand in the lobby (on the other side of the 1/2 wall) while the kiddos play. They're not anal about this, so you can stay in if your child doesn't separate well, but for us, Luke has gotten better and better at this and this is an important part of the class for us

5. Props/Parent Time: Every week, there's a different prop (e.g. scarf, slinky, squishy ball) and each child takes one and tries (with parent help) to follow the directions the instructor gives (e.g. put the ball under one arm, stand on it with one foot)

6. Story/Game: Most weeks the instructor ends with a puppet story or a game/relay. Even the kids who have a hard time for separation time run up to sit as close as they can to the teacher for this.

7. Goodbye: Class ends with typical cheesy goodbye song

Sorry for the extremely long post, but a friend has been asking me to describe the class so I needed to write this anyways. I do think our My Gym is a particularly good franchise -- we've gone to others for birthday parties and I used to do Gymboree with my DD and I've never been at a location with instructors this good before (in fact the owner works at most classes and he's amazing with the kids). The most important thing is to check out the particular class and location of both companies that you think you'd want to go too and see which one is better. I think the variation between franchises is so huge, it's hard to make generalizations. As far as specifics on older classes, my DD has just started one of classes for 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 year olds and she seems to love it -- it does have more of a gymnastics focus too. As far as some of the PPs concerns, the music is contemporary pop (but never seems inappropriate to me) with some kids songs mixed in and it can be loud, but I've never thought it was too loud.

[neeter]

You should do a free trial of both places. We did, and we decided to go with My Gym. My son, who is 3, really loves it! The most impressive part is for this age group, they have "stations" -- there are three different areas for activities, with an instructor leading a small group. They group "travels" to the different stations (could be climbing, balance beam, doing some tumbling, parallel bars, etc). Its so well organized, because the kids aren't really waiting too long to try something. I also really like that they have 3-4 teachers on hand for each class. This is important not only during the stations, but also during free-play -- the teachers are all hands on and play with all the kids. All the teachers know my son now, and he knows them. Its great.

We tried Little Gym, and it was one teacher with about 20 kids in the class. It was too chaotic. Also you had to sign up for a 20-wk session, which is too much of a commitment for us (My Gym sessions are 8 wks long).

You should try them both!!

[neeter]

You should do a free trial of both places. We did, and we decided to go with My Gym. My son, who is 3, really loves it! The most impressive part is for this age group, they have "stations" -- there are three different areas for activities, with an instructor leading a small group. They group "travels" to the different stations (could be climbing, balance beam, doing some tumbling, parallel bars, etc). Its so well organized, because the kids aren't really waiting too long to try something. I also really like that they have 3-4 teachers on hand for each class. This is important not only during the stations, but also during free-play -- the teachers are all hands on and play with all the kids. All the teachers know my son now, and he knows them. Its great.

We tried Little Gym, and it was one teacher with about 20 kids in the class. It was too chaotic. Also you had to sign up for a 20-wk session, which is too much of a commitment for us (My Gym sessions are 8 wks long).

You should try them both!!

[kjezierski]

Thanks so much for all your input everyone. It sounds like there's a lot of variation among the franchises and we just have to try both of them here and find out which fits us best.

Kathleen
Mommy to Alex
04/29/04