The Little Gym And Why We Love It For Our Toddlers!

The Little Gym is a franchised business that has locations all over the country! I was trying to find something to sign Lincoln up for before he turned three and was coming up short. Most activities (sports, classes, etc.) required children to be at least three. While I was looking, I came across The Little Gym. I wondered what they did there, so I signed Lincoln up for three sample classes for $30. We tried a few different time slots and decided to sign up for classes for the rest of the season.

Lincoln had to do a parent/child class until a month before his third birthday, and those were great! He has absolutely LOVED the classes that he's been able to do by himself, though. And he's done so much better with participating than he did when we were with him.

So what are the toddler classes like? Well there is time doing games and exercises led by the teacher, there is free time (in the parent/child classes) to run around and explore the gym with parents, and there are activities that require a group effort. In the "Funny Bugs" class (3-4 years old), they do opening activities together and then split up into stations and work on skills (bar, rings, tumbling, etc.) in groups. For older kids, it's mostly just gymnastics. There is a sports skills class, which I'm thinking about having my three-year-old try out soon, but I'm not sure how it's different exactly.

You can check out the different classes available here. You will need to use the locator to find a Little Gym near you and go from there, because the schedules are different at each location.

Why We Love It

My oldest son is very cautious, just naturally. These classes have really helped him to become more familiar with his using his body and he has become so much more confident doing the skills and trying new things in general. He trusts himself more and we see improvement week to week. It's amazing! His first few weeks, he was not feeling it. He barely participated in the skills at all. But by the time we finished parent/child classes a couple months later, he was much more willing to participate, and now that he's in classes all by himself, he will at least try almost anything, and usually he loves it! It is so fun to hear and see how proud he is of himself when he does something that was out of his comfort zone for the first time. He is experiencing a sense of accomplishment and it's wonderful to see.

I also think it's a great way to help little ones socialize and to expose them to a structured environment where Mom and Dad aren't the ones in charge. Learning how to function in this type of environment is vital and gives kids a head start before they go to school or out into the world in any other capacity.

And let's not forget the ADORABLE show week they put on at the end of the season! They called all the little one's names and had them come up and get a medal. They also invited family and friends to come and see the kids do their skills. It was so fun and Lincoln loved getting recognition for doing something that was scary for him at first!

I've been so impressed with the teachers at the Orem, UT location and can't wait to see what The Little Gym in Lone Tree, CO has to offer!

The pricing is not super cheap, but for what we got, I feel like we paid a fair amount. It was well worth the money and if you have it in your budget, I would definitely recommend doing the three-class trial at The Little Gym! It has worked wonders for my little one and I'm just so happy to have something productive for him to do with all his energy.