Gymboree

After spending years at Little Gym and loving it, we were excited to try out an open play session at Gymboree. It was ok for a one time thing, but I was much more impressed by the Little Gym as far as the equipment and staff. (This is from when the kids were 3, but I was short on content this month and I just discovered these photos from my phone.)

Running around exploring

Giant balance beam

This was one of those defining moments for us. They had this awesome small monkey bar set up. I encouraged the kids to try it. As soon as he started hanging, we got in trouble. apparently I was supposed to hold him rather than letting him hand from his own strength. This is the opposite theory of the Little Gym. At Little Gym they encourage kids to build up their strength and drop onto the mats when they need. Here they wanted me supporting their weight and not to let the kids fall on the mats. Maybe their mats aren't thick enough, maybe their staff isn't trained as well, it could be any number of things. How would you learn to do the monkey bars if you can't first learn to support your own hanging weight?