Gymboree Play and Music

I can’t speak highly enough about my experiences at the Gymboree in Bellevue. First off, every single teacher my son had we loved. Secondly, the convenience of having the location on the malls third floor, where everything is child-​friendly including having a family restroom and indoor playground nearby, is very convenient. We would play on the indoor playground across from Gymboree if we had time before or after the class. My child made so many friends across the 2 + years he went here, and I became friends with many of the parents and his teacher as well. We invited several of them to his 3^rd birthday party. Moving here from out of state, they were friendly blessings for sure. My sons favorite teacher is Jeannie. She’s energetic, sweet-​natured, but also direct with children that needed a behavior check occasionally. She also sings beautifully. Teachers would teach to a theme for a couple of weeks, say transportation. The teachers would build the play structures in advance to mimic the look of a bus or an airplane for the kids to climb on and play make believe during their adventure that day. My son loved the space themed weeks when toddlers rode in the «spaceship» and then when in space got a flash light and toy tools to explore stars and work on the «satellite». I’d highly recommend this Gymboree to any parent looking for a learning environment that provides social interactions for your child, and bonding time with a parent/​guardian.

I see that this Gymboree has averaged some mediocre reviews. HOWEVER, I absolutely LOVED GYMBOREE. The only thing that had me canceling my toddler’s classes were the steep prices and the fact that we live in Issaquah.
Besides that I detest being at the mall, all of this was worth it FOR TEACHER ERIN. She is a super cute blonde, usually wears classes, and is peppy with a strong set of pipes. The monthly fee was worth every penny simply because of her.
We ended up canceling because we had to start reassessing our finances and we found the Musik Nest in Issaquah which is just down the road and averaged $ 5 less a class.
IF you sign up for Gymboree, ask for Teacher Erin!!! She has an amazing voice, has a beautiful way with children (never cross, always BEYOND patient, and never speaks down to parents). She makes light of even the most awkward moments when a child misbehaves, and is guaranteed to make you smile. She has a vibrant energy and smile that is infectious. I don’t know how someone can be so bubbly in the morning. Every single day I have seen her at a level ten performance. You would think she was Poppins’ offspring.
In addition, I have seen teachers (at different music programs all over town) who have shown me that it is not as easy as it looks; With off beat rhythms or just not having a knack for directing a music class naturally (taking too long to explain, even taking too long to actually sing while parents all clap awkwardly, using language that is too sophisticated, obnoxiously happy… etc etc.) but Teacher Erin is perfection.

When I had my son, I immediately enrolled in Gymboree because I thought it would be so great for socializing, development, and just having fun. It’s really hard to just stay inside with a baby/​toddler all day, so I wanted fun, stimulating things to do.
It is very true that at Gymboree they have fun equipment that is excellent at encouraging developmental skills. I don’t have this equipment at home, so it’s great going someplace that has such a large, bright, safe play area. There are some drawbacks though.
The staff. Over the year or so we participated, it seemed like a revolving door of minimum wage employees who were reading off a sheet of activities. For the earliest classes for babies, they would also have a question of the day to start the circle. I do NOT want to be asked about how breastfeeding is going for the 1000^th time by someone who is home from college for the summer.
The toys. It didn’t really seem like they were religiously cleaned. We actually refer to it as Germboree at our house.
Other programs. We tried a couple of other programs that are gym-​based, and they just had more experienced, longer-​term staff, better hygiene, and less sing-​songy participation. Gymboree isn’t terrible by any means, and we had fun there, it’s just that there are better programs.

I’ve been wanting to take my daughter to one of these classes for months now, and we FINALLY got around to it and were really happy with our experience! We checked out a «play and learn» for her age group and it was definitely the right class to try (note: you can try a class for free before making a commitment to it – we just signed up online the morning of the class!).
The play and learn class is a lot of free play on the equipment around the room and also with various toys, balls, and other items dispersed throughout. There is some singing and group time too, but the main focus is the free play — perfect for my little one. She definitely wanted to keep playing even when it was time to do group activities; play and learn is a good choice for more active little ones. I think if my daughter weren’t wanting to run about as much, a music class would be great (she does love music); she just would have trouble sitting and dancing in one spot versus running about the room.
The teacher seemed to know all of the regular students’ names (excellent!) and was helpful during the play time. She was good at drawing the attention of everyone and including all of the children in the activities.
I think if you find the ‘right’ class for your child, it’s worth the money. I think if we had tried a different type of class it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable for my daughter, and what was really important was for her to have a good time playing. It was great to get to see her interact with other children her age in a safe and fun environment too!
For those who don’t know, the kid area is located on the top level at Bellevue Square — great little kid play area right outside the Gymboree Play & Music place too!

We purchased a Groupon for Gymboree Play and Learn and activated when my daughter was 11 months old. I figure it would be a good chance for her to interact with babies her age and pick up socialization skills given we didn’t alway have kids around for her to play with as my fiancé and I are her primary caregivers.
My daughter loved the class. The play area is kept clean and tidy; toys are cleaned after each class. The way the class starts and ends is the same but the type of activities change every 2 weeks. Each class is 45 minutes long with about 20 – 25 minutes of play/​exploring time. My daughter has built a strong relationship with teacher Marti (who is friendly and offers a welcoming approach to each of her students) and has not been shy about following her around in class and dancing to the songs she sings. Bubble time and the parachute at the end of each class are my daughter’s favorite part of the day.
We have been in the class for 3 months and I believe my daughter has learned a lot in ways she can socialize as well as with her motor and coordination skills (she was barely walking before this class and now she’s running and climbing everywhere!). She dances to the background music and found music to be an interest. The only downfall is how pricey the class is. $ 90/​month is a little steep for once a week sessions. We have access to open gym time but that is usually between 5−7pm and our class ends 3 hours before that. To that regard, we haven’t taken advantage of the open gym time at all as we usually leave shortly after class ends.

I went into the Redmond branch to try out a class. My daughter is 2.5 months old. We took off our scows, started to play and the teacher said she could not tryout the class because that class was for kids up to 2.5. My daughter was 3 weeks over the age limit. I thought it was a joke. There is NO kid friendly facility in this area that would do that. I was appalled at the staff persons behavior. My daughter was crying as I had to take her away because of a 3 week age difference. This is NOT a kid friendly place.
we are happily going back to Great Play where the kids joy is more important than a petty rule. Shame on them.

My friend from back home suggested these classes. She said it was really fun for her daughter. Since she’s my bestie, sister more like it at this point (love you Kate), I signed up for a free class.
Our daughter is only 11 weeks old, so we signed up for the free Group1 class. It took us forever to get there on Saturday, as there was some kind of event at the mall. So i was very busy. We were 10 minutes late. No big deal, they still let us in. We jumped right in. No awkwardness. Teacher was happy we were there.
The activities are quite simple for babies this little. But they change it up every 2 weeks. They focus on tactile sensations, and visual tracking. Parents sing to their children and interact with them. The bubbles were her favorite. We could tell that she liked it. She thought that having other mini people was pretty awesome too. So we are now members. We go every weekend, and she gets more into it each time. Definitely a good place for socialization and learning. By the way, there were 4 babies total in my class. Definitely NOT crowded.

Don’t commit more than a month for any class. They pretty much repeat the same thing every class. Also, the classes get overly crowded on the weekends which makes it unsafe for the little children. They need to review their maximum room capacity which is 20 kids with up to 2 audults per child (clearly, this room cannot hold that many people).

Make sure to keep an eye on your credit card statement if you recently canceled membership with these guys. We canceled our membership back in Jan 2011 and since then we got charged $ 320.00 for the month of Feb, March, April and May. We finally noticed these charges on our credit card bill and when we approach Gymboree they simply told us that there is nothing they can do to help us. Now we’re disputing these charges through our credit card company.
This is not the kind of service we expected from Gymboree at all.
Simply check your Credit Card Statement… Don’t trust them.

Our eight month old daughter has been going to Gymboree at Bellevue Square for the last four months. Hidden upstairs right next to the noisy play area, it’s really clean and tidy on the inside, and they offer some excellent classes.
Our daughter has been attending the Music classes and the Play & Learn classes; both are really well organised and really fun. Teacher Katherine, the manager, and the other teachers are all very professional and really friendly. Our daughter loves Teacher Katherine!
We have seen such improvements in our daughter’s activity, concentration and coordination. She was crawling by six months, and is almost walking at eight months, as well as following along to beats in music; we attribute a lot of this to what she has learned in class.

We have been taking our now 8 and a half month old to Bellevue Gymboree for the last 3 months and she LOVES her classes! We go to Music on Wednesdays and Play & Learn on Thursdays. She lights up as soon as she sees the staff, and she loves all of the activities. I couldn’t be happier with our experience there. The facility is extremely clean, and you can tell they really take pride in what they are doing there. Each toy is sanitized after it has been used, and the teachers make learning fun even for the tiny tiny ones! My daughter has really improved her coordination and motor skills, and she loves making her own beats to music she hears outside of Gymboree.
I couldn’t say enough good things about this place! Truly a great find. They let you preview all classes to see how you and your child like them. You can’t go wrong with Bellevue Gymboree Play & Music!!!