The Little Gym

I’m so glad I didn’t read these reviews before taking my child here. We went to an intro class and I have never seen her so happy for so long! She LOVED IT! I found that it has the perfect amount of structure and freedom for an 18 month old. Every activity lasts a few minutes… Enough to get them interested, give them time to grasp it, then move on before they lose interest. And every week there’s a different developmental theme which we continue to work on at home. It challenges my daughter and rewards her with so much self-​confidence and joy. The other parents in class are wonderful so it’s fun for all of us. We have only had Miss. Michaela, who we absolutely adore. We look forward to every single class!

We tried 2 different days of the week and times. Classes are WAY too big and WAY too chaotic. Teachers are young and it’s like $ 21/​per class to run around and not learn a thing!
One class they were doing back walk overs and the teacher was NOT telling my child the correct technique. We won’t be going back

My two youngest children are 5 and 3. In the last 5 years we have attended classes at both the Danvers and Woburn location (we live in Andover so both work for us) In addition to continuous year round classes for 5 years we have also held THREE birthday parties with LG, and two summers of summer camp with Little Gym.
Classes: As a former preschool teacher the most important thing to me is that the classes are developmentally appropriate physically and emotionally. Little Gym not only meets these standards but exceeds them. My youngest son has Down Syndrome. Little Gym has allowed him to attend classes based on his physical developmental level (which is such a huge benefit to him!) instead of trying to place him by age (which would have gone poorly and ended in failure). My daughter has a lot of anxiety. Teachers have always keyed into meeting her needs and making sure she is comfortable and never feels on the spot. She LOVES it there.
Camps: My daughters anxiety would never lend well to signing up for a random summer camp regardless of how fun. We have spent the last two summers at LG camp and she always requests more days. We even signed up to do two during the holiday break because she has spent the last several months asking about going to camp there again.
Birthday parties. Three parties in 5 years-​it speaks for itself. They do an amazing job keeping these kids entertained in a safe but active environment. Much safer than a free for all bounce places. They then deal with cake/​packing up gifts etc w ease. The whole thing runs like clockwork.
The schedule is flexible and allows you to find classes that fit your schedule –even holding them on Saturdays and Sundays. You can make up classes you missed so even if we are sick/​extra busy etc we can use those classes even if it is months later.
I can’t say enough good things about Little Gym and our 5 years and counting have all been positive. I attribute all of it to the investment of the owners-​Maureen and Al, management/​and amazing teachers that we are thrilled to have as part of our village :)

I took my son here for the Mini Jacks class which is supposed to be half sports and half gymnastics. What it actually turned out to be an hour of one young girl (who looked like a teenager) hanging out in a room with 7 preschoolers who ran around with no instruction and learned nothing.
Yes, the sing-​songy voices and weird fake-​voice inflection are annoying and the parent seating area is a bit tight, but I’m not factoring those things into my review (I’m simply echoing them here to confirm what Sara J said is true). What DOES factor into my review are these things, in order of importance:
1. The «teacher» (who may or may not have any formal training in how to teach a child gymnastics) inflated a large, bouncy pillow and demonstrated the jumps they were going to do. First jump, she bounced down with her arms over her head, then let the kids do the same. Second jump, she bounced down with her arms out straight, then let the kids do the same. Third jump, she stood in the middle and from a standing position flipped over doing what looked like a somersault, but from a standing position. Then she let the kids have at it. No spotting, no helping. Just a bunch of 3 – 5 year olds standing and trying to flip themselves over. I saw two kids almost land on their necks (she saw it too because she gaped wide-​eyed at another employee and said «that scares the heck out of me!») I guess it didn’t scare her enough to consider intervening! Spinal cord injuries for the win!
2. The gymnastics segment started with the «teacher» giving a three-​part instruction: first, somersault down this triangle pad; second, walk along in this position across these balance beams; third, roll sideways through this foam tube. Then she blew a whistle and told them to get started. Anyone with ANY experience in early childhood education would be able to explain to you how 3– and 4-​year olds do with three-​part instructions. Basically, they need a lot of guidance. She sat off to the side while the 7 kids wandered around the three stations, in no particular order, sometimes skipping a station, not really having any clue what they were supposed to be doing. They had fun, I think, because they were just bouncing and rolling whenever, where ever, and however they wanted. If someone was clogging up a station while others waited to go she’d step in to keep the line moving, and that was the extent of her «instruction».
3. The «teacher» started the sports segment by handing out comically large pretend golf clubs and tennis balls, started the audio training (not sure if she has ever actually played golf), told the kids to «keep their wrists straight» and then let them have at it. The kids had fun, which is good, but let’s not pretend that she was teaching them anything. I put this third because I don’t really expect expert teaching of these sports, but it’s pretty ridiculous to call this «solid grounding in the expertise, rules and strategies of team sports» as claimed on their website’s description of the class. It was playtime, period.
Bottom line: it’s probably great if you have a baby and just need a big padded room where they can crawl around while you get to know other parents. But if you have a child interested in actually learning (and being safely instructed) gymnastics I’d keep looking.

Not to sound cliché, but I never write online reviews. But I have to say something about The Little Gym in the hopes that they read it and make some improvements.
1) The parent seating area is WAY too small and the chairs are *horrible*. It’s sheer chaos when classes are changing, and a lot of the kids get very overwhelmed (by that I mean screaming in terror, what fun!).
2) The teachers are nice, I guess, but I personally have a very low tolerance for sing-​songy voices and faux-​politeness.
3) The classes aren’t actually led by teachers, they are led by pre-​recorded audio which the «teachers» just follow along — not very imaginative and clearly not much effort put into it. The teachers often look bored out of their minds, like they clearly wish they were someplace else.
4) They ought to consider adding more variety to weekend classes so we working parents can actually bring our to kids to some; my daughter would have loved the karate class, but of course that’s only Wednesdays, so just plain vanilla gymnastics for us!

I love the Little Gym. Can’t say enough good things about this place. We had been going to a baby gym with our 10 month old at the Y and it was a joke — no structure, no make-​up classes and there was only 1 other child. I came across the Little Gym after getting a discount notification from a
group I’m involved with. We went to the free trial class and it was awesome. They sing songs and practice colors and it is all very structured. Which I like. The teachers are very friendly and the equipment is very clean.
It’s like a little family. Your kids start to make friends with their classmates and it’s good to get adult interaction as well. My son loves this place he laughs the whole time he is there and I can honestly say I think it is why he is far more advances in terms of mobility then other kids his age.
Because it’s an ongoing class, if you miss a class you can make it up sometime the same week or if you child is sick, you can reschedule. We’ll be sticking around the Little Gym Danvers!

The only good thing about this place was that the teachers seemed friendly and polite. However, it seemed dirty and smelled awful. Maybe it was nice when it was new but the equipment needs a serious cleaning. There was pressure to sign up for a full session after the intro class, which I expected, but it was pretty easy to resist given the state of the place. Honestly the baby «story time» at our local library is better organized and more fun – plus that’s free. And it doesn’t smell like butt at the library. Needless to say, I won’t be going back.