Centennial Ice Arena

Go here for open skate. It’s very nice but sometimes they kick us off the ice before the time is up & or they start late but don’t let us make up the extra time. Overall it’s a nice place to skate but it can be difficult with all the 10 year old figure skaters taking up all the space.

My wife takes my boy here on Sunday’s for open skate. They have a blast every time and always come home happy. Neither are much of ice skaters but it’s nice to see that it is available and fun for a family. I have not been going as of late, however I will be joining them soon. If you have some free time check this ice rink out. They have a very friendly staff and also have multiple options for assistance while learning to skate. Thumbs up !

We skate at a lot of different rinks in the Midwest. Centennial is short on amenities but the people who run it are fantastic.

I haven’t had the chance to skate (or more likely fall) here at Centennial Ice Arena quite yet, but my daughter is enjoying a class here in their gymnastics studio.
When it comes to kid classes I don’t like to drive more than 10 minutes and Centennial Gymnastics is exactly 17 minutes away from my house (on a no traffic Sat morning), but I was looking for a gymnastics program that my daughter and I could do together. I’ve heard incredible things about Wilmette Gymnastics,* but their 3 year old class is without the parents. Typically I’m a fan of sending her to activities on her own, but was a bit nervous about sending her off to the balance beams, bars, etc without my supervision. I also used to teach gymnastics back in high school so selfishly wanted to revisit those days vicariously thru my daughter.
Overall, I like the setup of this class. The gym is small so there’s only one class at a time (at least on Saturday mornings). While small, they have it all: balance beam, bars, trampoline, etc. Since it’s parent-​tot it’s setup as a series of obstacle courses so ti’s a bit of a free-​for-​all for the kids, but I think that’s perfect for this age. And while there’s not a ton of instruction going on my daughter has learned how to do a forward roll and backward roll in just the few weeks we’ve been there. Perhaps cartwheels are next week?
This is definitely worth the 7 extra minutes I spend in the car; especially based on the smile on my daughter’s face during and after class!
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Cool ice rink in the middle of an awesome park.

This ice arena has been around so long that my husband actually played hockey here when he was a boy. Classes are offered through the highland park district. It used to be the only game in town but now classes are also offered at Lake Forest College through the Lake Forest Rec Dept.