Tumble Tots

[tigerlillyd02]

This apparently is quite a well known group throughout the UK (although I've only recently heard of it!)

Does anyone attend these groups?

I've been on their website but it offers very little information about class structure etc.

Is it like any other baby/toddler gym?

[DitaVonCheese]

DD is 3 so I didn't go round the equipment with her - in fact one of the bonuses for me is that all the parents sit outside the room, so I'd get half an hour to sit and read or something (I'm antisocial ).

Will see if we have a local gymnastics club.

Hope he enjoys it!

[tigerlillyd02]

Yes he already goes to a gymnastics club - its the same price, £5.25 for 1 hour but without the yearly membership :)

[Letchlady]

Have you tried contacting your local gymnastics club?

Many run a "FUNdamentals gymnastics" course for toddlers and preschoolers. These will be run by a qualified gymnastics coach (who will probably have taken a preschool qualification, if a BG club) rather than just being run by someone who has bought the franchise.

It will also have more specialist equipment and I certainly didn't pay as much as you for my DDs gym sessions. I only paid £4 per 45 minute session.

[tigerlillyd02]

Yes, it does sound quite expensive. It's £5.25 per class, which has to be paid upfront in blocks of 6/7 (termly) plus there's a £21 annual membership. So, it'll be around £60 to start!

I don't mind paying if he really enjoys it though. I think we pay the £5.25 for the first session and then take away a membership pack at the end of that if we want to join. So, we should know from that one session if he likes it enough to pay those fees!

[Smokedsalmonbagel]

I did it with DS1 and he really enjoyed it. I have put DS2 name on the waiting list.

You go round the activities with your child. I think with the older (preschool) group you can leave them there but we stopped before DS1 reached this stage.

They also do a bit of music which is nice. Agree it is expensive though.

[tigerlillyd02]

Thank you for the replies! I've booked a session in, in 2 weeks time so will try it out!

Do parents help the children with the activities or do you stand to one side and the workers do it? I don't mind either way but was intrigued as to how it runs.

We live in a flat so the exercise is definitely a good thing. We already go to a gymnastics session, dance/drama group and ice skating but was thinking this may be similar to the gymnastics - and paying twice for the same thing. There's not so much climbing, running etc involved with the gym though so sounds like it is different.

[DitaVonCheese]

We've been to two taster sessions with 3 yo DD and she really loved it - was just stuff like balancing, climbing ladders, throwing balls etc. We tried it because she loves their action songs (on Spotify). However we haven't yet been back because it's so bloody expensive - £5ish per session (they need several members of staff) plus a yearly membership fee; we were only planning to do a term or so, so the two together added up to about £10 a class.

Having said that, we may go back if we get a cheque from my granny for Christmas, as she did really enjoy it.

[trixie123]

I liked it a lot for DS once he was crawling but before that it was a bit of waste of time. There was also a few months when he had gone up to the walking - two class and couldn't really cope with it and it felt like a bit of a waste but once he had got the hang of it he was great and loved going up at the end for his sticker. As with many things its partly just a reason to get out of the house but I do think it helped DS get the hang of things like climbing ladders. Its especially good if you have a small house - he used to just love being in a big indoor space that he could charge around in.

[savoycabbage]

I think it's a franchise so they will all be different but have the same lesson plans and philosophy. I used to take my dd and I really liked it. They had different groups according to age and it was quite structured.