Playtime at Gymboree

I found these old pictures and videos from a couple of years ago and thought I'd finally get them up on the blog!

Rachel is in a little toddler gym class at Gymboree.  They offer many classes such as gym, music, art, etc. all for younger age children.  It is a colorful, musical place to spend some time with your toddler each week. And I enjoy meeting other moms while we are there.

Nicholas was in these classes for a year or so when he was little and it was always a highlight of our week.  Rachel is a little more shy than Nicholas and doesn't interact as much with the other kids but she does love climbing on the play structures and crawling through the tunnels.

There are usually themes for each week and the equipment gets moved around and configured to match the theme.  The teacher has some structured activities that we all do related to the theme.  This week we had a transportation theme so we read a book about different kinds of transportation, sang songs, and then we all pretended to be airplanes as we played.

Rachel likes free play best where she can just wander around and do her own thing.  It's neat to look back and see how little she was in this video below:

Nicholas is too old to be in this class so he usually sits right outside playing with toys or games that he brings along with him.  But sometimes I catch him looking longingly at all the things he would like to climb on too.  I think in the future I'll have to find a class that they can both be in at the same time.

Besides, Rachel doesn't fully participate in these Gymboree classes like she is supposed to.  There is always a time during class where the kids and parents come together for circle time.  They sing songs, play with the giant parachute, and dance around together.  Rachel may sit with me in the circle for a few minutes but she never will stay.  Instead she always wants to go back to exploring the playground equipment.  I initially tried to make her stay in the circle but I figure we are paying a lot for her to have fun here once a week and if she wants to climb instead of sing songs then that's fine with me.  I've talked to the teacher and she is fine with that as long as I'm still supervising her.

Here's another video of her just doing her own thing.  This is a little wooden bridge that the kids like to walk across.  But of course, Rachel won't just walk across it.  No, she has to bounce across it!

At the end of class, Gymbo the clown always comes out to tell the kids goodbye.  At first Rachel was scared of Gymbo and wouldn't go near him but today she ran up and kissed him goodbye!