Gymboree of Birmingham

(Writing this review from my husbands Unilocal account.) I am a SAHM and was looking for something to get out of the house that would be fun for my little one and I. I decided to give Gymboree a shot. I was a little skeptical at first mainly because I wasn’t sure what to expect. My daughter was 6 mo old when we signed up for the free class pass and was just learning to crawl at this time. I felt like Gymboree really helped her in those first few weeks of crawling since she was able to practice going up and down ramps as opposed to just on our flat hardwood floors at home, and the teacher Marie did a great job enticing and encouraging her to crawl with incentives (balls, squeak toys, etc). The teacher also gives me ideas of how to play with her at home and help develop her motor skills or whatever skill she is trying to master. My daughter is now 9 months and we still enjoy going. She loves the songs (I like them too because it taught me cute baby songs that I didn’t know before), circle time and seeing the other babies and parents. Her favorite is the parachute! Overall it was a great experience and helpful especially as a first time mom.
Side note: I tried music class but felt it wasn’t appropriate for my daughters age and probably better suited for toddlers (she mainly wanted to just put the instruments in her mouth)

Fabulous Gymboree location! My toddler loves the equipment, classes, and the staff. This location has a lot of programming, with extra open gyms on school breaks. The staff has been there for years and is excellent with parents and kids. They even do a gymbo song and goodbye at the end of open gym which I haven’t seen done at other locations. We visit during holidays and appreciate the reciprocity!

So I took my son here for the first time today to the free preview. My son is almost 5 months old. I basically tried it to see if we would be ready to sign up or if we needed to wait a while.
I signed up for the 0−6months class. My son and his best little girlfriend were the youngest in the class! All the kids were 7 months-1.5 years… So all the kids are playing and crawling and we have these 2 little ones who do nothing but chew on toys and roll over. That’s one thing I was disappointed in. Another thing I didn’t like… The class instructor wasn’t very enthusiastic with singing and sang extremely quiet. It wasn’t engaging and I honestly felt somewhat uncomfortable.
At the end we (my friend and I) were presented with vouchers to sign up but it would only be good for today. The voucher waived the $ 40 sign up fee and some other $ 10 fee. And it’s $ 72 a month.
Maybe if he were mobile and able to play with different equipment in the gym, it would be a different story… But I know I signed up for the level 1 class and feel like him and his little girlfriend were left behind because the instructor had all the kids going to play in the gym area, rather than working on motor skills and singing.
Not a fan.

we have recently joined the play and learn class at 10 – 55 on Monday. The teacher was not very enthusiastic about teaching, she would rather talk to the parents and discuss the baby shower she’s just hosted. The class was 20 min late and closed 10 minutes early. Most of the class the kids just played by themselves or with parents. The teacher asked the children to identify the objects on the pictures and it was more like a test for my 24 month old that came for the first time. The fact that we joined the program is that we would like to LEARN and not apologize for not performing the first time out)) I guess I’ll try a different location

I love the concept of this place and my daughter loves going here. My only complaints would be 1) one of the teachers there rushes through and sees to not really want to be there. She is also kind of mean. 2) I wish they had more open gym times, especially on the weekends.

Ok so this is really not a fair review I must say. The reason I say this is because my 3.5 year old boy is really much older than that. more like 5! But the classes are marketed for 0 – 5 and the structured play is ok, but it makes him revert back to a baby, when I took him there, he did like it but as his parent and me knowing what he is capable of… needless to say I only him to the one free trial class but probably wont be signing up. .
I took him to the sports class and there were all ages 0 – 5, but the 5 year old (maybe 1 in the whole class with my son being the second oldest) didn’t seem to be challenged in anyway. He likes sports but it was very slow, each child took a turn kicking the soccer ball in the net, and my son is ready for a full out game! But on the other hand my son being the only child, this is a good place for him to socialize with other children. If he were younger I would definitely sign him up that being said, its just OK for us but could be 5 stars for a younger child.
Sorry.

My 10 month old son loves playing here, and my wife loves taking him there. It’s part structured play (the classes) with a focus on certain development goals, and part open playtime on all sorts of kid safe equipment in a well padded environment (open gym).
I stopped by after work to catch my wife and son there during an open gym, and there was a mix of ages of children there. Everyone looked like they were having a good time with their parents.
I’d say it’s pretty good. I’d 5 star it but the $ 70 a month it costs is a bit steep. It’s on the high edge of «worth it» for me, especially since they go there at least several times a week for open gym.