Gleason’s Gymnastics Open Play

GLEASON’S GYMNASTICS OPEN PLAY

MAPLE GROVE & EAGAN, MN
VISIT WEBSITE

My daughter is an acrobat, a trapeze artist, a marathoner, a track star, a mountain climber and a gymnast…and she’s only three. Pretty impressive, eh? For my three-year old energy ball, winter can get pretty frustrating (almost as frustrating as the crayon on the walls and the Legos on the rugs). Nearly every day, I seek out an indoor space to help burn off all her built-up nuttiness and last week, I felt like I hit a figurative mommy jackpot – Gleason’s Preschool Open Gym! Hours for open gym vary by age and location but with Maple Grove and Eagan locations, this is a convenient solution for the entire metro area. Your energy-ball will deflate in no time flat.

What is it?

Gleason’s Preschool Open Gym is two hours of unstructured play that allows your children to run and bounce and climb and jump with very little difficulty and low odds for injury. With padded mats and soft everything, this place handles the rough-and-tumble preschooler very well. It’s ginormously wide open, lined with trampolines, spring boards, foam pits and balance beams. Our girls loved jumping from the spring board to the safety mats, hanging from the exercise rings and sprinting down the runway into the giant pit of foam blocks. My sister even attempted a throw-back to childhood and hula hooped a few times (she’s still got it!). The Open Gyms are not available during summer months, but it’s a great way to spend a cold, winter morning.

Fit for what ages?

It’s called “Preschool Open Gym” but says it’s open for infants through kindergarteners. My sister brought her four-month old and two-year old. I had my three-year old and we just kept saying how much my five-year old would dig this place. There’s something for everyone (even the baby rolled around on the soft mats for awhile). If your kids are older than that, check out the School-Age or Teenage Open Gyms. Same equipment, same location, but less drooling and crying.

How much are we talkin?

Preschool Open Gym costs $8/kid or $10/family. Supervising adults are free (and we can jump in the foam pit anyway – does that excite anyone else?). The older Open Gyms (for first grade and up) cost between $10-$15/kid and run at various times.

Want some tips?

We arrived promptly at 9:30 and it was completely empty. By the time we left at 11:00, it had gotten much busier. But, the nice part about the facility is that it is so huge, busy doesn’t matter much. When you arrive, you pay at the counter (credit cards are accepted), fill out your waiver and ditch your shoes and other belongings in the cubbies and on the coat hooks. Socks are NOT a requirement here. In fact, just like the Olympians, socks hinder your gymnast skills, right? (I wouldn’t know…I dropped out of gymnastics after two classes because the idea of spinning around a parallel bar freaked the crap out of me!). Bathrooms are located in the gym and there are changing tables in the women’s and the…wait for it…men’s bathrooms. I thought that was worth mentioning – bonus point for Gleason’s!

The front counter sells Kuerig coffee and small snacks (granola bars, cookies, fruit snacks, applesauce) for cash. We brought our own snacks and could enjoy them in the seating area outside of the gym, but did sip our coffees from the soft mats while we watched our girls bounce and balance all over the place.

The foam pit is amazing! Our girls loved it in there, but do be careful about kids jumping on other kids. Same goes for the trampolines – signs say one child per trampoline, but things can get ugly with a herd of preschoolers and only about six trampolines. There is a staff supervisor who walks around to make sure people are playing safely, but you are the keeper of your own people, so be sure to keep an eye on all your littles all the time.

During Preschool Open Gym, the toddler corner was hoppin’. This corner has all the same equipment as the big-kid areas, only it’s more their height. Rings to hang on, beams to walk on, a bunch of hula hoops and balls, and this crazy trapeze thing that flew from one side to the other. Yes, many kids got knocked over by flailing appendages while walking through the line of leg-fire, but it was still really cool! With “Let It Go” (and other Disney music) blasting in the background, who is to complain? In fact, we may have even had a dance party or two.

Gleason’s offers birthday parties, fitness classes, circus arts trainings, aerial classes, and gymnastics for all ages. Be sure to check out their website for more information.