Things I Love Thursday: Gymboree!

This weekend we took our little Princess to her first Gymboree class. We signed up for a free Play & Learn class on Saturday, and purchased a bronze membership afterwards for $69.95/month. I had a $20 off coupon, plus if you sign up on the same day as your trial class, the $50 registration fee is waived, so we saved a total of $70.

Unfortunately the $20 off is a one-time only thing, so next month we'll be paying $70. Gymboree is not cheap, but we feel that it's worth it. It's something that we can afford, but I had to adjust our budget for it - we just won't be putting as much money into savings every month.

$70/month pays for one class per week, with unlimited makeups and the ability to switch classes as we please. The best part is that there is no commitment and we can cancel at anytime. This was a VERY important factor...we think we'll be in the area through Christmas, but with the military you just never know. The unlimited makeups is aso very important to us...we want to be able to go to Gymboree as a family, so on the days that Gymboree and my husband's duty days collide, we'll just opt to make-up the class another week.

I'm also a big fan of the ability to switch classes. At 5 months old, she's only eligible for 2 classes...the Play & Learn and Baby Signs. I felt that the Play & Learn was just a bit too mellow for her, so next week we're going to try out Baby Signs. In a month, she'll be able to take Music 1 as well as Play & Learn level 2. It's awesome that we can just bounce between classes as our schedule or her interests change.

$70/month buys about 4 classes, so it comes out to about $17.50 per class. That's really expensive! But what offsets the cost and made me realize that Gymboree was worth our money is their 23 open PlayGyms a week. They're open 6 days a week, and everyday they have an open PlayGym. On the weekdays some of them are 4 hours long, so I can do my errands and then take the baby to Gymboree. If your children are older, it'll be an even greater value when it gets too cold and icky to play outside.

Since she can't even crawl, you might be wondering why we love the open PlayGyms so much. There's so many bright colors and different things for her to explore there. One of our favorites are the plastic balls that they have. It's basically a colored plastic baseball, and she loves it because she can stick her fingers in the holes and hold it. And apparently it's a very yummy treat too.

UPDATE: I'm not such a big fan of these balls anymore.  On Tuesday night our little Princess got her thumb stuck in one of the holes while she was trying to devour one.  It took water, oil, soap, twisting and lots of screeching/tears to get it back out. 

Every time we go to Gymboree, she makes a new discovery, so I am confident that it's a good investment of our money. It's also in a prime location too - across the street from Walmart and Target. And there's a Walgreens on the way too. My only complaint is that there's no CVS nearby, but you can't always have it all. We signed up on Saturday, and so far we've already attended two open gyms - one on Saturday afternoon after some errands, and another time on Monday afternoon since daddy had a rare day off. In case you couldn't tell, we ♥ Gymboree.