This morning, we went for our third trial class at different baby gyms, this time at Tumble Tots located at the Jelutung Community Club in Sembawang.

We were hoping this would be our final trial class since it is situated very close to our house and getting there is convenient.

We had a simple breakfast in the Kopitiam outlet downstairs before heading up to the 2nd floor for the class. When we reached there, only another child and his parents were there. We were told there should be another 5 to 6 children arriving soon.

Unlike the previous two baby gyms we’ve been, only one adult is allowed to accompany each child, so the other parent will have to wait outside the fenced gym area. We would have much preferred for both of us to have fun and bonding time with Darius at the same time, but we can understand their restrictions since the gym area wasn’t very big, at least when compared to The Little Gym.

When the class started, few more parents have arrived and they were seated casually in a circle with Catherine and Darius. The young instructors began demonstrating some massaging techniques with dummy dolls while the parents followed. Darius didn’t really enjoy the massages as he kept pushing Catherine’s hands away. ^^|

At the end of the massage, parents were told to lie flat on their backs while propping their children tummy down on their calfs/knees, and the parents were to flex their knees to move their children up and down. I could see it was a very tiring exercise for the parents and moreover, we thought this exercise would have been more suitable for newborns or younger infants.

Anyway, at 10 months old, Darius appeared to be the youngest there as the others looked at least one year old or older. We couldn’t really tell as there was no introduction session in the beginning, unlike the other two classes we’ve been to. Therefore, we felt there was a lack of interaction with other parents and children, and each of them was just focused on doing his/her own stuff.

Name tags were given to children coming for trial classes and the ‘regulars’ were provided with Tumble Tots t-shirts with their names on them. Quite an innovative and personalised idea.

After about 5 minutes of ‘warm up’, parents were then prompted to use the equipment setup with their children in the gym area. One of the instructors went through the equipment with her dummy doll, followed by the ‘free gym time’. We were quite surprised that the massage/singing session was very short as we were expecting it to be somewhat like The Little Gym, where the focus was on the bonding and interaction with the parents and other participants.

Catherine didn’t know where to start, since the equipment were better catered for children who already knew how to crawl properly or were meant to aid them in walking. Darius has yet know how to crawl well (that’s why we have brought him to these baby gyms to learn) and for walking, we already have enough practices at home (using sofa, walker etc to cruise) so there doesn’t seem to be much point repeating the same routines here again.

After a while, an instructor approached Catherine and Darius, and after Catherine explaining briefly about Darius’ crawling progress, she still decided to bring them to an upward sloping slide to try make him crawl UPWARDS. As I was watching, I was wondering how that would help since Darius already had difficulty crawling on a flat surface, more so on an inclined slope.

They were then guided to a simple obstacle course, where they walked Darius through some ladders and ramps. Quite interesting but Darius was probably still too young for this complex obstacle.

Seeing that Darius was not benefiting from the gym, I decided to switch places with Catherine. Another instructor approached us and I explained Darius’ situation to her again. She showed us this roller equipment and how Darius could learn to push himself forward with his legs. Hmm, not bad and quite appropriate, but beyond that, there didn’t seem to be any other suitable equipment which could aid in his crawling skills.

Anyway, Darius had been quite cranky throughout the whole session, probably due to his lack of sleep, since he didn’t sleep well last night. That’s why he didn’t even get excited and happy when we were walking him around the gym.

At the end of the class, we decided that this was not what we had expected, and so we did not sign up for the actual classes. In fact, this trial class was the most expensive amongst the three we have attended. -_-

So far, The Little Gym still seem to be the best choice, but travelling down to Orchard every weekend could be a little taxing and inconvenient for us. So we still haven’t decided what to do next.

Meanwhile, I did come across an interesting equipment during the gym session today, which will be helpful for Darius’ walking skills. I’m planning of replicating it using stuff we can easily find in our neighbourhood, and I will discuss on this in my subsequent post. ^^

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