Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tzechuk]

Has anyone sent their kids to the Gymboree Schools?

Can you tell me anyone about them?

I am thinking I might let Letty go there a couple of times a week....

[spark05]

Is Gymboree school the same thing as Gymboree gym?

[noguri]

I wasn't going to reply but since nobody else has, I'll tell you what I know.

I don't know anything about Gymboree in Korea but in the USA they make you pay a "membership fee" that is nonrefundable. Then you can register the child for the class. Your membership lasts one year. It is a pretty steep fee, I don't know if that's how Gymboree works in Korea.

What happened to us is that here in the U.S. of course you have to DRIVE everywhere, only a few cities have public transportation. My wife took our daughter and couldn't find the Gymboree, it was in a nearby city some 30 minutes by car and when she got there, she was lost. She demanded a refund, but only the tuition for the class was refunded, not the yearly membership fee.

Other than that, Gymboree classes look fun, but you should ask them for a free class to find out if the class is APPROPRIATE for Letty's age. Will they stick her in a group with babies much younger than her?

We took our daughter to Kindermusik after the Gymboree fiasco. My daughter LOVED Kindermusik but the problem is that the other babies in the class were between 3months and 10 months old. Kindermusik groups babies from 1month to 18 months. So a class could have 17 month olds together with 1 month olds! THis was our problem.

The class includes holding the child and dancing, and this hurt my wife's wrists because our daughter was so big compared to the other babies. My daughter is able to dance on her own but when she sees other infants being held, she demands to be held, too. Also there were other activities geared toward very small infants, like massaging the infant while soft music is played. Small infants might stay put, but my daughter just gets up and walks around the room, instead of having the "quiet time." So WHY doesn't Kindermusik have a class designed for babies who are older than one year but younger than 18 months?

SO that is what you'll need to find out from Gymboree. Is Letty going to be stuck in a class where she is much bigger and more advanced than the other babies? If she is, then the class won't be appropriate for her age and stage of development.

[spark05]

When I called the Gymboree in Bucheon, there's a membership fee, plus the tuition for the class. I can't remember the exact figures, but I think it was about 350,000won/session...or maybe that's with the membership fee too? I'm not sure. Anyways, in the US the Gymboree had open gym everyday but here there was nothing like that. It was 45 minutes/week and that's it. And the only classes offered were on Saturdays. But it's probably different in Seoul.

Anyways, it's fun for the kiddies when they're a little young to hang out at the outdoor playground or in the winter but my son was pretty bored by about 2 1/2yo. Great for the under 12 mo category if mom needs to meet people, fun for 1-2yo.