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I joined a gym this month (Fort Sanders Health and Fitness) and so far I’m loving it.  I’ve joined gyms before, but I always feel guilty leaving my kids in the childcare so I’ve always quit going after a short while.

What really sold me on this gym is that the childcare is great.  They put a bracelet on my wrist and on my children’s wrists (except for Ila who gets one on her ankle).  The bracelets have each child’s name, a check-in number to help them quickly locate info like my phone number and where I said I’d be, and the time that they came in.

They’ll take kids age 6 weeks-6 years in KidCity.  They have multiple rooms including a separate room for coloring, a movie room (which I’ve never seen my kids go into), and a main play area.  I know they also have bathrooms, but I’m not sure if they have more rooms than that.  They don’t allow parents to go back there for safety reasons.  The play room has a variety of toys, a line of baby swings, exersaucers, rocking chairs, and other such things as well as big plastic castles that the kids can climb in.  The staff is friendly and kind and they recognize all of my kids and know them by name, plus they change diapers and feed babies.  At least they would feed my baby if she’d take a bottle.  They have a place for you to list feeding instructions including bottle warming instructions.

The rule is that they’ll take each kid for up to two hours, then after a break of  three hours or more, they’ll take the kids for another two hours.  Although I’ve taken the kids twice in one day a few times, I usually only use the first two hours.

KidCity provides classes for the kids.  I love watching the classes, it distracts me more than anything else while I exercise.  Here are some pictures of the kickstart class:

They set up an obstacle course and do a variety of fun activities.  In the picture below, the kids are sitting on boards with wheels and maneuvering around obstacles.They gather on the rug in the middle to sing songs and receive instructions. They have some games and activities that they do each time and a few activities that they rotate.  They take the kids to and from classes using a rope which the kids hold onto.They have several other classes, but kickstart is the only one that I took pictures of.  Nicole attends a class for 2 and 3 year-olds called “Bouncercize” where they do various activities with hula hoops, balls, and other things.

Fort Sanders has a separate area for the kids who are 6-11.  Six-year-olds can choose which group they want to be in.  The area for the older kids is called KidFit.  KidFit has activites designed for older kids.  They provide computers, air hockey, ping pong, foosball, a climbing wall, and other such activities.  They also offer classes that are different than the ones offered for younger children.  Isaac really liked the air hockey on his first day.

We’ve gone to the gym every weekday since we joined, with the exception of Isaac’s birthday.  I was worried about giving up my mornings to go to the gym because that was typically my most productive cleaning time.  The kids were calmer and much less needy in the morning.  Going to the gym, however, has changed our day.  Since they’re able to get some of their energy out in the morning and participate in a variety of activities at the gym, they are less restless and crazy in the afternoon and I find that I have a similar amount of cleaning time.

The childcare at the gym has also allowed me to start doing some tutoring with my older children.  I drop Ila and Nicole off at KidCity and then take Isaac and Charlotte to another area of the gym where we practice reading, writing, and math.  Then I drop them off so that I can exercise and shower.

Fort Sanders has 4 pools and with the free childcare I can actually take my kids swimming whenever I want.  Our favorite is the baby pool because my three oldest children can walk around the entire pool without getting their faces wet.  They have lifeguards on duty that will come sit by the pool and watch the kids too.  This was particularly nice the day that Nicole started wandering away from the pool and I was able to follow her without leaving my other kids unattended (my kids happened to be the only ones in the pool on that occasion, so we had our own lifeguard). 

They also provide lots of extras like a towel service (they provide clean towels for showers or the pool or for just wiping away sweat), shampoo, body wash, shaving gel, hairspray, lotion, and aerosol deodorant.  I love the towel service since it means that I don’t have to bring our own towels for swimming or showering.

We’ve even started having Zach take the kids to the gym on Saturdays.  He exercises, sits in the hot tub, and showers while they watch the kids and I get some much needed kid-free time that I can use to clean the house and prepare it for Sunday.

I was starting to worry one day as I brought my kids to the gym that they were going to hate me for bringing so many kids so often, but when I walked into kidcity,  a girl said “oh Ila, my favorite!”  She told me that she thought my kids were the best siblings there because they took care of each other.  It made my day and helped me feel good about the people taking care of my kids.  One time when my cousin Natalie and I had arranged to go swimming with us, Natalie got to KidCity first and asked if Ila was there yet.  The girl responded with “oh, Ila’s coming?  I love Ila.”  It was probably the same girl, but it still gives me great peace to know that she’s not screaming and miserable while she’s there.

And that’s the other great thing.  My cousin Brent’s wife Natalie is a member of the same gym and we see each other several times a week and our kids go to classes together. 

This blog is way too long.  Thanks for reading. 

THE END