Tumble On Over
Review of JW Tumbles (Arlington)
October 21, 2009
by Caroline Holt
If you have not been to JW Tumbles recently - tumble, dance or bumble on over. With two rooms each boasting hundreds of square feet of brightly colored gymnasium equipment, hamster-wheel-esque climbing equipment (known as “JWT Playzone”) and a new musical fest called “Little Maestros”, this place is an indoor kid wonderland. It is particularly great as your little gymnasts and maestros are looking for some place warm and welcoming on those cold fall and winter days.
Getting ThereJW Tumbles is a large franchise, with Alexandria, Arlington, Ashburn and Herndon locations locally, just some of the more than 20 in the US. For this review, I visited the Arlington location, which is in the Lee Harrison Shopping Center. It is in the basement (along with a Jhoon Rhee, Aladdin's Lamp Bookstore and other shops), so to get there, find the set of steps near Chesapeake Bagel Bakery and head downstairs.
Getting In
There are several ways to visit JW Tumbles. Enroll in one of their spectacular class offerings, drop in for a visit to their Playzone, participate in their Pay to Play program or rent their space for birthday parties, playgroups or just for fun. For this review, I visited them over several days by attending a gymnastics class, attending their new hot music offering from Kidville called “Little Maestros” and spent a couple of hours with my kids at the Playzone.
Little Maestros
According to the Tumbles website: "Register your baby at birth for the hottest music class for tots," says the New York Post. And, Little Maestros was named the best music class in NYC by the lilaguide.
Each class features four live musicians who sing and play guitar, piano, and drums. From the moment we arrived, there was an energy in the room (mostly radiating from these four post-college kids who were bursting with energy, as most of the attendees were under two and snuggling on parent laps). There were roughly 25 kids under three years old on the day we attended, so the room was packed. Just getting through the intro song where every child gets introduced took a good 6-7 minutes!
It felt like Mickey Mouse Club: lots of shiny, happy faces, unique songs, made up for the performance, and back-to-back participatory songs that the kids bopped along too and caregivers did their best to follow. But it felt contrived (which is the word two other parents used as well). My shy 16-month old was glued to my lap, looking like a deer caught in the headlights until 11:45 when he bolted for the door and wanted to have a snack and take a nap. Music Together is a little more his speed.
This show is great, but I think newborn to five (their suggested age) is a stretch. The scene is loud and judging from the kids who were engaging, I might suggest 2 ˝ to 5 instead. For the 2 to 5 set, I’d say this is a great use of time and a great way to keep kids into music while learning vocabulary, letters and numbers! Check out www.littlemaestros.com and listen to the music and watch a video of the Little Maestros to make your own assessment.
They are in their first 8-week class run right now. Registration for their upcoming session which runs from November 2 to December 19, 2009 is $170 for a once a week class and includes unlimited use of open gym time.
JWT Playzone
Do you have those days where you are wishing that the park was warmer or drier and you are pulling you hair out because your kids just need to run around and climb? Speaking from experience, the Playzone was RIGHT up our alley. The Playzone is a separate room from the gym at Tumbles, and features a brilliantly-colored climbing structure complete with slides, obstacle course, rope climbers and other activities I couldn’t see that kept my 2 and 4 year olds laughing and busy for nearly two hours. There is also a wall full of enticing toddler-sized manipulatives for those little rompers in your life.
As you enter, you notice the picnic tables for parents and the shoe-free zone just beyond the front desk. There is a 20-something at the desk, who is there to answer questions, liberally douse the equipment with anti-bacterial products between sessions and to collect money, but decidedly does not monitor safety or behavior.
Open playtimes vary, but currently they are:
- Monday to Thursday: 9:00am - 12:00pm; 12:30pm - 2:30pm; 3:00pm - 6:00pm
- Friday: 9:00am - 12:00pm; 12:30pm - 2:30pm
- Saturday and Sunday: 9:00am - 12:00pm
Tumbles Classes
The bread and butter of the Tumbles business is their child-centered class offerings in music and movement. They have classes for kids ranging from 4 months to 9 years: you just need to find the type of class and time of day that works for your family. According to their site, you can choose either “Parent-participation classes for ages four months to three years and independent classes for ages three to nine years. Both programs are designed to develop many skills and offer at least eight different activities per weekly class, varying week-to-week to keep your Tumbler on their toes. With a focus on developing every child’s social, physical and cognitive skills, each level is specifically designed to engage and challenge your child based on his or her age and developmental milestones.”
We visited a Wobblers class (geared at kids 11-18 months), where kids enjoyed (though I did not) kid-sung disco and 80s music (think: Madonna’s “Holiday” sung by a 5-year old), while they climbed, danced and moved (which was fantastic). The class had a couple of sibling pairs under three, but the only big kid (likely 5 or 6 years old) was sitting in the viewing area, waiting for her mom and sister, so it was really under 2s only. They were tumbling, wobbling, climbing and bopping through their parallel play.
The instructors were great. They kept the class moving, encouraged lots of use of hand sanitizer and were shiny, happy and engaging. You could determine by close parent-child proximity and paparazzi that most of the folks in our class were first-time parents, but there were at least two or three families with siblings in the class or spoke of having older children (or pregnant bellies). Everyone I met was delighted to be there, and having a great time. The kids were encouraged to do everything, but never forced to do anything. So from bubble blowing to sliding to some dancing to singing, we covered a lot of ground in 45 minutes. I was very pleased with the class, as was my little wobbler.
Class offerings and times vary by age and time of year. Please visit the JW Tumbles website for more details.
You can also enjoy JW Tumbles’ open gym time is only available for families currently enrolled in a Tumbles session. Continuous supervision is required. Call 703-531-1470 for more details.
Other stuff to consider:
Tumbles is a playzone that they are hoping to keep far from a germ zone. They ask you to keep your child at home if they have had a fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, or body aches within 48 hours.
There is something for every age at Tumbles, and my experience with their staff and owner is that if you find have made the wrong choice, they are happy to find you a suitable replacement class (as available) or refund the balance of your class fee. This is a great locally-owned franchise, whose activities can be nearly as fun for adults as they are for kids! And check out Elevation Burger, Chesapeake Bagel Bakery or Harris Teeter among other eating establishments after a great time tumbling!
Have you been to JW Tumbles? What's your opinion? Just drop us a note and Our Kids will add your comments to this review.
