Lafayette Community Center

Jan 2008

Has anyone had experience with the City of Lafayette's Tumbling & Gymnastics for 3-5yo's? My daughter is 3 and I'm considering enrolling her. This will be her first gymnastics class, she seems to love to flip and sommersault, and jump ALL the time, so I thought I'd let her try out this class. anon

hi, the classes at lafayette comm center are great fun. teacher norma is great as are most of the others in kindergym. 3 is just about the last year you'd do that. the encore classes are fun too, although there is a lot of waiting around for turns. i have my kids in encore gym in walnut creek and the classes are smaller, there are not parents in the 3's class so the kids get a lot of gymnastics tumbling time in. check it out -- at encore you can trial a class for free which is nice. and the first term you sign on, you have a 100% money back guarantee all session. happy gymnastics! my son is 7 and has been in gymnastics since he was 2, but probably won't for many years longer... but his core strength is amazing! happy gym mom

Beware - the classes are now run by whatever young girls Encore (whom the city contracts with) can find that are willing to drive out to Lafayette. We tried the classes and felt them to be unsafe. The young coaches would walk away from the trampoline, which was placed on a wooden floor, with kids still jumping on it and a couple of times I witnessed one child run out the door towards the parking lot and another child almost at the door where a parent stopped her. The young girls coaching were not very attentive or involved with trying to actually teach the children a skill. It may have changed since last spring - from what I heard there were plenty of complaints to the Community Center office regarding the safety. Up until last January there was a wonderful young woman, Miss Diane the children called her, who ran and built up the program for Encore for about 6 years(I think). The kids and parents loved her and I for one, was very saddened to hear of her departure. We tried the classes with these young girls - but honestly, once you have been involved with Miss Diane's classes, no other teacher will do! We have since found her new location in Moraga, which we love. I hope you will get someone writing with a recent positive experience, it's wonderful if you are able to support your local Community Center. a miss diane fan