Activation

JUMPING IN: So, on Thursday, we joined a gym.

Likely, that congers up images of weight machines and treadmills.

This gym is not that.

It's more like American Ninja Warrior meets a bouncy house.

I had seen a couple of posts before about what I thought was just a trampoline place that had a great program for homeschoolers. Thursday morning, I woke up determined to actually find out who and what that was. Turns out the place is called DEFY, and lucky for us, there's a nearly big, brand new one just a couple of miles from home.

I saw that their homeschool deal was just $10 a month per student for visits any time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, September through the end of May. Even though we hadn't even seen the facility yet, I went ahead and took the plunge, figuring even if we went just once a month, it would be worthwhile.

Thursday afternoon we visited the place for the first time and were absolutely blown away by it. It's cavernous, clean, well-maintained, with cool graphics, fun music and attentive employees. And there were only like a dozen other kids there when we dropped by at around 1.

We spent about 90 minutes there the first visit, with the kids exploring the space's various features.

There are balance challenges ...

and things to swing from.

There are LOTS of trampolines of varying shapes and sizes and springiness.

There are obstacles to conquer.

And there are opportunities for a little friendly combat.

I might have been the first mother ever telling her kids to hit each other harder. ;)

The first day we went, the kids practically had the place to themselves.

Friday midday we stopped by again. Totally different scene - apparently it was a teacher workshop day and school was out and so there were around a bazillion kids of all ages there. Annabelle initially wanted to turn around and leave, but CJ wanted to stay, so stay we did. Turns out even with the huge numbers of people there, there was enough to keep the kids busy. I had to basically order a very sweaty CJ out of the place after 45 minutes, because we had things to do.

I definitely feel like the place is $10 (per person) per month well spent!