Little Gym opens new centre in Virginia

New Little Gym centre for active children and toddlers opens in Carmel, Virginia.

After purchasing their franchise in September 2017, a new Little Gym centre is finally ready to be opened in Carmel, Virginia by the Bargers.

Suzanne Barger, a former competitive gymnast and coach for over 17 years, and her husband Steve decided to open the franchise in Carmel after falling in love with Little Gym. They took their son along to a session when he was just 6 months and loved it so much they decided to buy a franchise and bring it to their home town of Carmel. Suzanne is enjoying a new kind of gymnastics teaching, that focuses on using gymnastics for children’s development. They celebrated the opening by hosting an open house for interested parents.

“What is different about us is we focus on three dimensions of learning. There is the physical development that we do called Get Moving,” Steve Barger said. “But we also focus on two other dimensions and they are very age specific. When we have a 3-year-old class, the only age we have is 3 years old because we are trying to hit milestones for each particular age group. The other two dimensions we focus on are cognitive thinking skills, which we call brain boost. What is really important that no one else focuses on is social skills; we call it Citizen Kid. For kids that are getting ready for preschool, we try to get them to listen and follow directions.”

Steve says that the change from his corporate background has been fantastic and that he looks forward to working and interacting with the children every day.

Little Gym has been running for over 40 years, after the first centre was opened by founder Robin Wes in 1976. From the first location in Bellevue, Washington, to its first franchise in 1992, the children’s gym franchise has expanded massively so that it now has over 300 locations spanning 29 countries across the globe.

The centres seek to give children a nurturing place to explore their physical, social, emotional and intellectual development, while staying active. Children from the age of 6 months right through to 12 years old can join in with the fun activities.