Update:
I am updating my review from my original I posted 2 weeks ago. The owner of the K2 Academy called me, profusely apologized for my experience. It showed that she cares about the service her staff provides and she truly wanted to try to make this right for us. She did her homework (knowing about our daughter's age and etc) and I could tell she carefully read my review and checked things with her staff beforehand. No arguing; she just listened which surprisingly is so hard for many business owners. She did everything right for a business owner who just got a negative review online and it convinced me to try them out again.
The owner offered to make some changes on their roster for my daughter who prefers female coaches and recommended a coach for us to come back and try out. The coach was amazing. (None of the coaches during the timeslot took the kids to water fountain. I don't know what it was for last time) The coach was very good with kids and she paid attention to all kids. I wish our first time was with her. My daughter was nothing but smiles and she came out saying she had so much fun after class . So, we signed her up. I plan to update this review after a few months of taking lessons, hopefully to better star.
Original:
I took my toddler daughter for a free trial lesson for gymnastics at K12. I knew them by attending a few birthday parties there and the location is perfect for us, so it's a bummer, but I ultimately decided to take my business to The Little Gym in Spring. The front staff was very nice and no hard feelings there.
The teacher who taught the class was a substitute teacher, so I do not know how the official teacher is like, but I noticed right away the sub teacher was verbally rough. No profanity or anything, but just not very kids friendly. I do not believe she is trained to teach children. I almost said something to her when my child who is the first timer just trying it out couldn't follow her lead and stayed on 1 spot, her reaction was physically grabbing my daughter's shoulders to move her to where she should be while saying "hey, you! right here!!!!!" It was not violent, but I was shocked they think that's ok when their business is involving children. I could have let that by since she's a sub, but at the end, 4-5 kids in the same class were told to do a few different things and take turns. My daughter was at the end of the line and the sub teacher could not pay attention to all the kids. They ran out of time before my daughter, the last in line completed all the activities. Of course, my daughter wanted to try all of the activities, but as I stated above, she was removed to line up to get some stamps or something.
Half into the class, I actually signed her up and registered my credit card and everything. But, more and more toward the end of the class, I started regretting. When my daughter came out of class, she stated the class was scary (probably because of the way the teacher was speaking) and that she wanted to try the pull up bar (the last item she didn't get to try). I asked the front staff if she can try it just a little because the teacher didn't let her, the answer was no. I understand, so I asked for all my paperwork back.
Maybe the "real" teachers there are very qualified. Maybe we were unlucky to come across the inexperienced teachers taking turns. But, I followed my gut feeling and decided they're not for our daughter. Also, when they took kids to the adult height water fountain, the teacher was not paying attention to the kids while chitchatting with other teachers, so a few kids were struggling to go up on a stool to drink water. The sub teacher noticed only when I almost reached my daughter to help. I second other reviews saying lack of supervision is an issue. read more