Tumbling Tots

Look to your right.

Is your youngster climbing up your dresser or doing flips on your bed as you attempt to read this very story? You may have a future Olympic gold medalist on your hands with the proper tumbling training, of course. But who has time to drive out to Decatur or up to Alpharetta?

Look no further than , your in-town destination for your tumbling tot.

Located in Inman Park, Intown Tumbling was founded for that very reason.

A life-long gymnast, owner Kim Steen founded the studio last fall to provide a place for children in-town to have a place to practice tumbling.

Even if your tot has no gold medal aspirations, it’s still a fun place for them to learn and play.

Steen offers beginning and intermediate tumbling classes as well children’s yoga. Classes are broken up by age range: three-year-olds by themselves, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-13. She caps the age at 13 for groups, but will teach private lessons to kids older than 13.

“I’m only 5’1” so there’s not much I can do when they get bigger than I am,” she said.

Her classes are taught in a progressive manner, and are geared toward kids who are trying to learn some skills more so than those who want to compete in gymnastics.

“I like to watch them accomplish something,” she said. “The look of pure joy on the kids’ faces is amazing. (Tumbling and yoga) both help develop flexibility, strength, self awareness, coordination, balance, concentration and self esteem.”

On any given day you can walk into the Eclectic Music’s recital room and see tiny tots tumbling around doing forward rolls, backward rolls, bridges, splits, kickovers and cartwheels. The studio is abuzz with activity and so far has been well-received by the community, she said.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth since we opened and the kids are really enjoying it,” she said. “The other day I had a little girl come in to watch her brother tumble so I asked her to come and stand on the mat. So she ran over and touched the mat and said, ‘Ms. Kim, this feels amazing!’ I love to see their little faces light up like that.”

In addition to the group classes, Steen also offers yoga and tumbling birthday parties. She said the yoga parties are geared a little more for the younger kids, and the tumbling parties focus more on gymnastics with lots of games that incorporate tumbling skills.

“With the yoga parties I like to pick a theme like the circus or the zoo,” she explained. “And then I lead them through the poses with puppets. There are a lot of sings that they can sing along with. The kids are really receptive to it.”

Classes are $90 for a five-week session and $108 for a six-week session. Steen also teaches classes in schools and private homes.

So wrangle your tot and check out Intown Tumbling and give your furniture a break for a while.