Liikuntamylly, the city sports centre in Myllypuro, right next to the metro stop, puts every Sunday 9-10.30 am on “liikuntahulinat” to families. It is mainly aimed for kids aged 2-8 with parents (no dropping off children, kids are the responsibility of parents and the staff is scarce). There is no need to sign up and no commitment, just show up, pay 3e/adult, children are free, and have fun together.
Obviously there is the “normal” track and field opportunities; the running track, long jump places, the madrasses to jump on where high jumpers land etc. But there are also several opportunities to play floor ball, basket ball, also with low baskets, other aiming and throwing games with balls, bikes, various tracks to balance on and obstacle courses to try. Also some gymnastics hoops to test. I am sure I forgot some of the opportunities.
I thought it was a good set up, and both us parents and our kids had loads of fun. I liked
- that here you get to play/do exercise together with your children, instead of just watching your kids from the side. My not-so-exact pedometer told me I did about 3 kms and 5500 steps in 1,5 hours, so there really was no sitting around for me.
- It’s a good way to introduce your children to track and fields.
- that you can just rock up when you want to. I don’t want to commit to going somewhere every Sunday morning at 9am.
What we will do differently the next time:
- We will prepare our kids telling them there is no running off. We didn’t expect pretty much the whole area to be in use, so as soon as we said hi to our friends, all kids where off to different directions.
- We will not expect to have a nice chat with friends in the sports centre, that time is for serious busy excercise, but instead we will grab brunch together after all the activity.
There is a cafe in the centre but I doubt it is open on a Sunday morning. Did not check it though, so if you know about it, please share your information with us!
To summarise the upsides of this kind of Sunday morning: we had fun family time, kids got hungry and ate without mucking around and where then ready for their day sleep/rest without any “negotiations”. We may in March (2-23/3, 9-10.30am) also try the Saturday liikuntahulinat in Maunula. Please find their web info here, but sorry, it is in Finnish and there is not much more than times and fees mentioned.
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[…] blogged about Liikuntahulinat in Myllypuro a few weeks ago. We had so much fun there, that my husband and son tried out the equivalent in […]
Looks like a great place! I think Blackberry #1 would really enjoy it 🙂 So amny great things to do in Finland 🙂
At least in Helsinki 🙂 but it really was a good place to burn off energy.
Oh, I love Finland and its numerous activities for the kids! I think you are a good ambassador for your country to promote tourism!
Thank you! There are some good things here but it is a matter of finding them (and the fun stuff is more fun to write about than the stuff that is not so great 😉 )
Sounds like a good time was had by all!
Sure was!
Wow that is a great indoor play. My boys would of loved that, esp. the running track. Looks like a great way to wear the kids out..
It worked well. And there were primary school kids too sporting, quite a big span of ages really.
Looks like a good indoor option for bad weather (always good to have). Good for the parents’ fitness, too, although I would have gone along with the idea of having a chat as well and would have had to go through the reset of expectations! (Brunch would have helped with that 🙂 ).
I never did get that pedometer thing to work out for me. I’m just not in the habit of having my phone in my pocket.
Brunch is always great!
I actually got out of the habit of the pedometer pretty quickly too, even though it was a fun toy for a few days. But as you say, I don’t carry my mobile with me all the time either, and the free app is also not always working very accurately, freezes for hours and sometimes ticks away on bumpy bus rides, so… but I haven’t deleted the app and carried the phone with me mainly so I could take pics of the kids (still haven’t bought a new camera…) on Sunday, so it was fun to see an approximate of my own steps!