Things to Do in Milpitas

In 1976, educator, musician, and kinesiologist Robin Wes longed for a children's gym that prioritized personal growth over competition. Unveiled at a time when physical-education classes pushed students to focus almost exclusively on winning, Robin's program was swiftly adopted and is now used in more than 300 Little Gyms worldwide. Robin still pens original music to accompany lessons, which engage whippersnappers aged 4 months to 12 years with gymnastics, dance, karate, and parent and child activities.

Each of The Little Gym's classes introduces simple movements that sharpen motor skills and set brains whirring, allowing kids to progress at their own pace until they can finally build a computer out of macaroni and glitter. Staff members strive to build a base for lifelong social skills and self-assurance with each exercise, including activities rooted purely in fun, such as summer camps or birthday parties, which helped The Little Gym to earn title of #1 Birthday Chain in Parents Magazine.

Founder Dori Duncan and a talented team of glamour aficionados teach classes for adults and children at Camp Fashionista. Weekend workshops include an Introduction to Sewing class for adults and children ages 8 and older that builds sewing-machine aptitude as students use a zipper and cotton fabric brought from home to construct a pouch they can then fill with notes, candies, or counterfeit Dutch guilders. The Little Fashionistas class guides students ages 6 and older on a course toward whipstitches, precision-snipped pattern pieces, and their very own hand-sewn apple pincushions. With cotton fabric in hand, students may create shoulder-slung book pouches during a Messenger Bag course, or they can add dazzle and street cred to old foot tubes during Bling Your Socks.

The citizens of bounzCity share a common bond: they all stand 62 inches tall or shorter. Inside the bouncetropolis, they scurry about a slew of themed attractions, six of which line Bounz Boulevard, including a SpongeBob Squarepants bounce castle and a dinosaur-themed obstacle course with gigantic inflatable dino teeth curving over the entrance. The 28,000-square-foot facility also houses a toddler area and an arcade chock-a-block full of kiddy rides, games, and prizes. Parents can monitor all of the playful proceedings from couches or go-go-gadget helicopter hats, or repurpose the space for birthday parties that keep little revelers reveling with pizza, drinks, and included game tokens.

In 98point6 Yoga's eco-conscious studio, a team of certified yoga instructors lead 60- and 90-minute yoga classes seven days a week. Yogis of all abilities can enter the 98.6-degree atmosphere designed to melt muscles into deep, healing stretches, evict toxins, and increase empathy for sun-dwellers. One-hour classes consisting of both static poses and meditative flow sequences help busy pupils maintain regular practice, while body benders in the 90-minute sweat session focus on performing 26 postures with proper alignment and depth and improving strength and stamina. The studio requests that pupils rent, bring, or spontaneously create a yoga mat and bath towel, though before reentering the outside world, students can take advantage of the facility's environmentally friendly low-flow showers.

Sick of buying expensive supplies and having to adhere to a class schedule just to create art, Jennifer Kurtz Rubin started the first of her chain of ceramic lounges in 1993. Each Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge is designed as a social and creative space, one that all customers can use to express themselves artistically while catching up with friends. The lounge throws open its doors for both kids and adults to decorate clay bisque pieces, such as mugs and salad bowls, with a bounty of colorful supplies, never worrying about cleanup afterward. Once they’re complete, the art pieces are glazed, fired, and ready for pickup in a few days. And because artists can stay for a whole afternoon or just 30 minutes, the lounge even grants a few moments of creativity to patrons with the busiest schedules. The company also goes beyond casual art making to host parties for kids and adults, in which they can bring in live music, serve food, and train scoops of ice cream to paint their own bowls.