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Extra-curricular activities

What extra-curricular activities do your primary-school-aged DCs do?

21 replies

MummyDragon · 27/08/2009 18:43

Hi,

90% of the time I am the antithesis of a pushy parent, and generally I am fairly laid-back wrt my kids doing extra-curricular activities. I don't want to overload them. Currently, DS (aged 5) does after-school swimming once a week, and he learns French (!! oui, oui, c'est fantastique) at school as part of the normal timetable, and will start recorder in September too, again as part of the timetable for Year 1. If he wants to do football etc at school at the end of the day, that's fine, but it will be up to him, and only if it is free (he's at a private school, and they do loads of sport and music as part of the curriculum anyway).
At Junior age we will of course look at after-school sports, additional music lessons if he shows any musical inclination, Cubs/Beavers etc etc ... but up until now our feeling has been, let's wait until he's a bit older. 5 still seems so young.

DD, aged nearly 3, comes to a mother & child swimming thingo with me, supposed to be weekly but in reality we go when I remember (!), and we go to a painting/music class thing at the local play centre once a fortnight. Again, I am happy with this level of activity; she also goes to pre-school twice a week, and I have no intention of doing any additional activities, but I know plenty of mums who take their 2-year-old to an organised activity every single day

DS' school is offering extra-curricular drama classes next term, at vast cost, and he is one of only 2 kids in the class who won't be doing them. What do you think about this? Out of all the kids I know, mine are the ones who do the fewest "structured" activities. Most of the time I am happy with this, as I want my kids to have lots of free time to relax, play with their own stuff, play with friends, etc etc, and DH and I have agreed that they won't do more than one paid-for extra-curricular activity each week until they are at Junior school (aged 7-8). But why does everyone else do so much?? Should mine be doing more??

What do your kids, aged 2-11, do?

Am happy for people to disagree with me and tell me that my kids aren't doing enough activities (I won't be offended!) - I would just love to know what the "average" child does. Thanks...

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Karam · 27/08/2009 19:02

You are doing the right amount, because you are doing what you are happy with! Each child is different, some children tire easily, some just like hanging about at home, some love doing hobbies - each child is different and you do what suits them.

My DD (5, going into year 1) does gymnastics (4 hours a week - 2 x 2 hour lessons) and one session of ballet/tap/modern. This means she does two after school classes and one class on a saturday morning, leaving her three after schools to play and 1 and a half days for free play at the weekend. She is a very active little girl and enjoys having the opportunity to let off steam at Gymnastics.

DD2 (almost 3) does one 45 min lesson of gymnastics a week and one 30 min lesson of Ballet. On top of that she will have 2 2 1/2 hour sessions at preschool. Other than that she is free playing.

My children love their hobbies, and are always asking to do more (DD1 wants to add horseriding and cheerleading to her list of desires), and I've said no as she does enough already, but I appreciate that for other children this would be too much. But for my DD, she needs lots of physical activities otherwise she is bouncing off the walls all day long!

There is no correct answer, its about whatever is right for you as a family and for your child.