To think no one want Expensive activities at nursery

[Wibblewobble100]

DS(2.5 yrs) nursery is great. He goes 3,days and is very happy. BUT nursery has started bringing in activities.... dance class, music, drama, etc. They have too be paid for on top of nursery fees, an extra £90 next term. I don't think he gets anything extra out of them but I hate the thought he is missing out when all his friends are taking part. I feel railroaded into paying for it. We can afford it but there must be others who really struggle. I don't really think they should be on offer at all. AIBU or do other people really want to pay extra for a drama teacher yo teach their two year old for half an hour?

[Sparlklesilverglitter]

It depends on where the nursery is I guess. Some areas with a certain class of people it may work really well.

Is it some exclusive private nursery your dc attend?

[SheldonCRules]

I like it, same with schools. There's sometimes not enough hours in the day or classes aren't timed right at night etc so if mine can do an activity as part of their day it's great. The more they are exposed to new educational things, the better for them it is.

[Wibblewobble100]

It private but I'd hardly call it exclusive. In a big city but not London.

[hazeyjane]

It sounds crazy to me.

[LaurieMarlow]

YABU. My son's nursery offers something similar and I think it's great.

It's not a huge amount on top of the fees, but it's a different experience for him and he seems to enjoy it (though he's still very little). I'm glad he's being exposed to something different.

YABU to generalise. Plenty of people do want this kind of stuff. Admittedly, it will be mostly those who can easily afford it.

But sounds like you need the courage of your convictions. If you don't want it, don't pay for it. I doubt they'll leave him to entertain himself in a corner while it's going on.

[GettingitwrongHauntingatnight]

I would hate this.

[SnorkelParka]

Yeah, we still laugh at ourselves for paying for dd1 to have french lessons at nursery. And yes, we did feel railroaded into activites 'so they didn't miss out'.

However, sitting on the fence, I suppose it is good for little ones who can't necessarily get to other groups and acitvities, but may make the nursery more lazy in the activities they plan.

[SnorkelParka]

Oh and French is her worst subject now, she hates it.

[MontePulciana]

Wow I didn't know nurseries did this even. I know ours does some things but it's always free or included. We've never been asked to pay extra (day rate is £42). It wouldn't go down well here I don't think (most kids are funded I think).

[Solasum]

Our nursery used to do this but eventually started just including them in (inflated) fees. They do drama, ballet, yoga and sport. Personally I think it is good to try as many things as possible, DS certainly enjoys the variety (nearly 3)

[harderandharder2breathe]

I think it's crazy, he's only there 3 days, you can do extra classes with him on the other days if you want to.

If it's something you'd do anyway then I suppose it's convenient. But don't feel pressurised into paying for something you don't want.

[Thundercake]

I think this is ludicrous and unnecessary. Take them to a free music thing at the library or out on a nature walk or get some teenagers in from a local school who need work experience. £90 is a lot of money.

[luckylucky24]

We didn't pay when the class were having dance lessons. We pay for them outside of nursery and gathered he would just join another group for half an hour whilst they did it.

They let him do the class anyway.
We were paying £871 a month in fees at the time so we were not prepared to be paying extras.

[squiggleirl]

YAdefinitelyNBU. I hate that this happens in DSs pre-school. Thankfully it's only 1 activity, but for the life of me I don't get why they need to bring somebody in to teach the kids to eat healthy, brush their teeth, and do basic exercises like running, jumping, and standing on one foot with their hands over their heads pretending to be a rocket ship. And all at a cost of 6euro per week. There are 38 weeks in the year so it adds up to 228euro, all for very basic things that are covered anyway as part of pre-school. It is optional, but at 3/4 they don't understand why they don't go and others do, and being taken away whilst others do the activity isn't right either. Drives me mad, but it's being going on for years, so can't see it changing.

[talkshowhost97]

That would really piss me off too. Thankfully my DDs nursery don't do this. They occasionally get an organised 'toddler branded activity' person in for special occasions but don't charge us extra.

I have her in there 3 days to let me work and allow her to socialise/have a routine. I can then choose to pay for the activities we want to do on my days off.

However... I can see why some might be keen on it if both parents work full time and money's not an object. It's a tricky one.

[Ncbecauseitshard]

I don't see why they need to bring in specialists. It's not hard to do a few rounds of the wheels on the bus and a bit of movement.

[shakemysilliesout]

I hate it. Totally paying twice.

[ElfAndSafetyBored]

My son's nursery did this with football skills. I resented it because as other posters have said you are paying two lots of people to develop/teach/entertain/look after your child.

But then he told me he watched all his friends doing the skills lesson from across a small fence and I felt awful so coughed up.

I think it's really cheeky though. They should be running their own sessions. As previously said, it's not high standard stuff. It's nursery level.

[Welshrainbow]

Our nursery does this too, DS is one and has dance, music and forest school classes. Have know idea why they are doing it because our nursery is in a really deprived area and almost all the kids are funded.

[Ilovenannyplum]

YANBU this would annoy me too, I'm pleased that DS's nursery don't do this