what age do you start to take dd to extra curricular activities?

[girlsallaround]

mine is 3.5 she will be starting swimming in september and that is all.

other mothers are cramming ballet, tennis, gym, football (for boys), cooking, art........

when do you start to send them?

[rebelmum1]

i just started ballet but that's it, shouldn't even be curricular at this age if you ask me. I play with my dd instead.

[hana]

dd will be 4 in December and she's starting ballet in Sept.

that's it

[Fimbo]

My dd started ballet at 3, she is now 10 and does ballet/tap & brownies - thats all.

Ds is 5 in December and might join the cookery club in school in September apart from that he needs to wait until he is 6 to join Beavers.

[Seeline]

the only thing my son did was toddler groups that I took him to - he flatly refused anything else until he begged to learn the piano at 5.6. He now does Beavers too. DD was completely different and wanted to do tumble tots and started ballet at 2.6. I really didn't want that as I thought she was too young, but she was really persistant. now she is 4 and it is her most favourite thing! I think it does depend alot on the child.

[mimsum]

it really depends on the child - my dd (5 and a half) loves going to groups - she's done ballet since she was 3, did gymnastics for a while until the logistics got too tricky, has swimming lessons, tennis in the holidays and is desperate for drama and riding lessons - she now does 2 regular lessons a week (ballet and swimming) and I think that's enough but she would love to do more

at the same age, I couldn't get ds2 (now 8) to do anything - he's recently discovered cricket and cycling and does those every week and loves them but it took a while for him to work out what he liked

[twentypence]

Ds has done cello since age 4 at his request. He started having swimming lessons at school, but only in the summer terms and so he goes to have a swimming lesson after school in the winter.

That's heaps. I'll be glad next term when the swimming is happening at school again. I don't know how pleased ds will be with an outdoor pool though!

As a music teacher the ones that do the best as the ones where that is their one hobby (and maybe a sport - because sport is more club oriented rather than school oriented in NZ). The ones that also do dancing and drama and brownies and....never have time to practise.

[Elkat]

My DD (almost 5) goes to 4 clubs etc...

Ballet (since 2 1/2)
Trampolining (since 3)
Gymnastics (since 2 1/2)
Swimming (Just started this year).

It sounds like a lot, but she doesn't yet go to school, and most classes only last half an hour or 40 mins... so spread out over the week, its not that much at all. The most important thing is that she enjoys them. When she doesn't she'll stop. Her latest one is that she wants to go horseriding, but I've said no to that for now (too expensive). Oh, and she still has plenty of time for free play in the other 71.5 hours a week she is not at preschool or asleep!

[ethanchristopher]

as soon as she can

[Overmydeadbody]

I can barely afford to feed and clothe DS let alone pay for extra curricular activities.

He makes his own fun.

[chocolatemummy]

just cancelled my dd ballet and tap after a year because despite her seeming to be quite happy when I collect her, its always a battle to get her there on sat mornings and to be honest if she doesnt want to go i could do with the £40 per month for other things, she is almost 5 and starts school in sept and I am sure there will a million other things she will want to do

[muppetgirl]

My ds is a very ready for school and wanting to be out in the world. He does swimming 1/2 hr a week, tennis 1/2 hr a week with friends and has started horse riding. His mates do the tennis so he wanted to do that, he begged us to do horse riding and swimming has always been a battle until recently when he could finally jump in the pool and play with the older boys with no armbands on. As soon as he's a little better at swimming we'll stop. He's starting reception in Sept.

ds 2 appears to be a very different kettle of fish in that he's extremly lazy even at 9 months!!!

[peanutbutterkid]

DD wasn't ready for anything before she was 6yo. She dropped them (swimming, dance) by age 7, too.

[pagwatch]

it entirely depends on the child
I had two boys who were not interested in much outside school - although DS1 was hugely catered for with rugby and cricket within school.
when I had DD i expected her to be the same but have realised ( with some horror) that if I don't constantly find ways to allow her physical activity she is not happy.
this is not ADHD or anything else - she is just hugely mahoosively active. More so than the boys.
So I am looking at swimming, gym and dance to tag on after school next term
She is 5 btw

[Twiglett]

you can't have extra-curricular activities with a pre-schooler, because they need to be in the curriculum (ie school) before they can have extra-curricular surely?

[Twiglett]

I is nuffink if not predictable

[bogie]

ds is 2.7 and has been doing socatots football since he was 2, we take him swimming 3 times a week and we do a family night on saturdays where he trampolines and plays soft tennis/badminton, Dp takes him to the golf driving range/putting green with his mini clubs.
We do all this because he is a sports mad little boy and his hand eye co-ordination gets mentioned by everyone we meet his nursery teacher couldn't belive it when he was 18 months and could serve a tennis ball, she came over saying they had all the children in the 2 classes try and not one of the others could do it.

[muppetgirl]

my son has been at nursery for the past year following a curriculum so he was pre-school not at school. Acitivities we did outside this curriculum -were they not extra curricular??