What activities/hobbies/classes do you recommend for kids?

During the school day, my daughter is enrolled in choir, chess club, and piano, and she is also learning French. After school, she takes part in archery, coding, theatre, and cheerleading. Outside of school, she does swimming and tennis.

Activities and clubs she has tried and enjoyed include cooking, knitting, football, cricket, gymnastics, golf, and Spanish lessons. Activities she tried but didn’t take to were Brownies, taekwondo, modern and tap dance, and violin.

At school, my son participates in archery, Lego club, football, and science club. Outside of school, he does swimming and tennis. He has tried taekwondo and enjoyed it, and he is currently on the waiting list for piano and Beavers.

The enrichment clubs at school usually finish around 4:30pm, so it doesn’t run too late. Each summer, the children learn a new activity. Last year it was golf, and this year it will be horse riding.

Other activities on our list for them to try include guitar, drums, fencing, sailing, skateboarding, and street dancing. At this stage, we think it’s great for the children to explore different activities, learn new skills, and see what they are really interested in and maybe in time a few of these activities will develop into long-term hobbies.

Mine does swimming lessons, cubs and learns guitar through school.
The only thing I wanted him to do no matter what was swimming lessons. Cubs and guitar are more tailored to who he is as a person, he wouldn't get on with football.

Swimming was non negotiable in our house but luckily the kids loved it. Think it was £25: a month, so £50! for my two.
Kickboxing my daughter loves that, she's been doing it for 8 years now. Not too expensive £4.50 for an hour lesson. At the one my DD goes to you only pay when you attend so if you're on holiday/ill there's no extra cost.
Cubs is also a good idea, although I have to say my niece and nephew didn't really enjoy it until they went in to Scouts which they said is better. Bit disappointed my DD missed out on that (she did rainbows, brownies and guides) because I think she would have preferred it but I'm sure it was only for boys at that time.

Mine have to do a club every school day - and before anyone jumps in, they finish school at 3, some clubs are barely 1 hour, so being home by 4:30 or 4:45 is nothing outrageous, other countries barely finish the school day by then 😂even in primary.
Half the clubs are free because they're after school clubs taken by a teacher, so they start pretty much immediately after school hours.

swimming is mandatory
one musical instrument on the day they have PE at school (I am not sure why to be honest, school PE is not exactly taxing 😂)
then they have to pick 2 sports they want to do, they do martial arts, dance, and football
and then they can pick a club they like, could be drama, dance, beavers etc.. or another sport if they like. It varies, there's a science club at school at the moment, one of them is really keen on that, so why not.

Saturdays and Sundays they tend to have part 2 (or part 3) of one of their clubs, with matches, competition

Mine do orienteering, climbing and fell running. Well we all do. We’re very outdoorsy. These sports are great as we all take part together as a family.

In terms of skills they do Italian, musical instruments and engineering club.

Drama. Stagecoach if they are good, and Perform is v inclusive for kids who aren’t confident

Mine do Beavers, swimming (I see this as an essential skill), drama, guitar and one does rugby, other does gym. I think it’s a good idea to let them try things and see what they enjoy!

DS 3.5 does climbing and gymnastics; he’ll start swimming lessons this summer and football in September.

If it is affordable (and you have time), I'd try to encourage one sport, a music lesson, dancing, some kind of self-defence and maybe something social like Beavers/Boys' Brigade/Cadets/Woodcraft Folk if they're in your area. I read that you've already tried Beavers before, but groups vary, depending on the leaders.

Do you have a circus school in your area? Its been brilliant for my children, teaching them new skills and increasing confidence with performing.

I'd also try another scout group if you can, see if its any better.

My youngest is 8 and is doing all the activities he can this year - football, ice hockey, circus school, wrestling, and scouts, and loves them all!

We’ve got a 6 and two 4 year olds . Our daughter 6 does football, rainbows and swimming . The two four year olds have just started squirrels and Rainbows and are enjoying it

If I had my DD’s again, they’d be doing some form of martial art. It seems to
do so much for their confidence, posture and general self possession.
Scouts was a real success
A (very expensive!) yoga studio nearby was really useful when they went through difficult teen times and they both continue to use yoga as relaxation

Mine do swimming - they enjoy it now but previously I made them because to me it was a non negotiable skill to have
They also do another sport each - karate and tennis at the moment
I sign them up for taster classes of lots of different things to try it out and we take them to parkrun, to the local climbing wall, on bike rides, hill walks etc and also look for holiday clubs that will let them try something new - we have done drama class, science and engineering workshops, arty stuff
One also does a language at an after school club and we have done music classes previously and would like to start this again but it is quite expensive and it is more the logistics of it that is challenging to fit in. I think having some time to just play at home is valuable

Hunt around for martial arts - our local club is £4 pay as you go! Many are cost effective and offer sibling discount.

Swimming is expensive but my local leisure centre gives free swimming to kids who take lessons, so we do an extra hour every weekend for the price of one adult. It has massively accelerated my dc’s swimming skills and confidence by doing that extra hour (we do a mix of skills and fun; you can learn how to teach the skills by watching the lessons to see what they are working on and watching YouTube videos!).

Id also recommend a weekly library visit, explore on your bikes if you have them and good access to local paths.

Along side clubs and activities I think children love having a bit of garden or a few pots that they can grow easy annual flowers or tomatoes and lettuce in. A little early in the year as yet but a trip to the garden centre to choose some seeds might 'sprout' a whole new hobby! Gardener's World has shown some amazing clips of what little gardeners get up to

The best activity is one they want to do so I’d get a list together of what is available and works for your schedule and logistics and ask them to pick something. It’s also fine to have downtime - my kids now have clubs every day of the week and I’m exhausted from it. They love it and for various reasons it would be tricky to pull back, but it’s a commitment for your time too.

My daughter has always been a dancer. She’s 13 now and has dance 4-6 days a week and a self defence class on the last day as I think that’s a life skill she needs.

My 9 year old son has done football and taekwando since before he started school. It’s now football 3x a week and taekwando twice. Plus swimming but he can swim well enough now so we are dropping that this year.

personally I think martial arts are great - personal satisfaction and listening and it’s usually quite gender balanced (as opposed to either football or dance) - my son has men and women teachers and all ages in the class which he likes.

He does coding club at school when it’s offered a couple months out of the year and I’d love to find more things like that for him but I simply don’t have any more time so we look for summer camps for coding and Lego and such.

They definitely don't only work if you live on the coast! I'm in Nottinghamshire and out unit uses a reservoir ☺️ There are lots of units locally using lakes and reservoirs. Agree though that any cadets generally are great for kids.

it really depends what your kids are into and what's available in your local area. Swimming would be non-negotiable for me until they're confident in water and can swim at least a couple of lengths in a deep pool. Definitely do not rely on a couple of years of lessons at school, they were rubbish as trying to cater to abilities from club swimmers to kids who'd never been in a pool before.
football, rugby, cricket for kids who are always messing about with a ball outside.
cycling/bmx if they're into their bikes
singing / choir can be a lot more affordable as you don't need to buy an instrument
junior parkrun is free if you have one nearby
check your local library, they often have things like lego clubs, coding club etc.

This only works if you live on the coast. I believe they occasionally exist in towns with a big river too. BUT army cadets is a great alternative, they start at 12. My teenage DS has been going for 3 years and loves it. It’s free, uniform is also free. The only thing you have to buy is the boots and you pay for the camps but they’re dirt cheap.

Beavers is great. If you have a few different ones in your area then maybe try a different one if you drive. My DS is 7 and been going for over a year, he still absolutely adores it. The extra trips they put on and camps as well are just great. It’s good old fashioned screen free fun, reminds me of the 90s.

My daughters thrieve at Girl Guides and son at Scouts.

They play an instrument - own choice. The play church organ, flute and oboe.
They do a sport - own choice. They do ballet, rugby and swimming.
They sing in a choir.
One loves art classes online.
One loves German classes online.

They did swimming for 2 years.

It was a gear 4 music one - about £300. Cheaper than a term's lessons and the app makes it like a game - all 4 of us have been learning for over 6 months now.

Definitely Scouts (would be Beavers and Cubs for their ages). Also rugby is fab for team work, agility and general fitness. Both of these are great for boys and girls.

What are they interested in? I’m a massive advocate for team sports, you learn so much. Swimming is a key skill.
Theyre only 6 and 8 so can try different things but the older one is certainly of an age where they know what they like.

A little young at the moment but when they get to 10 I'd highly recommend sea cadets, particularly if your local unit gets plenty of water time. I live as far from the sea as possible but DS gets 2 sessions a week on the water during summer where they do kayaking, rowing, sailing, paddle boarding and when old enough power boating. For sailing they do RYA qualifications so great for when they're older. In the winter months they learn other relevant skills, do drills, first aid etc. This winter they've had sessions with St Johns ambulance and the fire service as well as biking weekends, catering weekends etc. They also get boating weekends through the year. They match on remembrance day and get involved in setting things up.for it, armed forces day and collecting for charity with the rotary club Santa sleigh? It's incredible value for money at £22 a month.