To think children generally enjoy holiday clubs?

Both my kids have loved the school based ones run by school staff (usually the pe provision and dead expensive).

We have often had to add more days when they knew a day they weren’t going was a day friends were or they had a good activity like water fights.

The cheap ones they both hated and the multisport one that was taken over by older football mad lads. Ran by teenagers who didn’t supervise well.

Both kids are sporty, one very sociable and one a homebody but the standard of care overtakes interest and hobby in our experience with adults facilitating and including kids, arranging games etc.

Once we attended a party in a venue next door to the holiday club school and my children tried to wedge themselves through the bars to get in! They absolutely loved any holiday club including the really cheap one where I later found out the older ones basically looked after the little ones like some giant version of 19 and counting. Obviously easily pleased!

Depends on the DC and on the holiday club, my DC are sporty and not shy so they are happy enough wherever we put them but their favourites have been school holiday club (not as fancy activities but all their friends) and football holiday club (great for them but only 10-3 so not great for childcare.

This easter we are doing one week of holiday club and one week at grandma's house.

My girls go to their school holiday club. DH and I both work full time, but try and take some time off each school holiday so they rarely go for the full break. They really love going and do so much more than we could at home, plus they have friends there so it’s a nice environment for them. I’m not sure whether they’d enjoy going as much if they weren’t together though.

It depends totally on the child and the club. Mine would love being at a holiday club if it was relaxed and any of her friends were there or it was doing something she enjoys eg crafts/dance. If she didn't know anyone and it was all forced 'team sports' it'd be her idea of hell.

My child (8) genuinely enjoys them - she goes to a sports focused one. They have lots of choice over the activities, and they swim every day too. she’s nearly always friends with someone there or makes friends. It’s also not frequent enough to feel like a chore. She’ll do 3 days at Easter, maybe 10 days in the summer, spread over three weeks. We’re lucky that we can cover a lot of the holidays.

The downside is that it’s really expensive!

There is a gorgeous holiday club which we use for the odd day, it’s a farm. Children get to help out with the animals, groom ponies, play with bunnies, do crafts.. they are filthy when they get home but soo happy! The sports one locally they tried once and didn’t like it at all, so it is dependent on the club for us

Uhhhh clubs for children in the school holidays? Did you even read the thread before pointlessly posting?

My DD worked at one during uni holidays.
It was a multi activity one run by a national (?) company. Kids started from 4.
She gave up after a few holidays because she found the number of children, especially the younger ones, who were thoroughly upset by the experience too difficult to deal with. It wasn't that they disliked the activities, although some just hated the whole experience, but just how exhausted the kids were. It wasn't a break for the children - every second if the day scheduled for something. They didn't have time to recover from the school term. They just needed some downtime.

We did a few over the years and it depended, one year was really surprising, ds knew nobody, a few of his class pulled out last minute and he didn’t speak to the other kids there much but loved the activities and was constantly asking why his school didn’t do them.

One of the camps was like lord of the flies and two of the kids stopped going day three when one was hit in the face with a ball and we had to collect them all. The other two stayed on for the medal on the last day but it sounded like chaos and every day we wondered were we mad sending them in (only reason we did was half their school was there!)

Another one-best camp ever according to all who went!

when my 2 used to do them: expensive, niche ones that fit their interests- liked. Multi-sports/activity ones that were inexpensive when you think about it - hated. Makes a massive difference if their friends are there.

You would have gotten better responses if you’d asked all those questions at the start. My kids both enjoyed the school club when they were younger. They went to after school club so they were familiar with the staff and other kids and they usually had a friend around. They went on trips a couple times a week and did all sorts of activities. It worked for us as it was full day care.

After Covid we started working hybrid so we had more freedom around care - could more easily do the more specialised ones that weren’t full day. My son loved a week of Lego camp, wasn’t fond of football camp, liked some zoo days he did with a friend. My daughter loved acro camp, dance camp and an art camp - she still wants to do that one at 13. They did both outgrow the school camp by p5, I think because it has a lot of younger kids so they have to structure activities to suit everyone. My son in particular does better with his age or older children.

DS1 was very sporty so was happy with anything that kept him active. He was an only child for nearly ten years so he liked the social aspect too - he would even ask to go to a sailing one in France where pretty much nobody spoke English if we were there on holiday!

With the younger ones I found there was often a few hours of something decent if it was a themed club but before and after the main activity it was babysitting and neither child was keen and luckily I didn’t need the childcare at that
point.

None of that was in your OP.... we aren't all mind readers

What do your kids think of them OP? Or are you in a quandary whether to send them or not?

My son did much more than my daughter, though she’s always been very shy. She always went with him though, as when she went to secondary, I was at home for 18 months due to covid and then she stayed home alone. My son is very sporty and loved the sports centre clubs.

My dd1 enjoyed the very specific ones - we chose things she liked the look of eg a cooking course, netball improvers, bouldering. Her absolute favourite was the one watersports centre and happily went every summer until age 14! At primary she also really liked it when I organised for her to be with friends at the multi activity camp at the local private school - it has a great pool and they had good drama activities and “one offs” like hiring a massive inflatable or a load of kids go-karts.

My ds has tried and likes an outdoor bushcraft club, a coding and Lego club, golf with a friend, and a sports one that does great group activities like water fights and Nerf wars in summer weather. He detests the one in his school which is truly just “Parking” despite the young people running it being very sweet and fun.

What's a holiday club?

My child loved the sports based ones. Whereas his best friend preferred the language ones. It very much depends on the child.

We generally only used them when we were working so they were a necessity. It wasn’t a choice between stay at home with a parent having fun or going to holiday club.

I used them as a threat…, that is, If you don’t behave, you’ll be going to the kid’s club

I think it depends on the child. I viscerally hated holiday clubs, with a couple of exceptions, but many of my friends loved them!

I'm autistic, and I found the group activities, games, and socialising embarrassing and uncomfortable. At one club I was lucky that the staff were happy to let me sit at the table and draw, but otherwise I dreaded the whole experience. I was surrounded by people I didn't know, who were mostly loving the whole thing, while I felt like an odd-one-out trying to force myself to join in and look like I was enjoying it. Of course I would have preferred to be home with a parent, but my single mother was working full-time and my grandparents needed a break every now and then. It certainly didn't give her any joy to send me there knowing I didn't like them, so I never had to go back to the same group two years in a row if I really hated it. Instead I kept trying new ones, and it kept me supervised and occupied while my mother was at work.

The exceptions were an art club I did for two weeks one summer at primary age, where we did different art activities in the mornings and afternoons. Everything was solo, and we could chat comfortably as we drew, painted, and sculpted. The second exception was a drama club when I was a pre-teen, which had games and group activities but took everything a bit more seriously. I never felt like I was embarrassing myself to participate, and we ended the two weeks with a performance we'd developed around the year's theme. I went back to the art club for two years and the drama club for three years, and I would have kept going if the clubs hadn't stopped running for various reasons. All of that is to say that I'd imagine most children would be able to find some kind of club they enjoy, even if it's not most of them!

My brother and I both hated them. He wanted to be with mum and I had extreme social anxiety. I’ve never even tried to get my own kids into them…

But most of my friends loved them. I know many of my own kids’ friends love them. It’s down to how outgoing and sociable your kid is.

DS1 loved them. He came home all bouncy and glowing, even though it was no picnic gettIng him out the door. DS2 HATED them. It was like trying to move the immovable object. He went out grumpy and came home grumpy. Weird because he’s better at making friends than his brother. Just hates ‘organised fun’. Cynical wee so and so🤣