How Many Clubs do your children do?

DS (8) does:
Chess
Piano (in sch)
Swimming
Tennis

DD (4) does:
Street dance
Tumble Tots

Only SD is at weekends as we like to keep those free. However DH & I both work full time so it's difficult to do clubs unless they are at school. They both go to after school club 2-3 times per week.

DS's hobbies are very expensive but it's hard to know what to drop. I feel like he hasn't found his "thing" but how do you know what to pursue without spending endless money or time on multiple courses?

Does your school do any? We are lucky that my dcs primary school offer quite a few clubs which are before and after school so it doesn't feel much effort to just get them in a bit earlier or pick up a bit later.
My ds (aged 6) does:
Monday:football before school, beavers
Tuesday: Karate after school
Friday: swimming, cricket
My dd (aged 4) does:
Monday: football
Thursday: dance
Friday: swimming

We don't do any at the weekend as like to keep it free for family and down time.

DS - 1 club, 2 school activities
DD1 - 2 clubs, 1 class
DD2 - 1 club

9 and 10 year olds both do swimming lessons once a week, kickboxing once a week and Cubs. School do a 4-5 week long set of after-school clubs each term and they usually book onto whichever on offer interests them (things like lego, art, cooking, dance - plus they have an external sports provider who runs another club the same length on a different night - so this term they're doing fencing, last term it was archery... they'll be sorted for life in medieval England at this rate).

My eldest (10) does:
monday- fitness after school then piano
Tuesday- cycling
wednesday- hockey
Thursday- cycling
friday- scouts
saturday- cycling
sunday- free

used to be swimming on a Saturday also, but has got to a standard where they’d need to join a club and we prioritise other sports over that. Is competing at national standard at cycling hence the frequency.

youngest is same, except gymnastics is also in there before cycling on a Tuesday and hockey on a Wednesday. Swimming on a Saturday afternoon.

it is a lot, but they are not great at downtime, and are asking for more clubs to try and fit around what we already have. I make sure they have at least one clear day a week and they aren’t entering the overtraining bracket in any one sport- hours over their age.

at a young age we prioritised gymnastics (the basic movement skills for many activities) and swimming as a life skill. The cycling has come later, and looks like it will take more and more time as they get older.

My autistic DS does one, after school and run by the school. Any more and he wouldn't cope.

Mine always did one out of school thing (their choice) and then at secondary they did school activities if they wanted.

As a family we had/have interests but not really bothered for classes etc.

Yes, to be fair I noticed around age 8/9/10 there was a sort of filtering at my kids’ stuff. Like some kids stopped coming since they prioritised another sport more, especially when they got old enough for exams & comps. I also think it’s around that age that certain activities like Brownies/Scouts sort of fall off. I know my kids stopped with those activities to squeeze in more sports since obviously they wanted to be more prepared for exams/competitions. But I think it’s a shame. I don’t know many kids who do brownies all the way now, whereas when I was young girls up to 15-ish did guides.

@Kanaloa yes exactly. They are very active and if they don't have an activity they drive me and themselves bonkers. At the moment they don't 'specialise' in one activity but they definitely have favourites. It's just about exposing them to various things and then they can choose to drop them (or pick up more) they wish.

@PurpleChairs

Don’t they struggle with doing one activity per day? I know my son does martial arts and he has to attend classes multiple times a week plus exam classes & comps. And my daughter dances - again multiple times per week and exam prep on top. If they were doing a different activity each day they would really struggle to advance in that sport/activity at the expected pace. Or are you doing like a bit of everything then narrowing it down when they’re older?

DS1 (age 10) does swim club 6 times a week, running club once a week, football and no other clubs outside school.

DS2' (age 8) does swim club twice a week, karate once a week, and has one musical instrument lesson each week.

My DC age 6&8 both do:
Gymnastics Monday.
Swimming Tuesday
Martial arts Wednesday
Cricket Thursday
Dance class Friday
Football Saturday
Park run Sunday.

We have a busy life! 2 parent family who both work full time but luckily have flexibility to be the taxi driver, and a very generous grandparent who helps a lot.

My daughter goes through stages when she does a lot and stages when she does little, I go with what she wants but just require that she does at least one active club. Right now she is doing a lot, with scouts, circus school (these two she's been doing long term), parkour, volleyball twice a week and jujitsu twice a week. Summer break now so will see if she continues them all in the autumn (volleyball and jujitsu will clash on one of the days then so that makes it difficult).
Thankfully none of these are expensive (well, I don't know how much volleyball costs yet because haven't been charged yet as she only started a couple of months ago) and everything except volleyball is in biking distance (and she gets a lift to that with a friend) so she can take herself so it doesn't take up our time. If we had to drive her to everything and they all cost more then I'd have to set limits.

My 4 year old doesn't do any clubs yet, will probably give gymnastics a go in the autumn, there's barely anything for his age in my town, its all for school age kids.

Depends on personality surely? My insanely energetic & extroverted 7yo does seven different extra-curricular things a week & thrives on it, so we go with it for now. My quieter more introverted 10yo does three & is likewise happy.

Extra curricular - karate, swimming and Stagecoach

In school - guitar lessons.

She used to do ballet and horse riding but we knocked this on the head when lockdown happened and she hasn't asked to go back. I'm glad as it was getting too much cost wise.

The karate and swimming are life skills I want her to have and the Stagecoach is for fun, as are the guitar lessons.

DD(7)does MMA, Netball, Drama, Tuition sessions and Youth Club. That's something every night.

DS (9) does Tuition Session, Drama and Youth Club. He's also on the Student Council of the tuition centre standing on the platform of "giving a voice to shy kids"

It seems like a lot but with the exception of MMA and Netball, everything on that list is free and takes place at a community centre one street from our house.

The MMA gym is only a 5 min walk away.

Netball is the only pain-in-the-ass-disrupting-your-evening-to-drive-somewhere type thing that we do.

DS(9) has ASD and can only do the evening activities because we home school him during the day. If he was still at school he would definitely be too overwhelmed.

DD(7) is a little over scheduled. Especially when you considers she has homework as well. Sometimes she skips off the school bus saying "What's the activity tonight?". Sometimes she asks to miss a session and chill out at home. And that's OK too.

Dd5 does karate, Rainbows and dance.
dd4 does swimming and karate.
I feel like this is a good balance for them at the moment.

My DC is 10 and goes to football, chess, and piano. It’s all in walking/biking distance which helps a lot.

At that age one or two activities is plenty. In fact I'd say any primary school kid 3 or 4 max, and it also depends on how much ferrying about you can handle. My daughter had netball at the same time my son had another sport on Saturday mornings and it was a nightmare as my daughter would rarely go with another parent and that would just leave me guilty not watching my son (I still had to get him there).
They both did Stagecoach for half a day Sunday, she did Brownies, netball and piano (all at school except matches and summer term when they practised at another location) he did sport sport and more sport.

My 11 year old does football and martial arts. 10 year old does ballet but quite intensive so doesn’t do anything else! Ds8 doesn’t do anything, he would really struggle with extra curriculars. He did do swimming but he can’t cope with it right now (or they can’t cope with him) so I’ve started taking him swimming at weekends to try and help him learn. 6 year old does junior ballet, gymnastics/tumbling, swimming lessons, and rainbows. In the summer she did football also. I imagine next year we’ll cut something back.

Realistically I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer. My 10 year old is very intense about ballet - for her doing another activity would be a distraction. DS11 and DD6 are busy bees and need to be kept engaged and burn off their energy. DS8 needs plenty of relaxing time. Different children need/want different things.

Ds is 7. He does football training twice a week, street dance, drama, beavers and French. He wants to add another sport and piano lessons after the summer. Plus he runs with me at least twice a week. He also finds time for homework, play dates and the xbox.

Dd is 3. She does ballet, street dance and French. She turns 4 soon and wants to add another class as soon as that happens.

Under 7 we did Tumble Tots/Gymbobs and ad hoc swimming at the health club.

KS2 they went to school football club, Music Service ensemble, and ad hoc swimming. Instrument lessons in school time, choir at lunchtime. Then bellringing one evening a week and church choir another. When S2 was 8 we started karate (originally an after-school activity which he really enjoyed). Year 6 they each started going to a church-run youth group.

KS3 there were several school music groups and a Music Service band. Bellringing, choir, youth group, karate, swimming at the health club maybe once a week (Sunday afternoon, drink and crisps in the bar afterwards). S1 did cooking club for about a year, and STEM club.

KS4&5 still the school music groups and the Saturday band, and S1 joined Youth Choir. S1 also joined an occasional regional orchestra and spent two years in another. S1 bellringing, choir, karate; S2 dropped choir and eventually dropped karate, and had some time out of ringing but then went back to it. Weekly swimming continued after S1 went to uni until lockdown. S2 did the occasional run and then took up going to the gym.

At uni S2 joined the brass band, the ringers and the D&D group, and has managed the gym several times a week. S1 joined a major chapel choir, the ringers and as many music groups as would have him.

13
Scouts
swimming
tennis
spanish
football
athletics at school

11
scouts
swimming
tennis
football
maths
guitar at school

6
rainbows
swimming
dance
tennis
football

Two parents both work part time. No wrap around care used. Don’t have fancy holidays.

DD13 does dance , drama , gymnastics and singing lessons (in school).

DD11 does gymnastics and she is hoping to start triathlon club soon. Her PE teacher is encouraging her to join clubs in school as well.

When they were 5/6 though they didn't do very much. Swimming and gymnastics for 45 mins once a week was all. The clubs they do now are ones they have chosen to do and enjoy.

They have a lot of time for Xbox and phone nonsense!

My kids are older:

10yo
Gym
Skateboarding
Dance
Basketball
Horse riding

14yo:
Skateboarding
Cheerleading
Netball
Cadets
Horse riding