What activities are your 11 year old boys in to?

[IhearyouClemFandango]

Our middle child is clever, funny, sweet etc etc, and we are trying to encourage him to start finding his niche. He likes playing cricket, golf, going on his VR headset etc, but nothing really sticks as his hobby. It may be that he isn’t all that sporty, which is absolutely fine, but we’d really like him to have something that he is keen on/passionate about as he goes through high school (starting in Sept).

What sort of thing do your boys like? It may be he never has a ‘thing’ of course.

Mine plays football but doesn’t really have an interest in much really (often says things are boring) but he’s very affectionate and well mannered and doing well at school so I just take it as it it

I'm in my 40s and have gone through my life never having a "thing". I've always picked up a hobby or activity for 6 months or maybe a year then dropped it. For me, the fun doesn't come from being really passionate about only one thing for a long time, it comes from continually trying and experiencing new things. (Perhaps because I'm a Gemini)

Ours is 9 but he is not a naturally sporty boy and is very clever,
logical and sensitive.

He does Taekwondo - does it with a relaxed class and has enjoyed the challenge of moving up belts. We pay per week so skip weeks if we are too tired or busy so it doesn’t become a drag.

He also really enjoys coding. Does it on his own on scratch’s me starting with some “proper” coding. However I have seen some places do online coding clubs, so we might look in to that!

Football for mine. He plays in the garden on his own, at the park with his mates and he goes training and plays for our local team. At home he enjoys reading and drawing/painting. And too much time on his PlayStation but I let that slide because he is so active with the football.

Various martial arts, swimming, gaming and painting.

Tennis, basketball and musical theatre here. He also has an aquarium he looks after. He also likes computer games.

mine is 10 and not really into anything other than gaming and coding. We have tried various sport over the years and pretty much accepted defeat now, he’s just not sporty at all (unlike his brother who very much is)

he does do piano lessons and goes to cubs though.

At 11, that would have been choir, two instruments, computer and board games, dance, and climbing, if any of those are things that sound appealing? He's now 15 and the line-up has changed slightly.

Football for mine. He trains and plays for a local team.
Other than that not much except for playing on his X box.

Cricket (all the cricket…playing, watching, practicing), Scouts, cornet (although that’s not quite at hobby status yet as it’s just in school).

My 11 year old has played football from quite a young age. In the last twelve months he's got into squash and started playing a bit of tennis this summer. He also likes to play chess at school and online.

He's also tried Jui jitsu, karate and cricket over the last few years but none of these stuck.

There seems more opportunity at high school to try different things so he might find some new interests through school clubs.

I've just checked and actually, at 11, DS had just started the sport which has become his Really Big Thing... windsurfing! Which is an amazing thing with a supportive community, if you're near a reservoir with a club.

Gaming and putting videos on YouTube for his friends, cooking/baking, rugby, steam trains and electric guitar - not necessarily in that order

Interesting stuff, thanks all. He does swim a lot and sails a few times a week, and seems to be naturally good at most things he does as he is coordinated and fast, but hasn't fallen for anything. Maybe he won't! Or maybe he'll find something non sporty, I hope starting secondary will introduce some new ideas to him. His older sister is very sporty and motivated in her chosen sports, so I'm very conscious of not wanting to assume that he will too as they're very different people.

All you can do is help him try new things and see what sticks, if anything! My DD is very very different to DS.

Lego basketball and drawing at the moment

DS was into Scouts, martial arts and D&D

Skateboarding (we're lucky because we live near a massive indoor skatepark with a training club)
Parkour
Climbing

All great choices for kids who enjoy being active but aren't into traditional team sports.

Climbing for a good few years now.

Judo.